I had an e-mail from Peter Rochford and Gary Somers asking me to thank Debbie Robinson for organising the IWS mingle last Sunday. They attended it for the 1sy time taking their new Doonbeg Puppy, Tessie, with them and thoroughly enjoyed it, there were lots of IWS’s on their best behaviour, off leads, and all having a great time, as were their owners, the weather was sunny and a good time was had by all who attended
Crufts 2009 started on Thursday, on Friday it was Toy day and our Secretary Chris Attwood had a fine win, her Chinese Crested Dog Souldrop Chinese Whispers (Mikey), won the Junior Class from an entry of eleven dogs, well done Chris.  I attended on Saturday (Gundog day) IWS were judged by Mrs Kathy Gorman, there was an overall entry of 46 with 8 absent on the day, the Dog CC and Best of Breed was awarded to Sh Ch Zanfi Ego owned by Mrs E Waters and handled by her husband Mr N Waters, Reserve Dog CC went to the young dog Fynder on Shifting Ground owned by Joe Caulfield and Joanne Furlong who had travelled over from Ireland. The Bitch CC was won by Sh Ch Foulby Fired Up owned by Judith Carruthers and the Reserve Bitch CC was won by Sh Ch Zanfi Tabitha owned by Mr N Waters.  2nd in the Open Dog Class was Danish and Swedish Champion Doonbeg Rare Flair, who had come all the way with his owners Vibeke Sandberg and her huband, they had travelled all the way by train, bus and boat from Denmark, now that is what I call being keen!. Truffle as he is known was bred in the UK by Chris and Keith Attwood and in my opinion he certainly takes after his mother who is  Sh Ch Cantanka Hurley Curley, he is a true showman .! Vickie Norman-Massa as well as winning her class with Fynder Sea Biscuit of Glenderry, celebrated her 50th Birthday with other IWS members with a lovely big cake and champagne but according to Vickie she was celebrating the 21st anniversary of her 29th birthday.

As usual many of our overseas members came to watch the judging, from as far afield as the U.S.A., Sweden, Ireland, Poland  Italy, and from Spain Betty Cornet, who went to live in Spain last year with her husband Bernard, Betty had cause for a celebration her dog , Currabell Monarch Birch at Inisfraigh  won the award of top IWS Shire  in the competition sponsored by Our Dogs, all of them the dog included have settled in well in their new home in Spain and it was nice meeting up with all of them again and exchanging stories and news.

Because of the problem with my back I am unable to walk very far so I spent most of the day along with Chris Atwood, Alan Spinks and Janice Wakerley helping Pat Wake on the Breed Club Stand, you probably do not know but the breed club stands have to be set up between 6 & 7 a.m. to do this Pat and her husband Steve stayed at their own expense at a nearby hotel, so many thanks to them.

I could not get down to the Discover Dogs section but I understand that we had many visitors to our booth and a lot of genuine interested in the breed, indeed, on the first day we had a visit from the elderly Duke of Wellington who was in a wheelchair but he was so interested he breed that he vacated the wheelchair to ask many questions another extremely interested visitor was one of Wales’s Deputy Chief Constable of Police after just watching the West Midlands Police IWS Drug Detector dog demonstration in the events ring and he is interested in owning one himself. The booth was manned by Ant Andrews and his step daughter with Bella and Lana, Chris Hinch with Cal & Gabby and Penny Diamond and Barbara Henson with Nell on Thursday, Michael Parkinson with Lara and his new Doonbeg puppy Eve, Gary & Paula Davies with Pugsey and Eileen Hendry with Ghuillie on Friday, Lois Ferrans and Veronica Gilman with Cley, Steve & Gill Lockey with Herbie and Alan Costley with Brian on Saturday and Marion Kong with Liberty along with Liberty’s breeder Stephanie O’Reilly who was visiting from Maryland, U.S.A. and Penny Diamond with Bea & Floss on Sunday, it was all arranged by Marion Kong and I understand the booth looked very exciting and informative with new posters of our Irish Water Spaniels. I am sure you will join with me to thank all who gave their time free of charge to promote the breed that we all love. 
Keep the news coming it does not necessarily be about your dogs, any news of any kind that you wish to share with other members.

Jean.
01494783599/07941830666
e-mail jean.gomm@ntlworld.com