Day 7
Sunday morning dawned with overcast skies as the judges prepared a water quad that would determine the winner. Fine-tuning to get it just right took until 9:30 when the first test dog, Blackbrook's Belle O Dippomarsh, handled by Darren Thompson ran. Then, FTCH AFTCH Pilkington's Missing Link and Bill Cummings ran as second test dog.
Both dogs handled on two birds and the test took 35 minutes per dog. The judges declared "that's it…go get em".
The test was run from a dike facing the same large stick pond and general direction of yesterday's water blind. In the center at 223 yards, two gunners stop atop a large mound island and threw a duck to land on the right side of the island. They retired immediately. Next, two gunners in a boat at 135 yards anchored where the poison bird boat from the 9th water blind was yesterday and threw a duck to the left. They also retired. A pair of gunners 100 yards from the line threw a duck to the left. This bird was located so that it formed an over/under with the long center bird. The long gunners were under the arc of this throw. Finally two gunners on the left at 175 yards threw a duck to the right converging with the short center. The wind was angling from left to right. The first running dog was # 43 at 10:55. She had a no-bird and had to wait 3 dogs. After that several other dogs had no-birds and combined with the mechanics of getting to line and gunner changes during this long tess, it became obvious that the test would take all day. The test proved to be as difficult as it appeared. All birds could cause problems. The right hand bird had been avoided yesterday and today several dogs swam wrong side of it starting down the channel. Even the short bird caused problems later when the wind changed to be more downwind and the sun came out. By late afternoon glare caused problems for the last few dogs. The killer bird was clearly the long retired under the arc of the middle short station. Dogs that retrieved this last had to remember it for over 20 minutes. After they navigated past the short boat they faced a long swim with many sticks. At about 175 yards the dogs encountered the scent off the left canoe. To their right was the water blind of yesterday.
Dog # 50 had a great test going but swam past the island on the left side and eventually handled. Others got close and then deviated. In total, only 4 dogs did the test without handling. These ogs were #'s 4, 39, 43, and 53. The test finished at 7:35 pm and everybody headed up the road to headquarters for the results. After the congratulations by Field Trial Chairman Steve Smith and pictures of all the Finalists, the winner was announced by NRCC Secretary Marg Murray as Dog # 4, AFTCH.Quik Windstorm (Chip) owned by Marilyn Fender and Dennis Voigt and handled by Dennis. Celebratory champagne ensued amidst appreciative toasts to the judges and many hard workers. Chip and Dennis invited all to a Winner's Party in town and celebrations continued.
