30 Oct Autumn Open Shows, Garden Party & Champ Show week-end Reports
All of the above took place as scheduled in what turned out to be a very busy well attended 3 day long week-end at Hollowell . Just about perfect weather on each day boosted attendances and although it occasionally bordered on being too hot, on the Monday particularly, the clouds kept interrupting and kept things within an acceptable range.
There will be lots of reporting, results, thanks yous and event summaries to come linked from here.
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Firstly, there were two Open Shows on Saturday 23rd August,
Remember for Open Show 1, the judge was Tony Paczowski, a late change due to illness and. not as stated on the front of the catalogue.
Click on the title of each activity headlined below to go to the report page for that specific event. (Judge’s reports, the Obedience judge’s report and full results for all three shows are posted)
2025 Championship Show and Limited Obedience Show
Autumn Garden Party
Open Show 1 (including Members Awards)
Open Show 2
OPEN SHOW 1
kindly sponsored by Royal Canin
including the Members Awards
BiS Ch Waldershelf Gin & Tonic, Judge Tony Paczowski*, Res BIS Ch Fortonpark Chase That Dream,
BPiS Roesilbern Fors Fortuna & BViS Tjofselinas I Vana Tallin (Imp Swe)
- Last minute replacement for judge named in catalogue.
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OPEN SHOW 2
kindly sponsored by CORE
BiS Ch Valentinn vom Durrbachler Wald (Imp NLD), Judge Lyn Jones, Res BIS Ch Fortonpark Chase That Dream,
BPiS Roesilbern Fors Fortuna, BPiS & BViS Kernow Trouble
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AUTUMN GARDEN PARTY
On Sunday 24th it was a perfect day for the Garden Party
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Decorated Carting Themed Class 70s Adverts – Can you work them out?
CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW & LIMITED OBEDIENCE SHOW
kindly sponsored by Burns
The Club’s Champ Show with Limited Obedience took place on Monday 25th August on the warmest day of the three.
Photo by Paul Gardner
BiS Ch Fortonpark Valentellina, Judge Tom Kelly, Res BiS/BOS Ch Waldershelf Fame’N Fortune,
BPiS Gorsebern Mister Twister, BMPiS Tickbern Only One Carina at Iscabern, BViS Ch Kernow Troublue
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Summary of the Whole Week-end
by Karen Bird (Club Secretary)
Where do I start? Probably best at the very beginning, as the song says.
When 50% of the Committee were planning to travel to the Bernese Events in the USA in the Spring it was clear we wouldn’t have the resources to run a full weekend of events including the Spring Open Show. Not only because we would have no Show Manager/Secretary but because several of our regular exhibitors were due to travel to the USA too.
The Spring Garden Party weekend went ahead of course and was a great success as a 2 day event in itself but with no formal KC rules event.
So the decision was made to run both our 2025 Open Shows on the Saturday of the August event and a set of Members Awards (designed to provide a judging opportunity for upcoming judges) in between the two, the Garden Party on the Sunday and our annual breed Championship Show on the BH Monday.
As usual an advance party arrived on site a week or so beforehand to mow grass (what grass?), clean the, very basic, facilities, erect and decorate marquees and shelters for the show days and socialising, the Berner Shop, Rescue & Rehoming and BHI.
Campers arrived from the Wednesday to find very dry ground to pitch on. Drills were definitely needed to secure pegs for awnings and dog runs.
Saturday
Saturday dawned bright and warm as has been the norm this summer and judging of the first Open Show got underway promptly at 10am after the wonderful carters performed their opening carting parade for everyone’s entertainment. Our scheduled judge Karen Kennedy had to withdraw in the week before the show due to ill health and we send her our very best wishes to her for a speedy recovery. Thankfully, Tony Paczkowski was available at the last minute to step in and judge the wonderful entry of 46 dogs.
Tony found his …..
Best Bitch and Best in Show in Steve & Jeanette Green & Emily English’s Ch Waldershelf Gin and Tonic.
Best Dog and Best Opposite Sex in Steve & Jeanette Green & Emily English’s Ch Waldershelf Bjorn To Be King JW.
Reserve Best Bitch & Reserve Best in Show in Julie Baldwin’s Ch Fortonpark Chase That Dream.
Best Puppy & Best Minor Puppy in Show was Julie Ann Wright’s Roesilbern Fors Fortuna.
