[Gary Hodkinson]

It was Wigton DTC's AGM on Monday 26th January 2009.

Below is the Chairman's report,courtesy of Alan Britten, for your information.



CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

It is customary for the Chairman to give a summary of events and achievements during the year, but we should not lose sight of the work being done week in, week out, in helping members of the public and club members become better dog owners. On your behalf I would like to thank the trainers, Jackie, Gary, Faye, Dennis and Pat and all those who ‘stand in’ from time to time. Also huge thanks are due to Jim who works tirelessly to keep our finances in order.

Now for news of the Agility Section.

Crufts. In 2008, alas no senior team but we had a junior team who did us proud by winning the YKC team event for the second year running. For the forthcoming 2009 we have qualified large, medium and YKC teams. Steven and Sarah will be competing for the YKC Agility Dog of the Year Final and Rachael will compete in the Senior YKC with Amber.

Elsewhere, Dave Alderson with Spice represented Great Britain in the World Championships in Norway and took a Gold.
Jill and Ben and Shirley and Buster won out of grade 2 into grade 3.
Mike and Drum, Trish and Mac and Fiona and Toni moved into grade 6 (equiv. to ‘C’ in obedience) and Steven and Libby moved to grade 7 (= Ticket)
Mike qualified for three Olympia semi finals but unfortunately did not make it through to Olympia itself. However, he and Drum did qualify for the Adams Derby Final and were the top Novice dog at the Kingdom of Fife show. Drum was
re-homed Christmas Eve 2007 when his previous owner died. It was her wish he should be returned to Mike and Jackie who had bred him.
Steven won International Agility Young Handler of the Year with Fly at the KC international Festival.

In June we ran a 2 day show with 5 rings and over 350 competitors in each ring.
The October show raised money for cancer research and Macmillan nurses sending £500 to each charity.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Rachael will be going to Cufts shortly with her Stafordshire Bull Terrier, in the breed classes.

The Obedience year started, as usual, with our Judging, Stewarding and Scribing day for those local, and much travelled handlers, who wanted to have a go. This day usually degenerates into an event where people do training rounds rather than any constructive judging, stewarding etc. Attendance was very good with around 90 participants in 2008 and over 100 for this years event (Saturday last) that demonstrates how popular this is.

Crufts came next and for a number of members – Pat, Pam, Sharon, Christine, Brenda, Jim, Angela, June, Brian and Anne – the opportunity to help Inter-Regional Judge, Pip Young, with her preparations and also in the obedience ring at Crufts. Sharon Dunstan also was competing once again in the Obedience Championship with Ross and, as usual, they acquitted themselves well. For the first time in many years we have no representative in the Inter-Regional Competition itself but Louise Ferguson participated in the Kennel Club Good Citizen Scheme Special Stake.

Waldridge Fell 3 day show became 6 or 7 for some as quite a few members went early to help with the setting up of the show. Shows then came thick and fast with members travelling somewhere or other most weekends, up to the end of October, with a large amount of success.

One of the few agricultural shows to go ahead in the wet summer of 2008 was the Cumberland Show. The obedience section is run by Pat and she would like to thank Club members and our Dutch friends, Elly and Hans Kooyman for the work done in setting up the show.

Our own 2 day August show was cancelled, at 5 days notice, due to the appalling weather. Our venue was water logged and there was no possibility of finding another site. A large amount of preparatory work is done in advance of the weekend and to see it ‘drowned’ was not a pleasurable sight. Our Secretary had almost lost the will to live but she survived and set about unravelling all the arrangements. There was probably more work involved in cancelling than there was in setting up in the first place and this went on for many weeks. Special thanks must go to Anne Westover, our newly appointed printer, who organised cancellation letters to all competitors – a truly mammoth task at short notice. Then came the refunding of all the entry money, another massive task, mainly for Jim

As the sun was setting on the Autumn shows Sharon Dunstan was giving up hope of ever qualifying Ross for Crufts 2009, when, the day after returning from holidaying somewhere hot, rushed down to Birmingham and Wales and managed a double qualifier and thus making Ross her second Obedience Champion. Many congratulations.

Our November show at Greenlands went without a hitch making it a successful and enjoyable day with a few members actually winning their classes, in spite of working all day to make it a success. I understand the two judges we had over from the Isle of Man thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

I have already made mention of the work done by the trainers and I know Pat would also like to add her thanks, especially to those who stand in for her in her absence.

2009 is going to be a difficult year with our venue undergoing changes. You will know we have to be out at the end of March and who knows when we will get back in. If anyone knows of a venue we might be able to use please let us know.