Newfoundland Extravaganza
The weekend was brilliant!!
It was well attended by both Newfie people and the general public and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. The weather was fine on both days so we all enjoyed the sun for the water activities and the Companion Show in aid of the RNLI and NNC. On Saturday and Sunday the NNC Rother Valley Water Team entertained the large crowds at the lake side with fun packed water demonstrations set to Music. Vinnie Whiting did a superb job as compere, telling the public about the breed and introducing the individual dogs and members taking part in the display.
The dogs looked amazing in their brightly coloured life jackets and certainly did the breed proud, showing the special life saving skills for which
the breed is renowned. The water demonstration was a masterclass showing how Newfoundlands and their handlers work together as a team in the water, and
many newfoundland owners who had never seen water work were totally amazed by the skill involved. Show people were also staggered by the abilities of
both dogs and handlers - as one said "I have never been so proud to own a Newfoundland as I am today". We saw dogs working together, towing multiple
people, rescuing a small dog in his little dinghy, acting as sharks chasing the boat, carrying Noah Maris, only four years old on their backs in the
water - Noah is a definite rising star from Rother.
More pictures can be found on Facebook by clicking on the following link.
Link
Noah also proved to be an excellent fund raiser for the RNLI and NNC with his collecting bucket! No one could refuse him. The NNC Chairman John Lloyd followed in Noah's wake with his own bucket, but was obviously not such a hit with the crowd in spite of his Welsh charm offensive. Never mind John, you cannot hope to compete with a cute four year old!
The whole event was masterminded and organised by two NNC Main Committee members, Stella Baxter and Rose Evans, together with Vinnie Whiting from the
NNC Working Sub Committee and the Rother Group. Marquees, trade stands, rosettes, prizes, an Auction, caravan accommodation, car park passes, setting
up the show ring, the grooming seminar tent, booking lunches, a disco and barbecue for Saturday night, a rally ring (ably run by the Grangewater
Working Newfoundlands from Essex), and lake preparation were all sorted in advance by these Three Musketeers supported by the NNC working members and
Committee. We owe a huge vote of thanks to everyone who supported the event especially the Grangewater Group whose rally/obedience ring was a great
success with lots of dogs having a go, some more than once to see if they could improve! Grangewater are not an NNC group so we were especially
delighted by their support. Thank you Amanda and Stuart Arnold, Karen Wells, Sarah Buckle and Hayley and Duncan Webb from Grangewater - you were
brilliant!
More pictures can be found on Facebook by clicking on the following link.
Link
On Saturday we also enjoyed a Grooming Seminar where the well known Italian breeder and exhibitor Milena Polloni (Thickish Newfoundlands) shared her grooming skills. She worked on a black male and a Landseer bitch, and it was fascinating to watch the different approaches to grooming a black and a Landseer. There were lots of questions and discussion and Milena enjoyed talking about controversial showing and health issues. She had a great sense of humour and everyone learned a great deal.
More pictures can be found on Facebook by clicking on the following link.
Link
On Sunday Milena and her husband Oreste judged the Companion Show and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even doing a fun lap of honour at the end. The Show was really well supported, with lots of owners and dogs keen to win Best Six Legs , Most Handsome dog and Prettiest Bitch. Best in Show and Best Veteran from the Pedigree classes was Collins' Pointer, Medogold Typhoon Ginger at Collholme, a 7 year old dog. Reserve Best in Show was Sandham's Sandeast Black Lace, a 4 year old Newfoundland bitch. Best Puppy was a 11 month old newfie Williams' Inkomo White Russian. Thank you Milena and Oreste for your lovely approach to both dogs and exhibitors - we thoroughly enjoyed your company and hope you enjoyed your weekend with us too.
More pictures can be found on Facebook by clicking on the following link.
Link
Lots of other activities took place during the weekend. A very successful auction of a beautiful hand painted white enamelled milk churn of Newfoundlands working in water by Paul Patterson was strongly contested, with the final nod going to Steve and Karen Hietschold for £275! There were some excellent raffle prizes generously donated by club members which raised a good amount. The barbecue on Saturday night was a great success, followed by a disco which apparantly only dispersed in the early hours of Sunday morning because people needed to get up to start again on events early on Sunday. The marquee was full of Newfoundlands and owners with not a single cross word between the dogs (or owners we hope!). The weekend finished with a brilliant finale water demonstration by Rother Valley, and a football match involving dogs and owners.
