Championship show at Barnwell 9th June 07
The committee decided we would celebrate the ruby anniversary of the club with a Buhund weekend. We changed the championship show to June to enable us to use the outside for the spitz match on the Sunday. We booked Barnwell because the venue is the most suitable. People could camp for the whole weekend and enjoy both the championship show on the Saturday and the spitz match on the Sunday. We would have an outside caterer to do a meal on the Saturday night, people attending could bring their own drinks and everything was well on the way to being organised. We also decided we would invite a judge from Norway, after all it is the home of the Buhund. We invited Mr Terje Lindstrom to be our judge, he has the Kimura affix in Norway. I prayed many times during the six months prior to the celebrations, what if the farmhouse where we had booked the judge, his wife and guest speaker went out of business. What if the caterer was terrible, and they blamed me! The price for the meal was so reasonable, you had to wonder what was it going to be like. We asked Professor Peter Bedford to come along as our after dinner guest speaker. Peter has been an honorary members of the club for some 13 years and was pleased to come.
The show went off well and there was a good atmosphere in the hall, we thought it might get too hot for the dogs outside. Again we were right, by lunch time it was hot with no shade around. Everyone went home after the show or back to caravans. Feed dogs, quick shower dressed and back to the hall for the evening meal. People arrived with one thing on their mind, good food, good company and to enjoy themselves. And to my relief the food was great, thanks to Sara Stonton who found the company. People commented on how they could give a meal like they did for such a reasonable price. Our guest speaker kept the atmosphere going with his stories and jokes. Terje gave a short talk and said he had enjoyed himself very much and that our dogs were good. By 11.15 the hall was empty and people had gone home we cleared away the tables and finally closed the doors. Next morning Peter Bedford and Terje Lindstrom were back to judge the spitz match and the fun classes. We had invited all spitz breeds, the breed clubs had been written to with all the information. There were a few people from outside the breed came but it was mostly the Buhund people. We decided to chase Peter Bedford home early, as he had 30 guests going to his house for his wife’s birthday. He was supposed to be looking after the BBQ his children had arranged as a surprise for their mother. The rest of Peter’s judging was taken over by Les Price, who incidentally had collected Terje and his wife from the airport on the Friday and brought them to the farmhouse where they were all staying. He then brought them to the venue for the show, took them back and came back again for the evening meal. He then brought them to the match on the Sunday, afterwards took them home to his house to stay the Sunday night. Their flight was on Monday morning home to Norway. The club gave Terje a crystal tankard with a hand-painted Buhund on it. We took the photo from his web site, as we thought it would be more special if it was one of his own dogs. When I presented it to him he looked at it and said Gyda, yes he was right, it was a painting of her. We also had two cakes, one was a very nice anniversary cake with red roses on it and the other we bought at the supermarket. Maureen Beaton organised both of these one a proper fruit cake and the other a sponge again we used Gyda on it. The members had a piece at lunch time at the show with a glass of wine.
It was a good weekend several people thanked us on the Saturday night others when they got home. It has been suggested that we do the same again in a few years time, we will see.
The photograph below is from left to right
Mrs Gillies’ Ch Tapui Tane, Mrs Cross’ Ch Arnscroft Di-Nahs-Mite and Mr & Mrs Bowe’s Trelowen Cantyr Among Ekusen and of course the judge Mr Terje Lindstrom
