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Put to the test

David Tomlinson

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By David Tomlinson

Saturday, 28 August 2010

The Kent Wildfowling & Conservation Association’s annual dog tests attract handlers from across the county. David Tomlinson watches the action

Christmas holidays, 1966. My housemaster had caught me reading Shooting Times during a maths lesson and as a result discovered that we had a mutual interest in birds. He invited me to join him for a day’s birdwatching at High Halstow on the North Kent marshes. Fast forward nearly 44 years, I was back at High Halstow, at the very same site I visited all those years ago. This time, I went to see the annual tests of the Kent Wildfowling & Conservation Association (KWCA).
Apart from little egrets, I didn’t see many birds on this occasion, but I did see lots of excellent dog work in this wellsupported competition. The marshes make a fine setting for tests, though this year the ground was rock hard following weeks of drought. Unfortunately, the mudflats on the far side of the sea wall aren’t suitable for testing dogs, restricting the exercises to the landward side.

Organisers Liz and Graham Jeffery first asked me to the tests a couple of years ago, so my visit was overdue. I was interested to go, as I have covered the annual gundog tests of the Essex Joint Council of Wildfowling Clubs (invariably known as the EJC) on several occasions. The appeal of the EJC tests is seeing lots of genuine working dogs for which this is their only competition of the year.

Not surprisingly, the dogs competing in Kent were very much of the same stamp. Most were unpractised at summer tests but rather more accomplished working on winter shooting days. The variety of breeds present was impressive: Labradors and English springers dominated, but there were also flatcoats, a Hungarian wirehaired vizsla, a German shorthaired pointer, a Chesapeake and a Clumber, though the absence of cockers was surprising.

A week before the test, only a dozen dogs had been entered; entries on the day brought the final figure to 80, though this included the same dogs competing in two events. I was amused to hear several handlers remarking that their dog, entered in both puppy and novice, or novice and open, did rather better in the more serious test, suggesting that it’s easy to underestimate a dog’s ability.

Such a big entry caught the organisers out. After the puppy tests had finished, the novice took over, with four tests planned, though only two running at the same time. In the end the volume of entries forced the fourth test to be dropped. The open competition, scheduled to start at 2pm, didn’t get under way until after 3.30pm. Again, with only two tests running at the same time, the competition continued until late, with the inevitable result that several competitors either had to withdraw or leave before the prize- giving.

While Essex has a dozen or so wildfowling clubs, Kent has only the KWCA, so this event didn’t have the team competition that is such a part of the EJC. However, the size of the entry reflected the enthusiasm of the handlers, who had come from all over Kent to compete. There were a few entries from Essex, too, including Dave Whitton, a member of the Rochford Hundred club and winner of the novice at the EJC this year with his black Labrador bitch, Megan.

Watching tests is all very well, but you learn far more when competing, so my spaniel Rowan was entered into the novice, handled by my wife Jan. Alas, Rowan didn’t cover herself in glory, but she didn’t disgrace us, either. She became crowdshy, failing to bring the dummy straight back to hand, despite doing so consistently at home. Her mother, Fleur, managed a decent sub-two-minute time in the scurry, but this figure was put into sharp perspective by Stephen Buller and his Labradors Groovy and Stig, both of which managed to collect the three unmarked dummies in less than a minute — impressive, but they are scurry specialists.

All the tests were well thought out and sympathetically judged, but I’m intrigued as to why more use wasn’t made of the water. Only one test for each class required dogs to swim, though it would have been easy to devise an additional water test as a suitable channel, full of clean freshwater, was available. These were, after all, meant to be wildfowling dogs. Running three tests at the same time would also have ensured that the competition kept to time.

The winners of the open reflected the variety of dogs taking part, with John Thompson’s Labrador Tay taking first, beating Ben Neville with his springer, Tess, by one point. Lisa Snow was third with her flatcoat, Chester. Ben Neville, who is only 15 years old, won the judges’ special award as the best overall handler. The novice was won by Chris Brown with her Labrador, Tornado, with a perfect score of 60, followed by Mandy Smith with her Labrador, Fern; Lin Sykes was third with Mole, a Labrador owned by Lord Colgrain. Gill Smith won the puppy competition with Skye, Leigh Eastwood was second with Debo and Ben Neville third with Molly. Perhaps the most important prize was that for the Wildfowlers’ Champion, won by local man Barney Mills and his two-year-old springer, Bob.

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