AFTER four days of stiff competition, pooches from across the dale have been recognised as some of the best in the world after scooping awards at this year’s Crufts.
Almost 20,000 dogs from 43 countries competed in the event held at Birmingham’s NEC arena. In the springer spaniel classes, one owner managed to impress the judges and came back with several rosettes for her Welsh springer spaniels.
Catriona Clarke, of Boldron, picked up a reserve challenge certificate with “Ferndel High Fidelity with Tigerrock” and a first place in the junior bitch section with “Crimicar She’s Electrick with Tigerrock” .
Labrador retrievers were the most popular classes. Among the 543 entrants was Mac Percival, from Barningham, with Wynfaul the Wizard. The five-year-old, whose pet name is Tank, took third place in the special working dog class. The golden retriever classes were also well subscribed, with 519 entries. Barnard Castle-based Kim Ellis, who jokes she has been “kept by retrievers” for the past 45 years, showed five of her dogs. She said: “It was not our best Crufts, but the classes for golden retrievers are always large and we came home with several prize cards. All my retrievers were working dogs up until I moved back to Barnard Castle two years ago.”
Two-year-old Tenfield Rex Imperator, or Rex for short, came third out of 21 entries in the undergraduate section. Meantime his cousin, three-year-old Tenfield Dark and Stormy, pet name Rolo, was fifth out of 20.
She added: “It was Rex’s first show for ten months since he got his junior warrant, which is a huge thing to achieve. Rolo has been to Crufts before and was shortlisted but not placed then, so this is good.”
The two dogs are descendants of Ms Ellis’ original retriever, Ramble, who she started showing 35 years ago.
The five-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier Tusselstaff One Caress, known as Ava, owned by Sandra and Graham Lockey, of Barnard Castle, came fourth in the limit bitch class.
