o'cockaigne

England, watch out, here we come again!

On Friday morning, March 31, Sonja and I had to ask the feathers. Simon had already left, he went on a coursing in Sweden judging and so Sonja Silva and Bernice had left home and had only come to Vision. After having left the hounds and leaving the remaining luggage in the camper, Brandir, Chidish, Cytaugh and Vision could go there and we left for Calais. We arrived neatly on time and after the Pet Control we were able to drive almost the same train on. Arrived in England, it was still a good drive to Crewe, north-west of Birmingham, where the Deerhound wide Show was held. Of course we had weather files and thus arrived quite late in the beautiful old hotel. After having checked in, the hounds have taken care of and brought my stuff to my room, it was time for dinner. As always, many familiar faces but we also missed a few, such as Gill and Toby, the breeders of Brandir.

Saturday morning at nine o'clock started the inspections, judge was Mr. J.G. Phinizy. Chidish was in Open Dog but of the 12 reported males only 7 were present. To our great pleasure, Chidish was placed second! Not bad for such a young guy. Best male was Kilbourne Tyne, a daughter of Nimloth Brooke, sister of Brandir.

Vision was in Junior bitch with 8 others bitches including her sister Vita of Mary Girling. Mr. Phinizy was apparently impressed by Vision's 's work and placed her first! Second was Vita.

Cytaugh was in a huge Open bitch where of the 16 females, only one was absent. The beautiful Foxcliffe Classic Liberty Freedom at Beardswood by Sarah helps won convincingly and Cytaugh was not placed.

Vision had to come back for Best Bitch what she obviously didn't win but she was definitely not the worst. Best bitch was the Foxcliffe bitch of Sarah.

Sunday we had a busy day. The judge was Mrs. Eve Hamilton. I had reported Chidish and Cytaugh in the Special coursing/Lure chasing Dog or Bitch and Sonja would show Cytaugh. Of the 11 reported hounds there were 10 present. Above my expectation, Chidish won this strong class and became Cytaugh fourth!!! Chidish got the Pentlands coursing Trophy, which his father, Brandir, had also won in 2014!

Right after this class, Chidish and Cytaugh had to be in the Brace or torque class. For this there were 13 reported but I have no idea how many were there, at least 5 because Chidish and Cytaugh were fourth.

The last class for which we had reported hounds was the Special Not Bred By Exhibitor. Of the 22 reported hounds, 14 were present, including Chidish and Vision. Chidish was second behind Rubeus Hagrid to Kilbourne and Vision became fifth! Not bad!

When we picked up Vision in England last year, they were still three. Now they were all three present and of course a series of pictures had to be made. Vision, which was then much smaller than her sister, doesn't look like it anymore.

Then some more pictures taken in the ' Kasteeltuin'. He shot Marjan the board. Marjan still thanks!

After a few more meals we travelled south. We had agreed with Gill and Toby that we would come along with them before we would travel back again. Due to Toby's illness, they could not be present at the wide Show which was experienced for many as a tremendous loss. We had to do the greetings from many acquaintances. We had a very pleasant evening and after the next morning to have had breakfast we left again towards Folkestone. Coming here we were just 10 minutes late for our train but because of the huge chaos because of a malfunction we have to wait for at least 3 hours before we leave. We were well fed up and took us to go to England this year!