Long jump and lure coursing.

A great day was had by all at Falklands Farm, Wash Common, Newbury, as the venue for the Deerhound Coursing Fun Day. Despite the weather we had a great turnout, and it was a pleasure to see so many new faces. We were a bit tied up to speak to everybody as we would have liked, especially as a rough headcount showed over 100 people, and almost as many dogs!

The day started with a taster session with the short lure track, to see which dogs were likely to chase before collecting the entries together for the mornings coursing. Some of the enthusiastic dogs are on the lure straight away, while others needed more encouraging making some of their owners chase with them before getting the idea. Others just stood and watched, with that disdainful Deerhound expression that simply said ‘you want me to chase that?’

The main course then started. Gary Peskett (Borzois), from the BSFA, was judging, and he had over fifty dogs to mark in the morning session. It’s not simply ‘first past the post’, as dogs are marked for their enthusiasm, ability to follow, speed, agility and endurance gaining a score out of 100. As expected, the highest score in the morning went to ‘Raven’ a handsome black greyhound (ex racer), but some of the Deerhounds produced respectable scores in the seventies.

‘Blackford’s Bangers ‘n’ Buns’ were doing a great trade through the morning and provided a much appreciated hot lunch, with the tea urn steaming away as the rain began to fall more heavily.

The long-jump course was set up to run alongside the afternoon’s coursing. Dogs were encouraged to chase the lure as it disappeared below a line of plastic poles, and reappear some six feet away. Far too confusing for some, as they pulled up rather than jump. Others realised it was easier to run round the outside and catch the lure as it was coming back, and some thought that it was a puissance event jumping as high as they did long to land safely at the other side. The clear jumpers were then steadily eliminated as more poles were added until the winning dog cleared twelve feet, but crashed spectacularly whist attempting fifteen!

The afternoon’s coursing was judged by Kathy Webb (Salukis), again from the BSFA. The rain was setting in, and some dogs (owners?) were less enthusiastic, but we still had over thirty runners. Using the same scoring system she gave a few dogs scores in the low eighties and some good seventies. These scores were added to those from the morning to provide the eventual winners.

The long jump was won by our Murdo (Packway Aconcagua), whose jump of twelve feet was matched by Sue Snape’s Saluki, Soraya. Next was ‘Spring’ and Sue Spring-Arnold’s Callie (Lyart Yester), followed by the Fairclough’s Nia (Beardswood Niamh), and Longstaff’s Meg (Nengirith Morwenna).

The coursing was also won by our Murdo (starting to sound like a fix!) with a total of 156 points. Joan Wragg’s Listra (Neroche Halistra) was second with 152 points, followed jointly by Pam and Ian Bunce’s Sox (Packway Starting Price at Pantawick), Richard and Robert Longstaff’s Jodie (Leoch Meig) and Dave Blackford and Jeanie Morrissey’s Josh (Packway Denali at Hartvalley) all with 146 points.

Everybody certainly seemed to be having a great day, and enjoyed watching their dogs chase (or at least try), and hopefully some will be inspired to check the BSFA web-site for future events (next meetings on 13th April and 15th May), or join us in Sussex at the ‘Long Dogs’ who meet every two weeks (next meeting 30th March).

Rosettes were presented to the winners, Joan Wragg did the honours in presenting the long jump, and Gary Peskett presented those for coursing. Gill and Toby Smith (Nimloth) are usually keen supporters of the BSFA, but our event unkindly clashed with their holiday, however they still provided a prize for presentation to the winner, a wonderful bronze statue of a boxing hare. Jean and David Gilhooly (Noby’s) had also kindly provided the ‘Noby’s Quaich for Deerhounds’, a Scottish friendship cup, to stand as an annual trophy, so watch this space as it appears there could be a demand for a repeat event!

Lastly we would like to say thank you to everybody who helped make this such a ‘Fun Day’. It may have looked a bit hit and miss at times, but there had been a lot going on behind the scenes to make it a successful day. Pam, Spring and their helpers for their organisation of the runners, Charles Miller, Norman Davey and Roger and Rosemary Erskine at the long-jump, Julian and Liza Fairclough co-ordinating (at least at those moments when their greyhound was under control), catering by Dave Blackford, Tony Harrington selling raffle tickets, and promotion and advertising beforehand with the help of Glenis and Kay. Basically thanks to everybody who ‘mucked in’ and created such a friendly atmosphere, and donated raffle prizes. 

Vanessa Lucas and Cliff Dargonne
vanessa.lucas5@virgin.net

This article was kindly provided by Vanessa Lucas