After a 4am start we
arrived bright and early at The East of England
Showground with our 3 couple of hounds, Belfry, Berry,
Measure, Landlord, Morpeth and Mortar having travelled in
style in our big black shiny Mitsubishi Warrior! (The
hounds will never want to go back in the hound lorry
again unless they are provided with air conditioning and
a Robbie Williams cd!) There was great support from The C
& H with many people coming up on the coach and
several more independently. The morning with the dog
hounds did not go well, with not a single rosette to show
for our efforts, not even Landlord saved us this time!
but nevertheless we held our heads high in the knowledge
that our hounds are top quality! Out of the 30 packs in
attendance the dog hound championship was eventually won
by The Duke of Beaufort's Gamecock. After a good liquid
lunch we set about sorting the men from the boys with the
bitch hounds, we were sure to do well with Belfry who won
at Ardingly last month, but alas it was not to be. Never
down heartened we brought out the secret weapon in the
form of "Measure 02" for the last class of the day "The
Brood Bitch class". Needless to say Measure showed
herself beautifully and nobody could deny that she is a
beautiful looking hound with presence, perfect
conformation and movement and she won the class in fine
style. There was no delay in bringing in the bitch hounds
for the championship and there followed 10 minutes of
sheer agony!, everyone held their breath while the judges
made their painstaking decision. Finally they had chosen
their champion bitch hound and the words "Crawley &
Horsham Measure" resounded round the arena greeted by an
immense roar from the crowd! It was a very emotional day
for everyone and thanks must go to Antony Sandeman and
Andrew Phillis for breeding such quality hounds and to
the dedicated staff who care for them. After a very long
day several bottles of champagne were enjoyed in the
toast to "Measure"
Thankyou to everyone who
made the effort to travel up to support the Crawley, it
was a truly worthwhile trip to see history in the making,
The Crawley & Horsham having never won the bitch
hound championship at Peterborough before! Well
done!
Thanks also must go to
Jessica, Jenny, Graham and Diane who all made the long
trek up by horsebox to compete in the inter hunt relay
which unfortunately they missed out on the fame by a
couple of seconds, fter a spectacular fall from Jess (we
do have the photo to prove it which will be posted here
soon!) Well done to all of you for making such a huge
effort for The Crawley & Horsham Hunt, it is greatly
appreciated.
SS
