Today saw NEFRA members representing our breed at the annual Minor Breeds Test

Our host was Lesley Morgan at Roan Lodge near Buxton.

Judges were Jane Fairclough, Sarah Middleton and Susan Rodgers.

Our winning team was made up of Garry Ellison, Helen Fox, Anne Haley and Sonya Jenkinson.

Individual winner was Garry Ellison with Ollersett Shimmering Nymph and Judge’s Choice was Anthony Ciraolo.

Event sponsors were YuMove, A K Gundog Accessories and Leads & Lanyards

RoanLodge Gundog Training Centre, Quarnford by kind permission of Ms Lesley Morgan. Our judges for the day were Mr Phil Smithies 2367, Mr Casper Jonsen & Mrs Theresa Jonsen. We would like to thank Lesley for hosting us at her fabulous ground and thankyou to our judes for giving up their day and their knowledge and experience for all our competors. Thank you to all that came to help, dummy throwers, stewards, cooks and everyone that helped make the day run so smooth.

Awards were as follows;
Special Puppy
1st Gary Ellison’s Ollersett Duchess
2nd Caroline Hewison’s Benvellyn Marakele into Casblaidd JW
3rd Julie Matthew’s Ollersett Nymph
4th Rochelle Richard’s Kimberfield in Love Again

Novice
1st Vivienne Gatter’s Larksease Black Bryony
COM 13 David Foster’s Kenynten Styx
COM 15 Helen Fox’s Satinbaze Cracksman for Blacktoft (ai) JW SGWC

Congratualtions to all in the awards and we hope you all had a great day.

Schedule can be found here.

Paper Entry form can be found here.

13th July

July Training and WRA Day

NEFRA hosted a Working Retriever Assessment (WRA) and training day yesterday at David Foster’s ground in Burton Salmon near Leeds.

Training for both beginner and novice dogs took place in the morning with the WRA taking place in the afternoon.

Two dogs successfully passed the assessment; Rochelle Richards with Hopevalley Morning River Through Kimberfield and Anne Haley with SkyBrook If By Chance. This was Rochelle’s third successful assessment which means she has completed the Novice level and has been awarded her novice working retriever certificate.

Huge thanks to Garry Ellison, trainer and assessor for the day and David Foster for the use of his amazing land.

Online form found here.

Paper Entry and schedule found here.

On 11th May NEFRA held a training morning followed by Working Retriever Assessment in the afternoon. It was held near Retford, Nottinghamshire

Passes were Sonya Jenkinson, Helen Fox, Jenny Jones, Anne Kitching and Rochelle Richards. Special thanks go to Andy Sweeney and Garry Ellison for their excellent training, advice and invaluable feedback, to Helen Fox for her excellent hospitality including cakes, sausage rolls, Prosecco and sloe gin, to the landowner for use of their excellent grounds and to Malcolm and Robert for dummy throwing – we couldn’t run these days without all these wonderful people. Thank you so much.

Everyone had a very enjoyable day. We are holding a very similar day in July so keep an eye on the FB page and website – those people who attended yesterday are already looking forward to the next one.

On the 10th of August we held a training day at Hesketh bank nr Preston. Our trainers for the day were Steve Burns taking the Novice group. Paul Egginton taking an early Novice group and Gary Ellison taking the beginner/ puppy group. Thankyou to the trainers for giving up their day to train our lovely Flatcoats.

Each group had fantastic exercises to work through and progressed well throughout the day.

The ground is lovely for hosting our training sessions so Thankyou to Sam for having us on such a lovely summer day.

The trainers each had a trainers choice award today which they all agreed was a tough decision each as everyone within their groups progressed so well throughout the day.

Gary awarded his to Catrina and her dog Betty.

Paul awarded his to Charlotte Simons’s Wispa,

And Steve awarded his to Peter Griffin and his dog Robin.

Thankyou to everyone who helped throughout the day especially our dummy throwers and everyone that donated raffle prizes for our Autumn test on September the 8th.

We hope to see you all again soon.

Sunday 28th April 2024
Cow Hill, Cowhill Lane, Grimsargh, PR2 5SE
by kind permission of Mr Geoff Saint

Judges: Mrs Gill Awty & Dr Malcolm Awty
Puppy, Novice Dog/Novice Handler, Novice, Intermediate.

Awards: Trophies to winning dogs. Cards and rosettes to 4th place in each class

We would like to thank all the helpers who made this event run so well. Many thanks to all of you.

