Gale Force

Today isn’t the day of the qualifier; instead we have another show as a warm-up, which is being held on what appears to be Middlesbrough FC’s training academy or at least part of it. So the facilities are pretty good; the grass flat and well manicured. Far too good for dogs.

The only downside is the gale force winds that seem to have taken a grip. It’s far too windy to spend too long outside and the dogs and I end up holed up in the car, watching everything tumble across the field propelled by the wind:- plastic chairs, hurdles and the occasional Patterdale Terrier. I might have to move the car if the heavier equipment such as A Frames start to roll.

We are clear in all four of our individual runs and only mess up in the pairs much to our partners annoyance, where Doggo has a pole down. To be fair to Doggo, we were only railroaded in to the pairs competition at the last minute. So not too bothered. No repeats tomorrow though, I hope.

We take rosettes for 10th in one event and 7th in another. Well we think we got 7th because we don’t get the rosette because ninety minutes after the event finished there was still some controversy about the result. Some of the score sheets had been lost, including those of a couple of folks who claimed to have a high placing, although this was in the grade 7 class that ran alongside our class, so didn’t directly affect us. Although if they’d lost two tickets from that class, how many more might have been lost from others. Possibly in our class too. I gave up waiting after a while and headed back to the cottage, knowing I may never found out what happened because shows are rarely hi-tech enough to post results on the internet or any modern medium like that.

L and Daughter have been taking in the sights of Middlesbrough, which I don’t think took too long. No offence Middlesbrough. Despite that, L likes it here and wants to move here, Saltburn that is not Middlesbrough, but then she always says that when we go away.



It’s probably also due to the gale force winds, we like that sort of thing. Well most of the time. When we take the dogs on the beach later, the waves are huge and the sand is blowing sideways. So we don’t allow the dogs a dip in the sea. Doggo looks crestfallen. We decide a much better idea is to see if the Copper Ale is still on. It is. Doggo spits out his pork crunch in disgust. MD, always the opportunist, steps in and scoffs it for him.



Typically I miss a good game of football back in Derby, where the Rams win 3-0. I didn’t see that one coming. It’s such a rarity that I force myself to stay up for the Football League highlights, which are on really late and after a busy day and a few Copper Ales is not easy.