World Sheepdog Trial Championship
19 - 22nd September 2002

Second day's action.

Much the same as yesterday; two fields being used for qualifying a further 20 dogs which will compete on a different course in Saturday’s Semi-Final. There is, of course, tremendous interest around the scoreboard with an eager crowd gathering every time more points were displayed; the list of the successful will not be finalised until the last run of the day. Then and within half an hour of the last run there will be a draw for the running order. The battle lines will have been drawn!

This second day has been characterised by sheep working better; the weather has remained good and consequently the crowds have come in. Particularly noticeable and very welcome has been the arrival of several parties of children from schools in the locality.

It was in one of those schools that the organisers staged an evening of Welsh music well attended by competitors and their supporters; inevitably there was a male voice choir; in fact there were two, and in the larger of them one of the singers was Ellis Evans the Secretary of the North Wales Sheep Dog Society. One singer who drew particular attention and who was introduced as the “Singing Vet” was Iwan Parry from Dolgellau – a baritone with many eisteddfod wins to his credit.

25% of those who qualified on the first day for the Semi-Final were from abroad; they included:-
T. Jaran Knive of Norway with Lyn – the winner of the last three Continental Championship.

Ron Snoeck of the Netherlands with Jill who’s regular work is chasing birds off runaways at Amsterdam airport.
Patrick Le Roux from France with Iolita – this winning partnership has won the French National Championship five times.

Anna Kruger of Germany is running her bitch Flip – Anna has won the German National Championship four times.
Alasdair Macrae and Don, Alasdair won the International in 1993 and now lives in the USA where he has had numerous successes.

Qualifying on the second day, those from abroad were :-
From the Netherlands, Serge van der Sweep and Roy – Serge has won the Continental Championship three times and he has won the Dutch National five times.

Tony Ottesen of Denmark and Jill – Tony has been the team captain for the Danish team at the Continental and won the Danish National in 2001 with Tweed, reserve with Jill.