The winner of the Novice Dog / Novice Handler class was Dawn Woodiwiss with Woodidream Myrtle Moonbeam.

Puppy winner was Garry Ellison with Ollersett Duchess, 2nd was Julie Matthews with Ollersett Nymph.

Our judges did not award a first in the Novice Class, 2nd was Stephanie Hurstfield with Thurwhitt Chiquitita, 3rd was Julie Matthews with Ollersett Black Knight.

There were no awards in the Intermediate class.

NEFRA was invited to train at Mike Pilling’s land up yesterday at Eagland Hill near Preston. It was our first training session of 2024 and the perfect start to the year. We had seasoned trainers Garry Ellison and Steve Burns along giving guidance and encouragement to all.

Luckily the weather was kind to us and the rain kept off so apart from the chilly wind and it being somewhat soggy underfoot the training conditions were great. The beginners were given a thorough introduction to gundog training by Garry, focusing on the basics while the novice group had a session that concentrated on running the dog out in a straight line.

Feedback from both groups was that the training was great fun, after initial nerves had been conquered, and very informative.

We had fun awards to give out for the Trainers’ Choice in each group; easter eggs won by Vicky Crossley with Riva from the Beginners group and Caroline Hewison with her puppy, Linnhe from the Novice group.

Huge thanks to Mike, Garry and Steve

Schedule here

SUNDAY, 5th NOVEMBER 2023

Venue: Biddulph Leisure Centre, Thames Drive, Stoke-on-Trent, ST8 9HL
Judge (Dogs): Mrs Gemma Jacobs (Gemswin)
Judge (Bitches) Mrs Jane Jones (Benvellyn)
Referee Mrs Victoria Goldberg (Madison)

Sponsored by Eukanuba
(held under Kennel Club Limited Rules and Regulations)

BEST IN SHOW Anderson’s SH CH FELDKIRK DIOR OF KAZVAL
RESERVE BEST IN SHOW Smitherman’s SH CH SEAHEART CECILIA JW
BEST PUPPY IN SHOW Curtis’ TALLISTAR MIDNIGHT ASH
BEST VETERAN Egginton & Davis’ GO WITH THE FLOW DYNAMIC FAITHFUL (IMP NED)
BEST LIVER IN SHOW Colson’s WINDYHOLLOWS FLAMING KATY
BEST WORKING IN SHOW Fox’s SATINBAZE CRACKSMAN FOR BLACKTOFT JW SGWC (AI)

Dog Judge’s Critique

Bitch Judge’s Critique

Referee’s Critique

Results

Sunday 17^th September 2023 – Preston, Lancashire

The training day at Grimsargh, near Preston today was a great success. We had two groups, one for beginners and one for intermediate with trainers Mike Pilling and Steve Burns.

The beginners started with obedience work and then progressed to longer retrieves and incorporating stop whistles and left and right castings. The intermediate group made good use of the large open spaces, jumps and sloping landscapes, and completed their day with a walk up exercise. We would like to thank Geoff Saints for having us and providing such an excellent venue, and our trainers and helpers for giving up their day. The feedback from everyone who attended was overwhelmingly positive.

This autumn NEFRA were delighted to have been offered the prestigious venue of Haddon Hall (near Bakewell) for our working test on the 1st October 2023. This was with kind permission of our Patron Lord Edward Manners.

A big thank you also goes out to groundskeeper Gareth for accommodating us. 

We would like to express another thank you to the 4 judges for for the event, Sue Hales-Lowe, Steve Burns, Guy Radford and Pat Bell. Finally, to the army of people that helped organize the day, catering staff in the restaurant, car park attendants, dummy throwers and committee members.

Results

Puppy

1st – Swantonwood Black Bramble – Handled by Reece Merry
2nd – Ollerset Duchess – Handled by Gary Ellison

Novice Dog / Novice Handler

A well done to all entired in this class, but unfortunately no dogs earned a placement in this class.

Novice

1st – Selloana Callisto Nymph – Handled by Anne Kitching
(Awarded Judges Choice – Best Novice)
2nd – Casblaidd Cuchulain at Sallymount – Handled by Alan Brighton
3rd – Kenynten Styx – Handled by David Foster

Open

1st – Maddistream Black Powder Of Wolfthistle – Handled by Andrew Sweeney
(Awarded Judges Choice – Best Open Dog)
2nd – Maddistream Raj Red – Handled by Malcolm Awty
3rd – Wolfthistle Mr Miracle – Handled by Andrew Sweeney