at Heart of England PWRC, Shuttington on 9 August 2026
150 yards straights; veterans 145 yards at ½yd/lb plus yd/yr
Photography with kind permission © Rob Cuss
First of all a big shout-out to all the club workers around the country who’ve been battling ever more difficult ground conditions. This year, issues have been worse than usual. We certainly wouldn’t have had a race meeting Sunday without extraordinary efforts from Heart of England club members, the racetrack a narrow green island 180 yards long in a sea of dry straw.
A great pity that the rumour mill also did its work. Heart of England is not the first club this year to have its ground falsely rubbished in the lead-up to a big event. I wouldn’t be surprised if people believed the rumours and thus missed a great day’s racing on good ground.
We were in hot weather mode all weekend. Not one but two paddling pools. Unsurprisingly, the canteen did a great trade in cold drinks and sandwiches (the breakfast was as good as ever) and many thanks to the ladies who looked after the workers toiling out there in the sun.
Entry was 123, in line with expectations. Racing, we had one short-distance rerun with a trap not opening and one lure-line snap at the pickup, but otherwise it was impeccable. Gary Hogan and his team finished up the last race at 3.50pm. It helped that we could close the weigh-in early and the golf buggy kindly lent by Graham Gilfeather did a wonderful job with the lure return.
We had three new Racing Champions. Nicola Groundwell’s Penderyn’s Arctic Blast, Pat Gant and Maisey Ray’s Up Ya Kilt, and Sean & Barbara Lee’s Selby Wise Boy. Also three new Veteran Crowns, the Brearleys’ Berties Gold and *Murphy’s Gold, and the Strains’ The Mighty Finn. Well done.
Fairly even veteran groups meant none had semi-finals, so to cut down on trap changeovers our order of play was Champs heats, the four quarter-finals then semis before running the veteran heats. After the long break, we started the finals with the oldies.
Veteran Crowns
These were competitive. Six groups and after just two runs, only two whippets unbeaten, almost as if they were running off club handicap!
In the 6/7yrs 14-20lb group heats, Dave and Lynn Hunter’s Zinghela Go-Quick beat Terry and Mandy’s WCRCh Mamma Mia while Mike and Ilid’s VC *Along Came Betty beat Maggie and John’s Bertie’s Gold. In the final, VC Bertie’s Gold reversed the placings with Along Came Betty, Zinghela third and Mamma Mia fourth.
6/7yrs 21-25lb group. The first heat was a real toughie; the Hunters’ WCRCh Brontë edging out Vince and Sarah’s redoubtable WCRCh VC Scrappy Doo by three-quarters of a length, same distance back Terry Wheeler’s WCRCh Tik Tok Tia and fourth Dave & Lynn’s *Zama Go-Quick. Zama’s kennel-mate WCRCh Tiana had an easier time of it in heat two, beating Dave Williams’ Odds On Willow and Maxine Thompson’s Angel Eyes. Scrappy turned the tables in the final, shading Tiana by a neck, Brontë a length back and Odds On Willow not disgraced at all, 1½ lengths further back in 4th.
6/7yrs 26-32lb group. Heat one was the rerun, first time up they only did about forty yards so they were put back in, Karen Bridge’s Glory Narah beating Jo’s *Sea The Moon and Gwen Heppenstall’s Come Fly With Me. Second heat, defending champ WCRCh VC Moonlight Millie beat the Brearley’s *Murphy’s Gold who just edged out the Jennings’ WCRCh Chiefton Challenger for 2nd, a close 4th was Graham’s *Rising Sun. Come the final, VC *Murphy’s Gold got home by a head from WCRCh VC Moonlight Millie to make it a kennel double with Glory Narah 3rd and *Sea The Moon 4th.
8/9yrs 14-20lb group. Four runners, a nice little group all closely matched. In the heats, no-one told them they were only racing for points, heat one the Hunters’ WCRCh Enfys beat Jacquie’s VC *London Girl by about three inches while in heat two, Dave and Lynn’s *Zikomo Go-Quick led the Rixons’ M’Lady En Rouge by a neck. The final was a blanket finish, two lengths covering the lot, VC *London Girl replicating club form beating M’Lady En Rouge by half a length with the Hunters’ pair Zikomo and Enfys in third and fourth.
8/9yrs 21-25lb group. Again four dogs, thankfully for the judges a little more spread out. Heat one, John & Sheila Strain’s The Mighty Finn led home Sarah Layfield’s Winterfell A Dash Crazy, heat two a win for Terry Wheeler’s Now U Sia, beating Graham Gilfeather’s Two In One by a length and a quarter. After knocking on the door several years for the title, it was great to see VC The Mighty Finn prevail in the final, Now U Sia 2nd, Two In One 3rd and Winterfell A Dash Crazy stopping.
