14 AUGUST 2016 at The Whippet Meadow, Detling.
Distance: 170 yards straight and veterans 150 yards at ½yd/lb &yd/yr.
WCRCh Great Fun – N/E 18lb weight group winner and WCRCh Sapphire’s Queen’s Pearl – N/E 20lb weight group winner
We were blessed with glorious weather the whole weekend and Saturday evening was a social time for those who were camping with a superb barbeque arranged by the Brown family – the meat cooked to perfection by Ray Pond; ably washed down by a huge jug of Pimms.
The ground team have seen the fruition of their hard work over many months with a track worthy of its Championship status; well done to Ray, Garry Comber, Ian German, Pat Gant and Dave Bursey who have put in countless hours at the Whippet Meadow.
Sunday morning dawned with another hot day in store; the committee and helpers working hard in the sun with the result that we finished shortly after four with just one rerun.
Two new Racing Champions and two new Veteran Crowns; congratulations to WCRCh Great Fun, WCRCh Sapphires Queen’s Pearl, VC Raffles and WCRCh VC Flash In The Pan.
There was excellent competitive racing with quite a few very close finishes so well done to all the runners.
The 16lb group was a solo run for WCRCh Sapphire’s Peridot, while in the 18-pounders, Linda Turner’s half-coat Great Fun (now WCRCh) made good for that elusive “other half”, well-deserved and coming home ahead of WCRCh Jett Black. Newly titled WCRCh Sapphire’s Queen’s Pearl secured the 20lb title from another half-coat, *Satin Secret – in that same group the second semi was a dead-heat, too close to separate even with the video.
The 22lb weight class final – the only race needing a rerun – was won convincingly by WCRCh Polly Flinders from last time’s winner WCRCh Sapphire’s Ruby Queen. Christine Howard’s WCRCh Ryamber Something Extra is turning out to be a real good ‘un, in winning the 24lb class from the classy youngster Zola Go-Quick (owned by Dave & Lynn Hunter), she took her fourth weight class on the trot.
The 26lb final was another win for the in-form WCRCh Fenland Whisper, unbeaten all day and setting 10:17 in the final which earned the Fastest Time Rosette, well done to Maggi Wing’s half-coat Nubs Shifter who chased her home in both the semi and final.
WCRCh Scallywag claimed a further win in the 28lb final, the half-coat Hearcat taking second, both ran well. With WCRCh Nip N Tuck moving up a weight class, his brother Kai-Kai stepped up to win the 30lb group from I’ze One More Rags – a nice result for Jean for the work she did to nurse Kai-Kai back to race fitness following injury.
The 32lb final was closely fought with WCRCh Nip ‘N Tuck edging out his brother WCRCh Markamy’s Red Fred by less than half a length, the group may be small in number but that doesn’t mean it’s easy!
The Veteran Crowns, first up we had the three junior veteran finals. The lightweights saw a return to form for WCRCh VC Fun Lovin’, who not content with seeing her daughter win the 18lb group; she decided to get in the winning act too. Cairdean Yoshimi was an excellent second place, well done. The middleweights saw a deserved title for Raffles now Veteran Crown, he’s been knocking on the door for a while now, runner-up was the half-coat Zula Go-Quick in a tough group. A terrific win by WCRCh Flash In The Pan (and now VC) in the heavyweights to give his owners (Sheila Birch & Charlotte Gould) a very proud moment, retiring on a high and he’s given folk a lot of fun over the years, a great racer to watch, win or lose. Today he beat VC Blue Sea of Ibrox into second, whose run in a very hard final was fully as good as his Veteran Crown win in May.
The senior veterans had a very respectable entry. Pretty Color took the lightweights from Tinkers Cloudy Moon, then Angie Parker’s pair took centre stage for the last two finals; WCRCh VC Sapphire Queen’s Topaz taking the middleweights from Ellobiko while in the heavyweights, WCRCh VC Sapphire’s Gem led Winterfell Lay Dee Grey over the line.
We completed the day with a round of trials – even the pups went away happy at the end of proceedings.
We look forward to seeing you again at the 4th Championships on 2nd October when we will be running the Superstars Veteran Sprint again as it proved very popular– now in four weight groups.
HOT NEWS: Championship dates for next year (2017) are April 30th, June 18th, August 13th and October 1st – the formal will be announced later.