CRUFTS!!!!! Part 1!

Well Crufts, what can I say. What a good and successful year. Ok I was a little disappointed that I was only in the team event. Was one of the first reserves for the singles which was a shame.

So Thursday saw me up at 3.30 and picking my groomy (Claire) up at 4.00am. Off we drove to NEC with me chewing Claire's ear off to keep me awake. Morning semi was at 9.30 or something like that. We were running first and of course being the first memeber of our team to run, I was first in the ring. This year the team was a batton change. We had had our "team tactics" chat from Mr Tactics himself, Lee Windeatt. So we all knew what we were doing, how to play it, what to do if we got faults etc. The course was a little on the tricky side, tricker than we had seen for a few years. Well everything went spot on!! Four runs, nice baton changes and four clear rounds.

All the other teams got faults, so we won the morning semi. We were pleased with this as we thought it would mean we would be running last in the afternoon final and so would know exactly what we had to do. As as happens every year at Crufts, there are the odd rules that are made up as they go along. So whilst winning the semi last year meant we ran last in the final, this year they changed their mind. So on a "random" draw we ran 3rd the final. Not to bad really but no ideal.

The finals course was tricky. Not a bad course but maybe just a little to tricky for a team course at Crufts, on carpet. But nothing actually "wrong" with it. Hope that makes sense.. it does to me.

Any way the first team had two e's, the second team had one e. So we knew all we needed to do was not get e'd! Well, great plan, but Jag and I started off and by obsticle No. 5, we were e'd. My heart sank. Not sure I have ever felt quite that bad before. Dave Ray said "I don't think Amanda is enjoying it out there" and he was sooo right. I took the baton off of Lee, he then went clear, Dave got 5f on dog walk and Toni went clear. Amazingly that put us in the lead with one team to go.

Well there was no way they would mess it up........... would they? After all, all they had to do was walk round and not get an e and it was theres. Well when their 2nd dog got an e, we couldn't believe it. Now all we needed to do was for them to get 10 faults and it was ours. Lo and behold the very next dog missed a contact and rolled a pole. So on 205 faults the team win was ours.

I have to say (and this might come across as a bit of a rant)that nobody can make me feel worse than I did when I got e'd. Even while we were having our photos taken I felt bad about getting the teams e. But.... there really is no need for some people to rub it in. I really wasn't gonna let myself enjoy the moment cos I felt bad. But comments like, "well done you lot, but not you", "you didn't help much did you" really didn't help.

The good thing... I have THE BEST team mates in the world! Who have not said one bad thing to me about my run. Infact I know a couple of them have even stopped people in their tracks when they have made bad comments. We are a team, we got to Crufts as a team, we won the semi as a team and ya know what, we won the final as a team. So now, i'm gonna enjoy it and roll on next year (hopefully!).

I will post videos of the runs when I can... yes even the big E. But i'm proud of our team. Two years running is a good achievement.