Month: August 2025

Show report from Wakefield Championship Obedience Show 23/24/08/25

We would like to thank everyone who made the show the huge success it was.

Huge thanks to all the judges & stewards who very kindly offered to join us this year, to our Chief Steward Graham Armstrong who goes above & beyond, he does an excellent job for us, & also to Rachael, his wife, who also gets stuck in to help us out.

Unless you have ever run a show you cannot actually appreciate how much work goes into it, the preparation beforehand, the organisation, the stress involved, the endless lists required, the ordering, the running around, it’s a mammoth task, but, it is so worth the end result when we get the comments/feedback we get every year. Are we up to the challenge to do it all again next year?? If we are we will need JUDGES & STEWARDS PLEASE!!! Without them, there is no show.

We must also thank Sue Osbourne & her lovely team of ladies, & Martin of course, who work so hard before & on the show days to provide the beautiful buffet lunch for the judges, stewards, officials & helpers, they receive so many welcome compliments, it really is a lovely spread.

To club members, Karen Shires & Dave Craven who make sure we get all the equipment we need from the club premises to the show ground.

To the Wakefield Dog Club members who turn up on the day to help out.

To the small but very able team of people who very kindly come to help us with the preparation & setting up of the show including Pierre who helps with the day parkers.

To Bev Smith who attended the show from the Midlands for the very 1st time to scoreboard one of the Tkt classes but ended up doing whatever job we asked her to do.

To my young friend Torey Bramhall, who literally comes with her Grandparents just to

assist me, I must drive her mad with my constant mumblings about we have to do

Finally, my biggest thanks must go to my daughter, Emma, I absolutely wouldn’t be able to run this show without her help & expertise

Congratulations & Good Luck at Crufts 2026 to our Ticket winners, Shirley Clowes, Louise Williams, Julie Rowlands & Lynn Hillary, to the YKC Members who were successful enough to also qualify & to the KCGC Spec Pre-Beg qualifiers

Hopefully we will get to do it all again next year

Debra & Emma Lavender

CHESVALE DTC Open Obedience Show

Sunday 24th August 2025

I must start by thanking the Chesvale membership for their support and hard work setting up on Saturday and working all day Sunday to make our show such a success. It was great that Dave Williams stepped in to help loading up on Saturday, setting up and putting it all away again, a huge relief for the old guard commanded by Jim Nokes! Too many helpers to name individually but you know who you are and Chesvale is lucky to have you all. Special thanks to Clare Williams for all the work as show secretary before, during and after the show, we couldn’t run it without you.

Thanks to our super judges and their stewards who gave their time freely, with many competitors giving thanks for their efforts and for the help, advice and the time they gave to everyone who came into their ring. Our entries were 21 in Pre-beginner, 40 in Beginner, 95 in Novice split over 2 parts. Our novice entries were down probably due to a number of double weekend shows over the bank holiday, however, we are determined to keep this small show going as there are so few one day shows now in this area.

The weather was perfect although a little hot at times but with the welcome cloud cover making it good for dogs and handlers. As usual our ladies that do lunch produced a feast for the judges and helpers at lunchtime and an amazing cake display at teatime. One thing Chesvale is renowned for is our catering and no-one goes home hungry!

Gail, Lynne, Julia, Julie, Jo, Sharon and Sally are the wonderful team that put on such a wonderful spread every year.

Also, thanks to Debs catering for looking after our breakfast needs and competitor catering. We were fortunate to have Charlotte Speller join us for the day to give people the opportunity to discuss physio work for their dogs.

The training ring was manned by Laura Wiley who worked tirelessly throughout the day with Sheila Rodger keeping tabs on the running order and taking the money. Thank you for all your hard work, I know you must have been exhausted by the end of the day and you took an amazing £167.00. The tombola took £128.50 this means we have a total of £295.50 to be donated to Bowel Cancer Research.

Photos have been posted on Chesvale’s facebook page and also on the ObedienceUK facebook page, thank you to Julie Green for being our official photographer. The atmosphere at the show was fantastic, relaxed, friendly with a huge carpark allowing plenty of room and options for where you wanted to set up camp and a large exercise area. We were touched by the number of wonderful remarks and thanks given to us on the day and in some posts on Facebook, it is always great to hear that you have done a good job.

Final thanks go to all the competitors who came to the show, it was lovely to see so many old faces and many new ones. We look forward to welcoming you at our 2026 shows on Sunday 3rd May and Sunday 30thAugust 2026.

Carol Spencer

Show Manager and proud Chairman