Judge's report:
Robert Andrews
 Agility
celebrates it's 29th year at the Chatsworth Country Fair in 2024. This article
describes the first Barbour Jump & Land Rover Drive final which took place in
the main ring on Sunday, 3rd September 1995. Competitors completed a course in the
Defender 110 before running a dog agility course for the fastest combined time.
The judge was Robert Andrews (Luke Taylor's godfather) and it was won by Rex Seddon.
Be sure to read it to the end and then compare this event to a modern qualifier. What a difference!
When I judged the first qualifying round at
the Easter Egg'stravaganza I felt sure that this competition would capture the
imagination of the 'Damon Hills' in the agility event world, and I was not
disappointed.
Barbour has a reputation for sponsoring
fast and exciting competitions and this was no exception. The drive course I set
was open enough to gather speed but tight enough enough to require skill in maneouvering. In short, the successful
competitor was going to be quick and careful. The Jumping course was
basically a figure 8 with two sets of weaving poles and the finish on the table.
First competitor was Ian Stowers who did a
double clear, although not fast enough. His lurcher received tremendous applause
when doing the weaves. Each of the first four competitors had double clears,
with each one being faster than the previous one. The leader at this sage was
Rex Seddon on 98.6 seconds.
The four clear rounds really set up the
competition for the later competitors to use a bit of 'welly' as it was obvious
that a slow clear would win nothing. With the extra speed, errors crept in. Don
Cooper hit a bollard, leaving the Start box and John Wykes tried too hard in the
weaves.
Gentlemen, I have to offer special
congratulations to two competitors.
Firstly to Sally Prevett who has been in agility for only year. She travelled
up from Lewes in Sussex and did a superb round to finish 4th overall.
Secondly
to Yvonne Croxford. We all know she can handle a dog, but we did not know she
could also drive a Landrover with great skill. She finished 6th overall. Two
ladies in the first six can't be bad!
 Result
-
Rex Seddon - 98.86 seconds
-
Roger Griffin - 99.31 seconds
-
Phil Brocklehurst - 102.08 seconds
-
Sally Prevett - 102.96 seconds
-
John Wykes - 110.10 seconds
-
Yvonne Croxford - 114.76 seconds
My thanks to Graham Taylor for the invitation
to judge the first final of this exciting new event. I am sure I speak on behalf
of all the competitors when I thank Landrover and Barbour for sponsoring the
event and Graham and Patrice and their 'team' for the splendid hospitality
offered throughout the day.
About Chatsworth
The Chatsworth
Country Fair takes place from Friday, 30th August until Sunday, 1st September
and expects to welcome over 80,000 people across the three days. For dog lovers,
there will be an ever-popular dog agility competition, have-a-go agility and
family dog show. Why not do something different this agility season and join
Luke Taylor and his Country Shows Agility team at the UK's best country fair.
https://www.agilityplaza.com/competition/2076522834
Reprinted on 24th July 2024 with kind permission of The Agility Voice
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