It was with great excitment that we set off for Tai Lawr. Yet again we were in for a busy weekend, we had three teams racing on the Saturday and one on the sunday.

Dodge, Penfold,Kim and Zoot, Carey the box loader and Chelsea collecting the balls.

Not only was it the first time these dogs had raced outdoors in competition but, Dodge and Penfold had new handlers who had never competed before.

The racing went exceptionally well winning 9 out of 10 legs in the teams first two races. Then things started to go wrong. Penfold decided he was missing Pam ( his usual handler) and ran out of the ring and back to the van. This did not phase Grace his new handler she chased after him and brought him back into the ring and carried on racing, unfortunately because of Penfolds desire to find Pam the team lost the first leg , this did not deter the team, they worked well and carried on to win the next leg.

Unfortunatley not all our troubles were over. Poor Dodge who has very short legs decided they were worn out and did not go all the way to the box to fetch the ball this caused us to lose the next leg.We decided that drastic action would need to be taken as we only had two legs to race and still stood a chance of winning, so Carey the Box loader worked her hardest, she gave her all and a bit more to encourage dodge down to the box and it worked, he brought the ball back and the rest of the team continued with the race. The atmosphere was electric, all the other members of Valley Flyball were stood at the back of the ring shouting the dogs. Above them all we could hear Jackie the proud mum shouting Zoot . We won that leg and a cheer went up.

With one leg left to race and the score being two legs to each team, Carey pulled even more stops out and ended up in serious competition with the opposing teams box loader, and it worked she managed to get poor little Dodge down to the box, unfortunatly we lost the race to a light.

The team came 2nd with a fastest time of 25.70 secs and won 11 out of 15 legs. Well done !

Jamie, Heidi, Tiggi, Bob, Blaze and Pippin. Carey the box loader and Liz the Ball Collector.

It was the first time that these dogs had ever raced in competition or had all ever been present to work together. The dogs worked so well with no problems and stormed through the racing.

The team won 12 out of 15 legs to come 1st with a fastest time of 23.82

Tumble-Bodie-Piper-Tigger and Bessie. Diane the boxloader and Maddie collecting balls.

It was Pipers and Dawns first time in open competition having only ever raced in starters before. Piper along with Bessie, Tigger and Bodie never put a paw wrong.

Tumble had a blip and decided it would be more fun to entertain the crowd, I think he will be remembered by the crowd for along time as he touched everyones hearts, the ring party and crowed fell in love with him. By the end of the day he was working well and had thourghly enjoyed himself .

The star of this team was Bodie, I do not know what Liz had given him for breakfast but for the first time ever he did not tire and wanted more and more. and more we have never seen him run so fast.

The team went on to come second winning 5 out of 6 of thier races and produced a best time of 23.83 sec's

Thankyou to everyone for helping and supporting each other . Flyball is a team sport and is not about indivduals or their dogs, you were all truly a team, creating a wonderful atmosphere and Valley flyball something to be proud of. We are proud of you all and appreciate the time and effort you have put in to make the teams succssful.

Congratulations to Taffi for recieving his Intermediate flyball dog award, and to my Daniel who has at last recieved his Advanced Flyball Dog award at times we thought we would never get there.

For me the real stars of the day were Carey and Bodie who both worked so hard.

Thanks again to you all and well done for such a succesful day.

  Marg.