2004 in review

[Peter Betteridge]

I would be interested to hear everyones views on the 2004 season. how is the sport traveling? are people enjoying the trials? and are newbies being looked after?
From the NSW perspective I can see some positives.
1 trialing is now very well organized with our calender of events nation wide
2 NSW conducted 5 training days. Some were very well attended and some not so
3 NSW conducted a giant pro -mo day which was a great success
4 8 different dogs won at AA level in 2004
Major graeme P
Blackie joe V
Breeze Jack L
Jill Jack L
Abbey peter B
King Bob T
Bella helena C
Monty the new dad

5 Much healthy debate took place on this website re rule review.A huge thankyou must go to Bob tawton for the massive hours he has put in to updating and simplifing our rules

6 there is alot of interest in our sport if the web stats are to studied
Month/Day
First visit Summary Last visit
01 Dec 2004 - 00:26 Month Dec 2004 06 Dec 2004 - 14:29
Unique visitors Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
247
394
(1.59 visits/visitor) 2040
(5.17 pages/visit) 7710
(19.56 hits/visit) 67.31 MB
(174.94 KB/visit)

2004

Month Unique visitors Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
Jan 2004 561 1062 7175 30169 236.23 MB
Feb 2004 607 1345 12898 56707 428.22 MB
Mar 2004 631 1362 10908 42615 343.18 MB
Apr 2004 365 723 4513 18622 146.40 MB
May 2004 1240 2934 40393 156247 1.35 GB
Jun 2004 1227 2561 17828 73331 606.21 MB
Jul 2004 1332 2807 19224 76741 666.27 MB
Aug 2004 1181 2650 20071 66443 732.33 MB
Sep 2004 1333 2710 22893 85251 842.57 MB
Oct 2004 1210 2477 21790 68916 789.87 MB
Nov 2004 1441 2786 24419 84296 911.09 MB
Dec 2004 247 394 2040 7710 67.31 MB
Total 11375 23811 204152 767048 6.98 GB


Biggest disappointments for 2004
rule changes did not go far enough
not enough new triallers

what does everyone else think???
merry christmasPB

[Kerry Webster]

Hi Peter,

Good news about NSW retrieving. I had heard that at one stage things were looking dim for trialing over there, but so glad you are having a resurge in interest.

In Western Australia, we have around the same numbers as usual. There are a few new faces appearing in Novice, and some of the "old" handlers are bringing in new pups/dogs, after retiring their older dogs.

Novice numbers: Usually up to 22 entries
Restricted numbers: Up to 17 entries
All Age: Up to 15 entries

All age has dropped in entry numbers with the retirement of several dogs, and the death of others. On the plus side though, five dogs have gained their RRD and some are now competing in A/A.

Trials have been run very smoothly as usual with all the clubs being efficient, and all having very dedicated people handling the trials.

Training still takes place every Saturday morning from March to August, for Novice and Restricted dogs. This is run by the Retrieving Club, and has had a good response from new people to the sport.

Sites are continueing to be a real problem here, with several of our well known and often used sites being withdrawn from our use. A constant effort to identify trial sites within a two hour radias of Perth is necessary by all triallers.

All Age trials this year had seven different winners:

Gypsy - Heather Ellis

Tosca - Kerry Webster

Guinness - Maggie Hankinson

Swanny - Kerry Webster

Fagan - Paddy Brendish

Hunter - Manfred Meerkotter

Tike - Noel Eltringham (Vic)

Three dogs gained their R.T. Ch title this season.

Restricted trials had 7 different winners:

Molly - Peg Malcolm

Spider - Glenice McClure

Swagman - Kerry Webster

Josh - Judy Pannett

Shilo - Jean Henderson

Chilli - Lee Golding

Kato - Donna Blackman

Novice stakes had 10 different winners for the year:

Amy - Tom Morris

Crakka - Glenice McCLure

Indi - Eli Johnson

Jock - Peter Reekie

Joker - Sue Hogben

Reuben - Cheryl Hargreaves

Elliott - Carolyn Read

Claire - Maggie McLoughlin

Scarlet - Dave Henderson

Josh - Judy Pannett

A very good year for Perth trialers and their dogs with very good competition.

My own observation would say that there is still not enough consistency in judging as a whole, and areas of the rules that are misunderstood or else totally flaunted. Keeping a high standard of competition has been made difficult by the lack of suitable sites, and the over use of others.

I question whether people are having as much fun as they expected to, or whether the seriousness of it all is putting people off the sport. And, I don't mean this just as a W.A. point, but nationally. Is sportsmanship becoming a thing of the past ?? Why aren't people congratulating winners and placegetters every time, regardless of their personal views ? And, my biggest complaint, why don't judges judge the dog's performance in front of them & forget who the person behind the whistle is, because this is the most common occurence I have seen in All Age stakes, again, not necessarily here in W.A.

I think Retrieving in W.A. is still going strong with very dedicated handlers running excellent dogs, with some having the potential to be top dogs Nationally. Experienced handlers, on the whole, are willing to pass on and help newbies to the sport, so I can envisage 2005 being even better for trialing and training.

To all my retrieving mates, all the best for Christmas, and we'll see you in the New Year.

Kerry