September 17, 2008: World Trial Report.
The World Trial has been and gone but oh what fun we had. Our involvement with the event started back at the beginning of February when Norman Lorton, ISDS Chief Executive, approached us about managing the World Trial website. It was to be a few hours a week to keep the site updated. No problem, we thought. Little did we know that this small 'ask' would see us move from Scotland to Wales so that we could contribute much more than a few hours of web updates a week. (The stories of us hightailing it out of Scotland leaving behind huge debts are grossly inaccurate but hilarious all the same). The truth is, we simply couldn't resist the opportunity to be more involved in one of the biggest - and most international - sheepdog trials in the world. We have not regretted the move one little bit. We loved Scotland, and living in the wee shepherd's cottage in the Scottish Hills was such a privilege, but this was the World Trial and opportunties like this come along oh-so infrequently.

Since April, we have been living with Mike and Nora Hemmings on their farm, Brynberllan - about 5 miles from Llandeilo and the World Trial venue. You will not find nicer people on this planet than Mike and Nora, and their children and grandchildren. If leaving Scotland was hard enough, it was made that much easier by the warmth, kindness and sincerity of this family. And we have found that in many of the people we have met in this wee community in South Wales, and certainly amongst the organising committee of the World Trial. There are still kind, decent and honest people in this world - and by crikey are they hardworkers. The organizing committee for the event was truly exceptional. Our contribution paled in comparison to the contributions of many others, but as a team, we all did our small part, right from the people checking grandstand tickets and picking up rubbish to the more public figures. It has truly been a privilege to work with top-class people. We have nothing but thanks to Norman Lorton and Meirion Owen for asking us to become involved in the event. The website took on a life of its own and that is simply because Norman and Meirion put 150% support behind it - and gave us free reign. People around the world seemed to have appreciated the effort as we are over 1.5 million hits for the month of September alone!!! That just blows our socks off.

Onto the event itself...we started the event with handler registration on Wednesday. This turned out to be quite the social event as the handlers were offered free - yes, FREE (and seemingly limitless) - tea, coffee and cakes, and a place to sit and chat with each other. Some people stayed all afternoon! It was great. The registration went smoothly, even if we started a little late but the freebies seemed to make up for our tardiness.

After registration, it was straight to the parade. The sunny weather which had greeted handlers all afternoon turned to pouring rain for the parade. It was a soggy affair but the streets were absolutely jam packed with spectators. We were all surprised - and delighted - at the parade drawing thousands of spectators especially in the rainy conditions. The dogs were the star attractions.

Thursday morning - and the first day of competition - we were greeted with wet conditions to start with and mud, mud, mud... but nothing that a tractor couldn't sort out! While some people grumbled about the mud, others seemed to take it all in stride (see photo!).

Serge and Ellen van der Zweep being 'escorted' from the carpark.
Look how much fun Ellen was having! Note the rainbow too.

The competition was great. It was hard trying to get around the three different fields - not because they were far apart - but because we were too busy helping to sell Souvenir programmes and do other wee chores. We did not see a lot of the runs on the first day. After the first day, we had 3 days of glorius sunshine! Summer had arrived in Wales at long last - and it lasted exactly 3 days! (We've had rain ever since).

Kelvin was running on Day 2 for the New Zealand team so we all went down to Field 3 to watch. New Zealand was down to 4 dogs (it was 5 to make a team) as one dog failed to meet Defra import regulations and could not enter the country. Defra is very strict - and very clear on their requirements! Some Danish people suffered the same fate and they never made it to the World Trial. Such a shame.

Kelvin was very nervous - much more so than for any running race he has ever competed in. Perhaps it was because this is only his second year trialling. Perhaps it was because his dog had been injured and not running well. Or perhaps a little bit was because of all the criticism he had taken for being on the New Zealand team in the first place. The main critieria for inclusion into the NZ team was a) you had to be a New Zealand citizen - he is; and b) you had to have competed in sheepdog trials - no requirement that this be a NZ trial. Kelvin applied to the NZ Association for inclusion in the team as the team only had 4 dogs and needed 5 to make a team. The NZ Association accepted his application and then they applied to the ISDS to have Kelvin included in the team. Given existing precedents, the ISDS accepted his entry. Kelvin was very excited to be eligible for the NZ team, and pleased to be the 5th member of the team - thus making a NZ team.

For those who don't know, NZ is a long way away from the rest of the World!! It is quite common for NZ sportspeople to live abroad and remain eligible for national teams. Many of NZ's finest runners are based in the US, while the world's top mountain runner, Jonathan Wyatt, lives in Italy. Kelvin competed for the NZ team at three World Mountain Running Championships while living in Canada. In the equestrian world, 2008 NZ Olympic rider Caroline Powell has been living in Scotland for 14 years while another top NZ equestrian rider, Andrew Nicholson, has been based in the UK for 26 years. And, excuse us but Beckham lives in the US and plays for England. Within NZ sporting circles there is recognition and acceptance of the fact that many NZ sportspeople live abroad to be able to compete against the world's best in their chosen sport. This is the main reason why citizenship - not residency - has often been the basis of selection into national teams in NZ. We consider that to be quite progressive thinking. But for regressive thinking, how's this? One person thought Kelvin should be ineligible for a NZ team because he was not running a NZ-bred dog!!! Imagine just how many 2008 World Triallists would have been ineligible for their respective teams if all nations were as backward thinking - and anti-free trade - as that!

Kelvin had a decent run with Blade but they failed to complete the single. They ran in absolutely awful conditions. The heavens opened up and down came torrential rain. After all the rain we have had in Wales this summer, you'd think Kelvin and Blade would be used to the rain...and they are, so on they went. They finished on 170 points out of 220. He did not disgrace himself, nor the NZ team. They might have finished well down the standings but NZ did qualify one person for the World Trial final! Huge congrats to Jim Wilson on this superb accomplishment.

