World Sheepdog Trial Championship
19 - 22nd September 2002

First day's action.

Inevitable the drama builds as the score go up on the board; anxious handlers and their supporters peer endlessly at the marks and try to guess which ten dogs from each of the two competition fields will have won their way through to the semi-final of the first ever World Sheep Dog Trials Championship.

Come six o'clock and it has become clear already that the Semi-Final on Saturday will continue to be a true "International" with competitors from overseas prominent in trying to become one of the 16 Finalists.

The layout of the courses in the two fields could not be more different; in the smaller Field 2 it was laid out in a conventional way with a first drive being right-handed in order for the dogs to be able to bring the sheep into a cross drive below a hedge that had been removed.

In Field 1 the sheep were let out in the left hand corner and the fetch gates were placed on that side of the field; passing behind the handler they went to fetch gates on the right and then most unusually instead of turning into a cross drive they were driven back up the field to the second drive gates placed near the top; however there were no complaints and both competitors and spectators alike enjoyed excellent work with sheep that gave a fair and equal chance to every dog.

Day 2 will be more of the same; the weather promises to be fair and if the same number of spectators come through the turnstiles as have done so today the target of 20,000 over the 4 days of trailing looks to be a realistic one.