More pictures can be found on Facebook by clicking on the following link.
Link
Congratulations to the winners of our first Extravaganza 5 a side football match (made up mostly of working as the show team had left at 5:30pm). I must admit we did get a bit worried when the goalie gloves came out as we knew working meant business and that was after all their hard work on the finale display. Is there no end to the talent of Rother Valley!!! We will have to train that bit harder for the show side to beat them next year!
Also a note of thanks to the cake stall team who worked so hard over the 2 days (Becky, Alex, Jas & Sonia manned the stall) and of course Steve Cash
who was our brilliant runner over the 2 days even cooking the BBQ with Dave Trueman. The Extravaganza was a huge success and the NNC wish to thank
everyone (members and non members) for their support, hard work, generosity and massive commitment. An event like this can only happen when people
work together for the good of the breed - we are proud that so many of you gave up your time and energies to make this possible.
You are very special people!!
Credits: Thanks to Jill Barker, Honorary Secretary for the report of the weekend & Paul Dodd for all the wonderful photographs.
It was well attended by both Newfie people and the general public and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. The weather was fine on both days so we all enjoyed the sun for the water activities and the Companion Show in aid of the RNLI and NNC. On Saturday and Sunday the NNC Rother Valley Water Team entertained the large crowds at the lake side with fun packed water demonstrations set to Music. Vinnie Whiting did a superb job as compere, telling the public about the breed and introducing the individual dogs and members taking part in the display.
Noah also proved to be an excellent fund raiser for the RNLI and NNC with his collecting bucket! No one could refuse him. The NNC Chairman John Lloyd followed in Noah's wake with his own bucket, but was obviously not such a hit with the crowd in spite of his Welsh charm offensive. Never mind John, you cannot hope to compete with a cute four year old!
On Saturday we also enjoyed a Grooming Seminar where the well known Italian breeder and exhibitor Milena Polloni (Thickish Newfoundlands) shared her grooming skills. She worked on a black male and a Landseer bitch, and it was fascinating to watch the different approaches to grooming a black and a Landseer. There were lots of questions and discussion and Milena enjoyed talking about controversial showing and health issues. She had a great sense of humour and everyone learned a great deal.
On Sunday Milena and her husband Oreste judged the Companion Show and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even doing a fun lap of honour at the end. The Show was really well supported, with lots of owners and dogs keen to win Best Six Legs , Most Handsome dog and Prettiest Bitch. Best in Show and Best Veteran from the Pedigree classes was Collins' Pointer, Medogold Typhoon Ginger at Collholme, a 7 year old dog. Reserve Best in Show was Sandham's Sandeast Black Lace, a 4 year old Newfoundland bitch. Best Puppy was a 11 month old newfie Williams' Inkomo White Russian. Thank you Milena and Oreste for your lovely approach to both dogs and exhibitors - we thoroughly enjoyed your company and hope you enjoyed your weekend with us too.
Lots of other activities took place during the weekend. A very successful auction of a beautiful hand painted white enamelled milk churn of Newfoundlands working in water by Paul Patterson was strongly contested, with the final nod going to Steve and Karen Hietschold for £275! There were some excellent raffle prizes generously donated by club members which raised a good amount. The barbecue on Saturday night was a great success, followed by a disco which apparantly only dispersed in the early hours of Sunday morning because people needed to get up to start again on events early on Sunday. The marquee was full of Newfoundlands and owners with not a single cross word between the dogs (or owners we hope!). The weekend finished with a brilliant finale water demonstration by Rother Valley, and a football match involving dogs and owners.
Congratulations to the winners of our first Extravaganza 5 a side football match (made up mostly of working as the show team had left at 5:30pm). I must admit we did get a bit worried when the goalie gloves came out as we knew working meant business and that was after all their hard work on the finale display. Is there no end to the talent of Rother Valley!!! We will have to train that bit harder for the show side to beat them next year!
You are very special people!!