8/9yrs 26-32lb group. Three nine-year-olds in the group. One of them, Dave Favell’s WCRCh VC Lovely Jubbly beat Colin and Tina’s 8-y-o Machine Gun Kelly in heat one. Heat two was tough, the Brearleys’ WCRCh VC Feilly’s Gold beating Jacqueline Hughes’ WCRCh Stormin Norman into second with Vanessa’s Alpha Brava 3rd, making the trek south from east Ayrshire, his last big meeting; he’s given her some wonderful moments. WCRCh VC Lovely Jubbly, won the final in style by three lengths, his last race and what a way to finish a terrific career. Second was WCRCh VC Feilly’s Gold, retiring for the second time, he’s ten on October 1, third WCRCh Stormin’ Norman and 4th Machine Gun Kelly. Not often you get two nine-year-olds scoring a 1-2.
Championships
16lb group. Two non-runners reduced the field to three, Nicola Groundwell’s young Enchanting Evie winning a solo and Liz and Richard Villis’ WCRCh Ameesha Little Devil leading home Will Nicholl and Julie Quinton’s *Riverside Nefertiti. WCRCh Ameesha Little Devil defended her title, taking the final from Pendryn’s Summer’s Eve with *Riverside Nefertiti 3rd, distances 1½ and 2 lengths.
18lb group. We had heat wins for the Villis’ Ameesha Wild Orchid and WCRCh Ameesha Born To Run, Maxine Thompson’s defending champion WCRCh Girl on Fyre and Nicola’s *Penderyn’s Arctic Blast. The first semi was an Ameesha 1-2, Born To Run leading home Atomic Blonde by a length with Sarah Layfield’s WCRCh Winterfell Tangfastic another length in 3rd; WCRCh Girl On Fyre took the second semi by a length from *Penderyn’s Arctic Blast, both qualifying comfortably ahead of Ian Tegart’s *Fantazi Just Like Heaven. With Maxine’s girl going up with the trap in the final, WCRCh Penderyn’s Arctic Blast took full advantage to gain her title by half a length from WCRCh Ameesha Born To Run, WCRCh Girl on Fyre a length back and Ameesha Atomic Blonde 4th another 1½ lengths down.
20lb group. The heats saw wins for Rebecca Villis’ WCRCh Villiers Rocketman, Dave Williams’ Odds On Mollie, Pat Gant and Maisie Ray’s *Up Ya Kilt and George Whalley’s Here Comes Me Son, *Up Ya Kilt’s time the fastest of the four races. The first semi paired *Up Ya Kilt and WCRCh Villiers Rocketman (pity poor Ameesha Blaze Of Glory making up the threesome) and it was Pat’s boy who prevailed in a fast time of 9.72. The second semi, Odds On Mollie led home Here Comes Me Son and Jacquie Mullin & Dean Leonard’s Enjoy The Silence, time 10.06, distances 2 lengths and one length.
After winning the dress rehearsal, WCRCh Up Ya Kilt duly doubled up in the final by three lengths from WCRCh Villiers Rocketman, himself a thoroughly good Racing Champion; Odds On Mollie 2 lengths back in 3rd and Here Comes Me Son another 3 lengths back.
22lb group. Unusually light with six non-runners out of fourteen, but goodness we had a great final. And the group wouldn’t have been the 22’s without a nightmare heat; Ellie Stacey and Grant Burton’s Red Terror leading a blanket finish of Nicola & John Walton’s WCRCh Pure Delight (she had a horrid draw in the 1st Champs as well), Sarah’s *Winterfell What The Heck and Graham’s Bruce Almighty, 4th just over a length off the winner. That left four dogs in the remaining three heats, Katherine Mansley & Jason Holden’s Fancy Pants winning a solo, their Little Treasure beating Gary Hogan’s Mistress in the next, and Kevin Coe & Keeley Bradshaw’s Sunlight Saffy another solo.
The semis were similarly unbalanced, Red Terror beating Little Treasure in a 2-dogger while WCRCh Pure Delight led home Mistress in a four-runner race.
The final was a blanket finish, with *Red Terror in her first WCRA Champs just coming up on the line to edge out Mistress, Little Treasure and WCRCh Pure Delight close in 3rd and 4th, a length covering the lot.
