Selby College Flyball
I haven’t had many flyball updates on the blog yet, we had a bit of a break through September.
Kim and Mollie were both running in the ‘Owlers second team, drawn as bottom seed in Division 2. I generally don’t mind being bottom seed, especially if the Divisions are well seeded, because I think racing against slightly faster teams can be very good for both the handlers and dogs! Unfortunately at this tournament we were the only team in Div 2 without a sub-19 seed time, putting our fastest ever time a good half-second behind everyone else. Plus we were missing Jet, our super-fast lead dog … but we went in and gave everyone a run for their money anyway!
We arrived at 8:45am, with our division due to start around 9:15-9:30. We walked the dogs and then wandered up to the hall to see how Division 1 was running. It was a bit of a shock (to say the least!) to find out the tournament hadn’t even started yet! There had been a mix-up with the paperwork, with some teams withdrawing at the last minute and the reserves unable to commit, although I am still a bit in the dark about the specifics. The tournament didn’t get started until 9:45, and with 5 Divisions to run, plus presentations and an hours drive home … not a great start to the day, especially since we had wanted to be home well before the World Cup Semi Final started! (We missed the quarter final because we were at Durham last weekend, and we’ll miss the Final because we’re at EMDAC next weekend! Not sure my mother is best pleased with my choice of comps at the moment …)
Our dogs didn’t get into the ring until 11am, and our first race was the one we were most looking forward to, against the ‘Owlers top team Barneys (who were drawn as top seed in Division 2). We won the first leg, and then a fumble and a light cost us the next three. Good racing though! Barking Owlers raced their socks off all day, but we sadly lost all but one race and finished 5th of 6. Barney Owlers did a better and finished 3rd, with one very unfortunate lost race and another against the fantastic Cleveland team who ran low 18-second times all day. I was boxloading for Night Owlers, our third team, who raced brilliantly all day and finished 2nd in Division 5. Their last race was at 7:30pm, and we didn’t hang around the presentations! We managed to listen to the first half of the rugby on the radio, and caught the second half at home.
Dylan was a bit nervous when we first went into the hall, but he soon settled down to watch the flyball with his baby sister Kai, who was an absolute angel! They have quite a family resemblence and they seem to share some personality traits too, which is lovely. Dylan had a lovely day playing with Lolly and helping Kim find suitable mole-hills to dig up in the exercise area. Speaking of, Kim was on top form when we were racing. She loves running indoors and always clicks into top gear. Her boxwork was spot on too, I couldn’t have asked for more from her. Mollie ran brilliantly as well, she hasn’t run lead dog for a while but she thoroughly enjoyed it. We need to work on her box and her stamina, but she’s finally fit again and go back to training.