Kelvin and Blade in the rain

The NZ dogs seem to have a completely different working style to UK-bred dogs. How many times we heard people say "they have bad tails!" we couldn't keep count. Ah, yeah, they hold their tails up but perhaps this 'bad tail' thing is a bit overblown. When you see what these dogs are doing with sheep, my goodness, you have to rethink your prejudices against dogs with highly held tails. What we saw was dogs with quiet power but more power than many dogs of this 'modern' era, and they could pen like no tomorrow. In NZ trials, the handler cannot move at the pen so the dogs have to learn how to pen themselves. It shows! The dogs were also much larger than the dogs we see here, and they work much more on their feet. We were impressed. Sure there are prettier dogs, but it just goes to show that there are many different work styles in dogs and there is room in this sport for 'different.' We look forward to seeing what the kiwis will bring over in 2011! And perhaps if NZ continues to allow NZ citizens resident in other countries to be eligible for national teams, Kelvin might just make another appearance on the 2011 team. We can but hope.

The semifinals and finals of the World Trial were tight and full of excitement. It was thrilling to see so many terrific handlers and different dogs. Bernard Arends from Australia (he's actually a kiwi and was captain of the NZ team at the 2005 World Trial) was 17th overall and missed qualifying for the finals by just a few points. Tough luck but someone has to be 17th. Two NZ dogs in the top 17 in the World this year. Wow! (OK, we profess to be hugely biased here - we're allowed, we are kiwis). Aled Owen was a very worthy winner. Ron Snoeck competing for the Netherlands this year (he competed on the Australian team in the 2005 World Trial) narrowly missed the gold whistle by one point! Interestingly, Ron took the last place into the semifinals. Just goes to show, you can be bottom one minute and top the next - and vice versa!

It was interesting to see that even the top dogs in the world can make mistakes. In the final, some did not turn back for the second packet of sheep very well, while others turned back but crossed the course when they went back. A perfect run is such an elusive thing. Things go wrong but you just have to keep trying your best around the remainder of a course. In some ways, you have to be like a good tennis player. Take each point as it comes, and as soon as you make a mistake, immediately forget it. That is easier said than done!

Aled Owen showed his class in the shedding ring. He made it look very easy (which we all know it is not). Richard Millichap had a 'thrilling' shed, although he might not think so. He was left with one uncollared sheep in amongst the 5 collared sheep. This one sheep would not run, but as time ticked down, she finally took flight and left Richard to quickly and efficiently complete the course with a nice pen. Richard is one of our favourites. He is not only a superb handler but he and his family are really nice - very humble and very pleasant to be around.

Another favourite, Kevin Evans, had two dogs in the final. He did not have a happy day but he displayed class beyond his years to offer no excuses and no complaints. His day will come.

Of course the person we were really cheering for (shush, don't tell anyone) was Meirion Jones and Joe. They ran last. It was a long wait for Meirion who spent that day, and many previous, working his butt off for the event. He was everywhere doing everything from all the fencing at the venue to providing fresh water for dogs as they came off the field. He, like his wife, Llinos, Meirion Owen and Meirion Owen's wife, Glenda, Sulwyn Thomas, Hazel Thomas, and the Carmarthen Sheepdog Trials folks, did a million and one things and all with smiles on their faces. They were all exhausted but they put us all to shame with just how much they could get done. How Meirion could go out and run his dog, and run well in the qualifying round, semifinals and then the final was quite a feat. He is a star! We were on the edges of our seats as he completed his shed and fell off them when a sheep broke from the pen. Arghhhhh! Oh well, he seems to like that number 6. He was 6th in the Supreme final in 2007 and 6th at the World Trial. That is no small accomplishment.

When the final was over, it was really cool to see the teams line up with all the flags, dogs etc, at the prize giving. Time to bid friends farewell. That was quite sad. There is work still to be done before we finish our involvement but while it is sad for the event to be over, we are looking forward to our next adventure, whatever that might be and wherever it takes us. There no doubt will be criticisms of the event - we've heard some of them. There will be criticisms of individuals - we've heard them too. It is too easy to look at the things that went wrong (and some things did) and overlook the many things that went right. But from our perspective, when we first got involved in the event, we had no idea that we were about to be treated to a first class management team, superb volunteers, and six months of pure fun. We were given a chance by all of these people to show them who we are and skills we could bring to the table. We hope we did not disappoint. We had a great time. And who didn't like seeing all those dogs, handlers and spectators from around the world competing for that gold whistle and the coveted title? The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. May everyday forward from here be just as much fun as the last 6 months.

P.S. In the team competition, teams had to name well in advance the 5 people who would count toward team scores. Just for fun, we recalcuated this using the top 5 scoring dogs from each nation.We did this just for fun, and in no way want to diminish the accomplishment of Switzerland (they were just super smart in their team selection). England will like our scoring system! New Zealand might not!

Here's our version of the team competition results:

1. Wales - 1016 points.
2. Ireland -1006
3. Scotland - 1005
4. Norway - 986
5. Netherlands - 985
6. England - 983
7. Sweden - 939
8. USA - 936
9. Denmark - 915
10. Germany - 912
11. Switzerland -907
12. France - 868
13. Finland -787
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14. New Zealand - 711 (4 dogs)
15. Austria - 606 (4 dogs)
16. Italy - 536 (3 dogs)
17. Faroes - 469 (3 dogs)
18. Belgium - 450 (3 dogs)
19. Portugal - 326 (2 dogs)