THE
BRITISH BULLDOG CLUB
25th Anniversary Gold Medal Puppy Competition 2008
‘A
resounding success’ is the only way the British Bulldog Club’s 25th
Anniversary Gold Medal Puppy Competition can be described. As a member of the
sub-committee organising the event I arrived at the venue, the lovely Barnsdale
Lodge Hotel, on the edge of Rutland Water and just 8 miles from my own home, at
3.00 pm and was met by the other members of the sub-committee Gwen
Biddle-Edwards, Kevin Davis and club secretary Eileen Aldridge. Although the
main area for the competition was the long, beautifully decorated room used
mainly for wedding receptions, two large marquees attached to this room had been
erected for a clothes show held on behalf of The Macmillan Trust earlier in the
day. The British had arranged for the use of this extra space with a donation to
the charity, and it had been decided to utilise this as a crating area. I left
for home to get changed at around 4.00 and not long after the heavens opened and
it proceeded to bucket down until I arrived back at the venue just over an hour
later. Sadly by this time one of our beautiful, chandelier lit, marquees was
already under water and bulldog owners were moving their charges to the other
marquee which, thankfully, had remained dry. After this rather dramatic start to
the proceedings everything else went smoothly.
The
Bucks Fizz reception was enjoyed by the 100 diners on their arrival from 5.30 pm
onwards and at 6.20 pm all stood for the National Anthem, a tradition carried
out at all of this club’s events. At 6.30 we sat down to a super three course
meal that was not only well prepared and presented but served quickly and
efficiently by a team of very professional and most courteous waiters and
waitresses. At 8.00pm our compere for the evening, club chairman Bob Haydock,
introduced the judges, Susan Rowe (Rockytop),
who we were very grateful to have with us as Susan has only recently recovered
from a rather nasty bout of pneumonia, Kazou
Onishi, who, accompanied by his interpreter, had made the long journey from
Japan and is owner of the well-known ‘Now and Then’ bulldog kennel, and
finally Brian Taylor, the B.C. Inc.’s show manager and an exhibitor/judge of
many years standing. Susan was one of the judges at the very first British puppy
competition 25 years ago and one can only hope that at that time the hours spent
swatting-up on the breed standard did not in any way interfere with her school
work. With some ultra efficient stewarding by Andy Saxon and Joy Brighton the
evening proceeded at just the right rate of knots and it seemed no time at all
before all of the dogs were being called back into the ring for the judges to
make their final appraisal. While the points were being calculated by Gwen
Biddle Edwards, ably assisted by daughter Janine, who incidentally had both been
kept busy all evening sorting out the ring numbers etc, no easy task as
exhibitors could enter on the evening as well as those who had done so in
advance, Marion Spavin gave one of her memorable speeches. I stopped taking
photographs at this point as for some inexplicable reason the air was showing up
as ‘blue’! Flowers were now presented to
The
moment we had all been waiting for had now arrived and the four class winners
were called back into the centre of the ring. In reverse order the awards were
announced: Reserve going to Pat Davis’ Mystyle Eye Candy Ocobo bred by her son
Kevin and ‘The British Bulldog
Club Gold Medal Puppy Winner’ was Pat’s Royal Tudor Catherin Aragon Ocobo
bred by Miss S Groves. What a great evening for the Ocobo/Mystyle partnership!
After a short break the disco started up and as many of the guests were booked into the hotel there was no shortage of bodies ready to do their thing on the dance floor. Graham and I decided it better to beat a hasty retreat at this stage and head for home after a most enjoyable evening. The event was photographed in its entirety by Carol-Ann Johnson and these photographs can be seen on her website. Hopefully there will be photographs of the evening appearing in Dog World within the coming weeks.'
Chris Thomas