Reserve Best Puppy was Jess Love’s Gorsebern Mister Twister.
Best Veteran in Show was Julie Baldwin’s Tjofselinas I Vanna Tallin (Imp Swe)
Best Baby Puppy was Julie Baldwin & Carole Hartley’s Valleriita Bijou De La Source (Imp Pol).
We thank Royal Canin for their kind sponsorship of this show..
Also on Saturday, the Great Swiss Mountain Dog Club joined us for their annual breed Open Show. Attracting an entry of 13 dogs their judging commenced at 11am and was judged by breed specialist Eric Russell. Details of this show will I’m sure soon appear on their website Great Swiss Mountain Dog Club
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Once Tony had judged Best in Show etc we swiftly moved on to judge the Members Awards, judged by Tate Forsey (Muzoku Finnish Lapphunds & Alaskan Malamutes). No Best Ofs are declared after these 4 awards – see photos below (coming soon) of each award winner.
On completion of the 4 Awards, well known former Bernese owner & breed specialist Lynn Jones entered the main ring to judge our second Open Show of the day with 51 dogs entered.
Lynn found her …..
Best Dog & Best in Show in Di Atherton’s Ch Valentinn vom Durrbachler Wald (Imp NLD)
Best Bitch, Reserve Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex in Julie Baldwin’s Ch Fortonpark Chase That Dream.
Best Puppy in Show was Julie Ann Wright’s Roesilbern Fors Fortuna
Best Veteran in Show was Shandy Bridges’ Ch Kernow Trouble.
Best Baby Puppy in Show was Julie Baldwin and Carole Hartley-Mair’s Valleriita Bijou DE La Source (Imp Pol)
We thank Core Wellness for their kind sponsorship of this show Home – Wellness Pet Company,
Saturday Evening
Once judging and photographs were completed on this marathon 3 judge day, the organisers swiftly moved onto prepare the main marquee for the evening hospitality. Kindly prepared by our chef Simon Gould, over 70 folk tucked into a Pork, Chicken or vegetarian dish freshly prepared on site, followed by a variety of puds. Thankfully (!) no Karaoke followed but an entertaining quiz directed by Owen Copeland and music to relax to.
Sunday
A fairly early night followed then up with the lark to set out Sunday’s main event for everyone and anyone in the breed (& those looking to be a part of the breed) who gather to take part in fun and games, to be judged in the main ring by the lovely Gloria Wort for Best Puppy, Best smile, Best Hair day, best trick etc etc. Opportunities to have a go at Agility, Obedience and carting plus be tested for the Good Citizen Dog Scheme Bronze award and just a general opportunity to socialise with other Bernese enthusiasts (& the dogs of course).
The day was much warmer than forecast but with 2 large marquees and plenty of space for personal gazebos & shelters everyone was able to shade from the heat when required.
As usual one of the main attractions of the day was the carters’ fancy dress class where this time the theme was 70s TV adverts – see photos below. This involved a quick change after the carters again opened the day’s proceedings with their parade.
In the BHI & Rescue & Rehoming tents there were the usual 2 informative breed talks where anyone could learn about the breed and ask any questions (& there were many). Fiona and team were on hand all week to talk about the Rescue & Rehoming service offered by the Club and Breed Health Coordinator Steve Green worked all day alongside our volunteer vet Dr Rich Irvine to offer health testing in the form of Titre testing and BMD Genetic Testing testing for potential breeding dogs.
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Sunday Evening
On Sunday night the ever popular Monty the Pie Man returned to provide a pie supper for over 50 of our remaining campers and visitors followed by Simon’s yummy desserts.
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Monday
Day 3 dawned warm and bright again ready for our annual breed Championship Show including 4 classes of Limited Obedience and 2 classes of Junior handling (although there were no entrants present on the day for judge Julie Ann Wright).
Again the carters did us proud and opened the show to the ever present Swiss music and our main judge, breed specialist Tom Kelly (Belhof), commenced Dog judging promptly at 10am.
At 10.30am our Obedience judge Betty Keepax got underway judging each of the 4 classes in order. Always a challenge when some folk are entered in the show ring too but Betty and her steward kept everyone on track and judging completed in time to make the presentations in the lunch break between Dog & Bitch judging in the main ring, before the Champions Parade.
