We ventured to a very special Drax tournament where not one but two of the ‘Owlers dogs were retiring, and we had planned to camp. We set off early (and not-so-bright) to Selby with the caravan to Kellington’s first go at a two arena tournament.
Saturday morning captains were called to a briefing, seeing as Jane was still prepping George (anticipating div.1 being first in the blue arena), I went instead thinking it would be the routine. It turned out it wasn’t and I had to give my brain a mental work out trying to remember everything said and report back. It turned out that the boxes for the lights had been left on the Wirral, so Steve would go and meet someone halfway for them. This meant arena’s starting late, starting on hand timing and a complete swap around of divisions. I have to say though, all involved made it run really smoothly and we were still done racing before 6:30pm.
Jet was with Norah, Floss, Murphy and George in division 1. We had looked forward to this for a long time, having done an 18.25 with a 0.26s start at the champs, and not really pushing the changeovers. Jane had her master plan as always, Jet out for the first one so the “older” members of the team could get warmed up and we could run the fastest four second or third race when they were all up for it. Having waited for a good 30mins for arena to finish etc, they were all biting at the bit and really up for it. So while I pinned Jet down, the other four ran their socks off. First leg there were lights all over…..second leg they did 17.70s!!! Amazing stuff, they looked so good. Just as they were lining up for another in awe of what had just happened, James shouted over for everyone to have a look at Murphy. Him and Norah had been very wound up on the run back, and typical thin skinned whippet had got himself torn by our crazy beardie. As the rules state, no dog can run with an open wound so we sadly lost Murphy as he went to the vets and came back with 4 stitches. This meant we were down to the usual four, who were so nice and were determined that Jet would get her sub18 as well – even without Murphy. We tried our best and came away with an 18.12 which isn’t bad going at all. Obviously I was a little disappointed, but it was out of everyone’s control really and we were all pleased that Murphy was ok and that ‘Owlers had finally got that 17s time we’d chased for so long! I know that we can do it again, and can only think what times we might have done if we’d still had Murphy!
A quick swap then to cool Jet down, put her back and run Sally for Dog Friendly! Sally is their first team’s lead dog, and she is sooo easy to run. Wow, no catching at the end, she just has her kong and she’s happy. My starts weren’t too bad either – it’s been a while since I did the lights!!
Saturday evening was Sue and Roger’s Anniversary and they had a party in the clubhouse. One of the best nights I’ve had with the ‘Owlers – it was such a laugh….followed by a play in the kids’ playground…eeek!
Sunday we had one team in, Chip running lead dog. He started off brilliantly, doing a 4.7s on the lights with 0.15s start. Sadly Chip’s mentality of “I’ve done this twice, why should I go so quick again?” kicked in and he went to 4.9 to run steadily between about 4.9 and 5.2 all day – depending on how revved up he was.
I also ran Julie’s Ernie in the same division for Dog Friendly and she had Super Gertie. He is so fab! They came 3rd in the division, just behind us in 2nd place.
Thinking I’d be home Sunday night, I was persuaded to do multibreed on Monday, so borrowed Jane’s pod and in true ‘Owlers style everyone made sure I had enough food/airbeds/etc etc to keep me going hehe. 
Jet ran with Norah in Mansfield Remix in div.1. A bit of a break from 13″ they had a height dog and both of them absolutely flew all day long. We were originally supposed to have the super speedy Alfie as our collie, but he was injured so Ice stood in. Our height dog was Moe’s Sky the english cocker spaniel who suffered quite a bit in the blistering heat but we still ran a respectable 19.29s with room to spare I think. We came 3rd in division 1 behind the ever successful Doncaster and Rotherham.
Mansfield were low on bodies when Ian was called out to a job, so I boxloaded for their second multi team, and Andrea did the line/scribed. Then I boxloaded for Paws8 who were also meant to have Ian with them lol – so as you can imagine running 3 dogs (one of them twice), karaoke and boxloading twice – I have no voice left. Eeek.
A brilliant weekend though, well done again to the Ghost ‘Owlers, we knew we’d get there eventually. 
. And a very happy retirement to Jack, one of the original ‘Owlers dogs, his last race was fantastic. Also to Flossy, who although will be back for a few guest appearances, will no longer be racing full time – think both Jet and I will miss lining up with her in div.1!