24lb group. The only group with quarter-finals. Heats wins for Rebecca’s Villiers Dark Storm and Villiers Mighty Mouse, Katherine and Jason’s Fly Like A Hawk, Helen Dennis’ Eye Of The Tiger, the Harts’ Charlie Brown, and Nicola & John’s WCRCh Gimme Delight. The quarters, where the serious business usually begins, youngsters Eye Of The Tiger and Fly Like A Hawk, Villiers Mighty Mouse and WCRCh Gimme Delight all won. Christine Howard’s only runner Ryamber Too A T chased home Eye Of the Tiger, Vince & Sarah’s WCRCh Monochrome Magik and Charlie Brown and Garry Comber’s Lukatme the other runners-up.
Eye Of The Tiger took the first semi from Lukatme, while Fly Like a Hawk took the other, a great run from Ryamber Too A T who took second much to Christine Howard’s delight (her day now looking up after she’d declared her other three dogs non-runners). I thought the final between the two youngsters, both unbeaten, but in another blanket finish (a nose, a head and a length) *Ryamber Too A T showed what he could do, edging out Eye Of The Tiger and Fly Like A Hawk, a fine run also from Lukatme, all four doing their owners proud and everyone well-pleased for Christine, well done.
26lb group. A group in transition with no Racing Champions and both half-coats turning veteran this winter. One of them, Denise Pitcher’s *Foxie Flyer won the first heat, Terry and Mandy’s Here Hugo the second, a toughie with Fiona Campbell’s Black Onyx in 2nd and Graham’s *Mista T in 3rd. Marlene Millard’s Ms Halliwell took the third and William & Julie’s Riverside Kufu the fourth. Black Onyx took the first semi comfortably from *Foxie Flyer while Here Hugo led home Riverside Kufu in the second.
*Here Hugo, the only one unbeaten, looked favourite, while a noted bend-racer he has plenty gas on the straight. He edged out Denise’s *Foxie Flyer by a head, Black Onyx only half a length back in 3rd and Riverside Kufu another length 4th, another great final.
28lb group. Only five entered, admittedly all high-class, the field cut to three by non-runners. Heat one, Darcia Gingell and Rob Hughes’ WCRCh Ghost Town led home Katherine and Jason’s Loki Bear, this his comeback race after injury in March, good to see him back. Gwen Heppenstall’s fine WCRCh Let’s Go Nuts had a solo. The final was another tight one, WCRCh Duncton Ghost Town half a length ahead of WCRCh Let’s Go Nuts, followed by Loki Bear.
30lb group. A tough group now. Karen Bridge’s newly-minted WCRCh Rush About won the first heat from George Whalley’s WCRCh Joe Cocker, Odds On Tess unlucky to draw the three-dog heat. Gary’s WCRCh Gunns Donovan beat Fiona’s Tiger Feet in heat two while Dave & Sandra Bursey’s *Markamy’s Black Bertie led home Phil & Crystal Fusi’s *Danger Dash in heat three. The first semi was tight, WCRCh Rush About just heading *Markamy’s Black Bertie with Tiger Feet bowing out; the second semi, WCRCh Gunns Donovan took by 2½ lengths from WCRCh Joe Cocker who shaded *Danger Dash by half a length.
WCRCh Rush About was a good winner of the final, by 1½ lengths from *Markamy’s Black Bertie, a length back was WCRCh Gunns Donovan and a nose further down was WCRCh Joe Cocker.
32lb group. Again seven in this group. Sean & Barbara Lee’s *Selby Wise Boy was runaway winner of the first heat in the fastest time of the day, 9.55 to win the Fastest Time Rosette. Second was Pete Goddard’s Mr Apollo and 3rd Phil and Crystal’s youngster Crazy Train. Denise’s young bend-racer *Secret Squirrel took the second heat and the Lees’ WCRCh Selby Lad the third from Graham’s *Gimme Some Action.
Sean and Barbara’s kennelmates are well-used to running together, as expected *Selby Wise Boy prevailed but like fellow near-veteran *Foxie Flyer in the 26s, WCRCh Selby Lad put up a great effort to be only three lengths down. *Secret Squirrel won the second semi by five lengths but behind him a great battle for 2nd, *Gimme Some Action just prevailing from Mr Apollo. Semi-final times were close (9.64 and 9.67) the two winners have a great rivalry going, for both, this was their first try at getting the sometimes elusive “other half”.
This time, WCRCh Selby Wise Boy put some daylight behind him to gain his title. Three lengths back was *Secret Squirrel, two lengths further WCRCh Selby Lad and another two yards to *Gimme Some Action. Four very good dogs closing out proceedings.
Now the clear-up. Goodness me everything disappeared fast. Many thanks to everyone who pitched in, it made things so much easier and capped a lovely day.
All we need now is some rain for the bend…. 13 September, closing date 23 August which’ll be upon us soon.
Mark Etheridge reporting