Ireland Great Game Fairs Of Ireland Judges

[AlbertJ 569]

Is there showing on the Saturday in Birr Albert ?

 

Only racing on the Saturday but we will be offering two day tickets for the price of one! Love your Dubliner's video - I was a great fan and have a good collection of their LPs - good collector's item - any offers ?

[AlbertJ 569]

Good choice of judges albert

 

Thanks Mr Scent - we have taken some stick over judges in the past and while in future years we will of course use a mix of UK and Irish judges I felt this year with the IWTF up and running and the NILRC getting going we should display some confidence in our Irish judges and the two organisations. I hope they get good entries.

[AlbertJ 569]

Can I give you a little background to how the Master Mc Grath and Five Nations Championships came about and our objectives for them.

 

The Master McGrath - 'Stormy Dog' was in the UK and was beaten in a similar speed test against the clock- some would say he won- and suggested something like this here.

 

I have had an interest in Master McGrath since a boy - and have amassed a lot of material on him including an orginal photograph from which I commissioned the painting to launch the race. The phrase from the song ' I wonder why you left home at all..' went through my mind and I thought it a great idea to have such a challenge but to allow a wider range of Irish dogs to compete on home soil against owners of dogs from the UK game enough to run against the best of our dogs. I couldn't really call it anything other than the Master mc Grath.

 

The Five Nations Terrier Championship came about when we were looking for an equivalent competition for terriers and Tom Chalmers came up with the concept of the Five Nations Championships for terriers which he , I and other enthusiasts worked on for the initial year. This was followed by the Five Nations Lurcher Championships.

 

Our objectives in running and at least jointly sponsoring these events was to create opportunities for the owners of the top Irish terrier and lurcher owners to have the opportunity to compete against the best UK dogs without having to travel plus to give Ireland its own prestigious championships to support the existing All Ireland Terrier & Lurcher Championships now coming into their 26th year.

 

The other objectves were :

 

1. To create high profile public events at our Great Game Fairs of Ireland for terrier & lurcher events of an equivalent status to those for any other country sports. I put my hands up - while I had taken a personal interest in the gundogs, angling and clay shooting competitions I had rather left the terrier & lurchers to the organising club. However I took the criticism on board and my colleagues and I have worked hard to give terrier and lurcher owners their rightful status as an important and integral element of the country sports community - we have fully involved them in all aspects of the fairs including in the main PR for the fairs and allocating them prime positions within the fairs - beside the other dog events at Shanes and beside the clays and in the main arena at Birr. I do not think anyone can argue that we have not made great strides in answering the criticism we received including taking advice on judges. Initially we brought in UK judges who did a good job but this year we have taken advice from the IWTF and NILRC to put up Irish judges.

 

2. Other than having prestigious events at our fairs - there are no real financial benefits for us in running these competitions. It is of personal pride to me that we have the best competitions with the best prize funds for angling, gundogs and clay pigeon shooting and now terrier & lurchers at our events. This doesn't happen by accident - we set a prize fund target and if we can't get it sponsored ( now very dificult) we put our hands in our own pockets! Usually we put up at least 60/70% of the prizes ourselves. The organising clubs take all revenue at our fairs from the competitions BUT we were happy to fund the MMGrath and the FN and felt that these prestigious competitions could help other clubs shows by enhancing their attendance through attracting people to compete to qualify. We were particularly keen to allocate qualifiers to established clubs and to those organised for a good charitable cause and to spread the qualifiers in both geographical area and calendar. We greatly welcomed Appleblossom's attempt to put together a calendar for shows much as I do for gundog tests to avoid clashes. Any potential clashes in the gundog world are worked out amicably between the clubs involved and myself. I hope similar good sense prevails within the terrier & lurcher world.

[fakename 6]

id have to give it to you albert,i would say youve done good for the lurcher and terrier end of things at your shows with prizes and such and the judges the last few years have been a good mix.

[AlbertJ 569]

id have to give it to you albert,i would say youve done good for the lurcher and terrier end of things at your shows with prizes and such and the judges the last few years have been a good mix.

 

FN, I have to say my colleagues are the ones that deserve the real thanks as they have supported me on this. While they are all involved in some aspects of country sports I am really the only 'dog' person involved - interested in all sorts of dogs for a lifetime. My colleagues have supported me by allowing me to spend OUR money on terrier & lurchers!

[AlbertJ 569]

Glad to report that Fiona's and Leanne's shows are now on different dates so two chances now to qualify for the Master Mc Grath and Five Nations Championships on the 1st June at Fiona's and 8th June at Leanne's.

 

Also Shane Lee's Show in June has a qualifier for the Five Nations Terrier Championships only. I haven't fallen out with Shane or the Club - I feel they are one of the best clubs around and we look forward to working with them at Birr but the Rosscrea Club has already had qualifiers for the Master McGrath at Birr and a couple of other Shows and Tommy Cullen who is one of our Five Nations judges is due to judge lurchers at Shanes upcoming show.

 

Johnny Dicker's Show next weekend has qualifiers for all three events.

 

Alberj

[winner69 25]

will is there prize money this year

[AlbertJ 569]

will is there prize money this year

Prize money at Shanes & Birr? All will be revealed when the prize fund is complete.