The 2004 Country Land and Business Association Gamefair was held last weekend at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, the three hundredth anniversary year of John Marlborough’s’ victory over the French army at the battle of Blenheim.  

In what is now becoming (we hope) the usual superb Gamefair weather of high Summer, something like 100,000 people gathered over three days to celebrate country sports, industries, crafts, artistry and the traditional values of rural Britain. Not least among these is the great British love affair with hounds, terriers and gundogs of all types.  

There is so much to see and do at the Gamefair, that a certain amount of self discipline is called for and dreadful decisions have to be made; should you watch John Bidwell in his hilarious shooting display, attend the free whiskey tastings from Classic Malts, slaver over Mary Berry’s’ cookery demos, or just rest in the shade by the river Glyme with chilled cider in hand and roar with laughter at the patter of Hywel Morgan, fly caster extraordinaire.  

Not being disciplined types we did the lot, and still managed to spend time watching the gundog activities and competitions, and chatting with fellow enthusiasts from all over the world.  

Keith Leonard lets Fen cool off

The gundog competitions fall into three; the serious stuff on Friday in the Aigle Euro Challenge , the equally serious stuff in the Jeep International on Saturday and Sunday, and the sheer fun of the gundog scurries over all three days. In addition to the competitive elements are the non stop displays in the Working Dog ring, the eye testing clinic, the hound displays, and the gundog training demonstrations.  

The Aigle Euro Challenge, a team competition, calls on the skills of both retrievers and the flushing and pointing breeds. The home countries always perform well, usually relying on some excellent cockers and springers; the continental teams have pointers and viszlas, always an interesting sight, but perhaps not quite as flashy and eye catching. This year Welsh team won and following on from the win at Sherbourne Castle, you may well imagine the celebrations. Team captain Gaynor Bailey was absolutely delighted and was still admitting to a moderately severe hangover on Saturday lunchtime.  

The Jeep International competition, restricted to retrievers and Spaniels from the home countries, calls for a high standard of work from the retrievers in particular. One retrieve, a blind diagonally over the river Glyme, proved to be particularly difficult.  Unless the dog maintained the exact line, he disappeared from the handlers view behind a raised mound, and could enter into thick weed beds about half way across and then start hunting. Some people questioned the fairness of this. My own take was that this was a high quality field and the work wasn’t meant to be easy. 

It was noticeable that a lot of handlers were using two whistles, one for general commands, and another of different pitch as a “seek” command; a growing trend it seems. 

The gundog scurries were very popular with the crowd, and as ever provided many amusing moments. The water retrieves proved to be a boon for the dogs, giving them a chance for a cooling swim to counter the intense heat. Some of the more independently minded greatly preferred the water to dry land, and were determined to stay in the river for as long as possible! 

A cocker spaniel enjoys the water test in the Scurry

Amongst many displays in the Working Dog ring, the efforts of the Working Clumber Society were greatly appreciated. Their efforts to bring this old breed back from oblivion at the hands of the show fraternity are starting to pay off. The dogs shown were all clearly “The Right Stuff,” strong, keen and raring to go……. which one or two did at high speed, with that degree of independence familiar to all Springer handlers.  

The highlights for many visitors were the dog training displays given by Ian and Wendy Openshaw with their Springers and Cockers, and Tess Lawrence and Ricky Moloney with their retrievers. Ian had puppies as young as ten weeks on show, play hunting, retrieving tennis balls and getting used to water. It was significant that every dog that he used, no matter how briefly, had a good splash about and cool off in the river before being taken back into the mobile kennels. 

Ian doesn’t like his “serious” dogs, those in training for Field Trials to run in these demonstrations, he feels that they are a distraction, but the public lose nothing by this, the puppies stole the show. The Openshaws are the most accessible of people and after each performance are more than willing to answer questions and give advice. Queries ranged from “Where can I get a good cocker to take back to the US?” through “How can I stop him pulling on the lead?” to “Can you get me some rabbit shooting”.  

Ian Openshaw with his dogs

Tess and Ricky each had six dogs of varying ages all under perfect control, running as two teams. The spectators gave them a huge ovation, as well they might. Once again their help and advice was given freely and willingly.  

Typical of the people attending the show was Keith Leonard from Newcastle on Tyne with his wife, two children and young Labrador Fen who was along to gain some more experience of crowds. Keith has been working on Fens confidence, and felt that a good family day out would be a nice way to round off this part of his training.  

Keith’s verdict on the show echoed mine and many others, “Almost too good. You can’t see it all in a couple of days, so we’ll just have to come back next year.” 

See you at Belvior Castle in 2005!