Working Gundogs National Championship Field Trials
30 May - 2 June 2008

National Pointer & Setter Closed Season field trial
place-getters. From left, Henry Foster with winner
Koram Kris at Innistona (Imp Ire) Major, judge Bill
Cross and Alan Willey with runner-up Field
Champion Closed Season Ywurrie Rani (Abbey). This year, the Working Gundogs discipline conducted two Pointer & Setter National Championship events, a Closed Season event (no game being shot) in Western Australia and an Open Season event in Victoria.

The Inaugural Western Australian Pointer & Setter National Field Trial (Closed Season) was held in the Meckering area, east of Perth. The judge for this prestigious event was the well-known Victorian pointer and setter personality, Bill Cross. The assistant judge was Denis Everard. The event was organised by the Working Gundog Association of WA (Inc), the SSAA’s Gundog group in the west. Sponsorship for the event came from the SSAA National, SSAA WA and Rosendorff Jewellers, Perth.

The National was one event in a long weekend of four Closed Season trials, which commenced on Friday and went through to the following Monday. It was a tough program for bird dogs who had to show great endurance to compete consistently over such a program. Dogs cover many kilometres at top speed in each heat and some dogs ran up to three heats each day, often in quite warm conditions, which is no easy task. The National event was the third in a series of four trials.

The form dog of the program was the pointer dog Koram Kris at Innistona (Imp Ire) Major owned and handled by Henry Foster. Major had left his opposition far behind in the previous two events and was looking unbeatable. Field trialling commenced in the 1850s and the basic requirements have remained unaltered over the past 150 years - winning dogs should show style, dominant game-finding ability, speed and good field manners. Major’s performance on the day of the National left no-one in doubt that he had met these criteria and by late in the day, when there were only two compulsory retrieves left to perform, he made no mistake - he was a clear winner on the day.

Runner-up was the local dog, Alan Willey’s pointer bitch Ywurrie Rani (Abbey), a very stylish dog who showed great endeavour over the four days of trialling. Lacking only the number of finds produced by Major, Abbey was a worthy second place-getter. No third place was awarded. Over the week-end, both Major and Abbey were awarded their WGAA Field Champion Closed Season titles.

by Barry Oliver, Working Gundogs National Discipline Chairman