Betty made some very encouraging comments about the Obedience entrants and as usual was asked to make the award of the Club’s overall Obedience cup for the best dog on the day. Betty presented the cup to Carol Davis & Tilly (Chippis Diamond Diva) for achieving the best Retrieve of the day. To say Carol was overwhelmed is an understatement.
Following the presentations we moved on to the ever popular Champions Parade where compere Mark Avery introduced 16 of the breed’s current Champions to the assembled audience. Each Champion received a rosette recognising their participation, this time presented by Donna Hughes’ 2 year old daughter Isabella (the next generation).
After that Tom returned to judge Bitches through to completion of the show.
Tom’s major winners were …….
Best Bitch and Best in Show – Julie Baldwin’s Ch Fortonpark Valentallina,
Best Dog, Reserve Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex – Abbie Manix’s Ch Waldershelf Fame’n Fortune.
Best Puppy in Show – Jess Love’s Gorsebern Mister Twister.
Reserve Best Puppy and Best Minor Puppy in Show – Louise Oakaby’s Tickbern Only One Carina at Iscabern.
Best Veteran in Show – Shandy Bridges’ Ch Kernow Troublue.
Best Baby Puppy in Show – Lee Reynolds’ Valentinit Bijou De La Source.
As the day wound down for exhibitors the ever present workers behind the scenes were dismantling rings, marquees, signage and roadways and packing away all the Club’s equipment into our storage trailers and so another GB Club event came to an end.
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Thank yous
As ever thanks are due to a very long list of members, sub-committee members, friends and family of such who helped to make the 3 day marathon a success. I’m loathe to try and list everyone at the risk of missing someone but may I record the Club’s thanks to:
- To everyone who attended and supported the Club events over the three days
- To everyone who picked up after their dogs. To those who didn’t, don’t worry the poo fairy picked it up for you! And there many to pick up.
- To the sub-committee for the event, who masterminded the whole timetable; made up of Lianne Marsden, Michelle Copeland, Debbie Buck and non-committee members Owen Copeland, Simon & Beverley Gould, Chris Handley, Malcolm Peter, David Robertson
- To the off-committee helpers; friends and family of committee and members who pitched in, whether preparing, cooking and serving food, washing up, putting up and taking down marquees, staking out rings, cutting grass (well, weeds), car parking duties etc etc. All essential tasks and far too many names to mention.
- To all our judges and stewards over the 3 days of events
- To Dr Rich Irvine for facilitating health testing and Paul Forrester for helping with this.
- To Simon Gould in particular whose culinary skills were employed throughout the 3 days
- To everyone who contributed Bernese hair for the University startup programme we were asked to support
- To the Hollowell Steam Rally site committee for allowing us to use this precious resource
- Debbie & Colin Buck for the loan of their mower
- To the Bernese Carting Group who opened each day’s proceedings with their wonderful dogs and decorated carts.
- And a special thank you to two youngsters; Tommy Hickling (aged 5) who unloaded the equipment trailer (almost) single handed and Isabella Wiltshire (aged 2) who presented the Champions Parade rosettes on Monday.
Click on the link below to go to the report page for the specific part of our Bernese Jamboree Week-end
CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW & LIMITED OBEDIENCE SHOW
OPEN SHOW 1
OPEN SHOW 2
AUTUMN GARDEN PARTY
****** Photos from the week-end – An Apology ******
It is a quite a long time now since the week-end and it has still not yet been possible for me to select, process and load onto this web site all of the required hundreds of the almost 2,000 photos taken at the week-end, both at the three shows and the Garden Party. Even when they are taken by other people it still falls to myself to edit and select and identify and title and upload and place the photos, all which is quite a time consuming job. The Champ Show and the Garden Party almost complete but the other two shows are still to be tackled.
I can only apologise for this slow response, which, believe me, causes me more angst than it will anyone else, but I simply have not yet been able to find any of the hours and hours it requires. I will endeavour to get this completed as soon as I can but my days are just so full of personal commitments at the moment, some dog related, some due to other responsibilities in life.
For the 25 years or so we have had a club web site, the responsibility for the uploading of content and management of it has always been entirely mine and I have largely managed to have fairly good timeliness, even with the bigger jobs, but myself and the club will need to review the situation going forward to look for alternative future options.
With sincere apologies
Steve Green
BMDC of GB web site Manager