I was very pleased that John agreed to judge the Semi-finals for me as he is one of the UK's most senior - and best -  judges. With the talk about having the level of difficulty pitched at the correct grading,  that was never going to be a problem with John. He had obviously decided that for a premier semi-final it certainly wasn't going to be a quick run round. But, as always as what happens with these things, as soon as a couple of handlers got eliminated I think this snow balled a little bit and may have affected the way that the handlers handled the course.

KC Olympia Large Dog Agility Stakes
First to go, was Dave Munnings with his young Ag.Ch. Gunran Misteree. He may have missed out on Olympia last year but he certainly wasn't going to let it happen this year. He put in an absolutely stunning round and finished to a huge round of applause from the audience in a time of 35.65' We said at the time how is anyone going to beat that and the fact is that nobody could. He went into first place and that is where he stayed.

The next two handlers were eliminated. Then running fourth, Matthew Goodliffe got himself five faults and went into 2nd place, a full two seconds slower than Dave Munning's time. There were three more eliminations following this until Sue Rolfe went into 2nd place with a clear in 37.09, swiftly followed by a elimination for Andy Sandercock.

Running tenth was Hannah Banks and she had a clear round but a bit on the steady side in 40.30 so just 0.30 of a time fault but enough to put her into 3^rd place at that moment in time. Two more eliminations followed for Malcolm Card and Judy Gaden. It was lucky 13 for Sam Davies who was running her husband's dog Magical Liquorice Alsorts, the Olympia winner last year. Sam went into 3^rd place with a clear in 37.67 which is where she would stay.

Following her unfortunately was an elimination for Nic Jones. Nancy Hudson was next up and she put in a good clear in 39.30 and went into 4^th place - a nail biting position to be with another five dogs to go, but we would see  three of those five suffering eliminations. Running 17^th with Waggerland Wildcard was Hannah Banks. She put in a very good clear in 38.30 placing her in 4^th position and pushing Nancy down to 5^th. The last to go in the Semi final was Claire Thrift with Bekkis Panache. By this time Nancy Hudson in 5^th place was looking a little bit nervous. Olympia wasn't to be for Claire this year, however. She picked up 10 faults and would ultimately finish in 8^th place.

It was a very exciting course and certainly very exciting to watch but unfortunately we had 12 eliminations, three handlers with faults and five clear rounds. It was interesting to note that Dave Munnings' winning time was almost 1.5 seconds faster than the 2nd place dog handled by Sue Rolfe.

Thoughts on the Venue

A lot of talk at the moment about the likelihood of the Festival moving and as part of this talk the topic of where is the middle of the country? 

As in common with most events the Festival working party are constantly looking for better venues but with a show of this size choice becomes limited, not only about the space required, availability but about how much venue owners want to charge' Also, even if there is enough acreage, it is about how useable it is'

Some venues appear fine until you look at how many trees there are, where the roadways are and how disjointed a layout becomes etc. It is very difficult to find suitable venues at a cost you can live with especially as the KC do not run the Festival for a profit. No doubt if a better venue comes to the fore it would be considered for the Festival.

Then there is the other question. Should it be in the middle of the country?  And if so, where is the middle of the country?  Well, it was never intended to be in the middle of the country as such. The criteria is - and has always been - to get the best venue within a reasonable travelling distance of Dogs in Need. The venues situated along the A14 corridor fulfil that criteria.

I'm sure if we needed to move further afield to get the right venue, then that was an option to be seriously considered. Certainly when we canvassed opinions originally, prospective handlers preferred to have a longer journey to the Festival but a shorter journey at the conclusion of the show down to DINS in Ipswich. Dave Ray