By Peter Smith
THE 2021 IGL RETRIEVER CHAMPIONSHIP AT AMPTON
A
fter a break due to Covid restrictions, it was a great relief to gather in Suffolk for this year’s IGL Championship, which was held on the Ampton Estate on 29th, 30th November and 1st December, by kind permission of the Turner Family and at the invitation of Mr Peter Rushbrooke. The main sponsor was Roger Skinner Ltd. Despite restrictions fifty three dogs had qualified and fifty two took the field. There were three Golden Retrievers and forty nine Labradors, and for the first time in many years a chocolate labrador had qualified. There was also a strong representation of European qualifiers, mostly with home bred dogs. In 2006 a yellow dog was born whose name is behind no less than twelve of those dogs to have qualified for this year’s Championship. He is the sire of two previous winners, FTCh Asterix Aguzannis of Chatsworth (2015) and FTCh Beiley’s Aguzannis of Fendawood (2016), and he is Int FTCh Ragweeds Travel of Craighorn. Bracken as he is known, is the sire of FTCh Riverview Farm Finalist, bred by Stephanie Latham, owned by Orin Ingram and handled by Kevin Haynes, and this dog makes history as the first American bred British FTCh. Of the Irish contingent, Declan Boyle, Kieron Coey, and Tony O’Hare (latterly of The Burren), each ran two dogs. Tony also bred the dog being run by Marlene Edvinsson from Sweden, and the two dogs Kieron Coey qualified are father and son. Declan is the defending Champion with Int FTCh Miller McDuff and also runs FTCh Jake of Blackburn who won three two day stakes in a month. John Dawson also qualified but did not run. The Judges for this year’s event were Kevin Doughty and Mark Demaine on 66
The winner, Gary Wood, with his trophy
the left, and Jamie Bettinson and Gary Ford on the right. The Steward of the Beat was Mr Peter Hammond.
Day 1 Day 1 and early starts being the order of the day, and after all the
Second place went to Fraser Forbes
Spring 2022 Irish Country Sports and Country Life
preliminaries, the line stretched into a field of mustard and the first shot was fired at 8.50am. Birds came readily to hand, being pheasant and partridge, but early scent was indifferent, in very cold but dry conditions. First retrieves where practical, were in front of the dogs, but
