Ireland Shanes Castle Game Fair A Huge Success

[AlbertJ 569]

Well the Shanes Castle Fair is over with record crowds of countrysports enthusiasts on both days. Great gundog events with a new cocker event and I personally was delighted that the individual international retriever event was won by a golden retriever. The clayshooting and angling competitions too were excellent.

 

Now this is supposed to be a Game Fair thread but do you see any examples of poor sportmanship on here from gundog enthusiasts, shooters and anglers? They too compete for good prizes and a large number of them are personal friends but they accept the judges decisions with grace and no rancour and of course no allegations of 'fixing'. Any disputes are settled within the rules on the field and not afterwards on social media.

 

Moving on to the terrier and lurchers.

 

Firstly I understand that there was a person selling dogs in poor condition I give fair warning that this individual or indeed anyone attempting to sell dogs or pups at Birr will be removed by the garda.

 

But apart from this and silly troll allegations being made before and after the event the racing and show went smoothly. We had three excellent show judges for the ALL IRELAND SHOWING CHAMPIONSHIPS and several competitors from the UK. Moving on to the Five Nations Championships as reported elsewhere we had three excellent judges for the Terrier and Whippet Championships and the results were well received. Unfortunately we had the usual poor sportmanship from the terrier and lurcher trolls including the ridiculous allegations that the competitions were fixed or that they could forecast who would win.

 

Now any sensible person should ask the simple question: Is it more likely that our team would fix any result by going through a charade of bringing in three respected judges and telling them who to pick OR is is more likely that the trolls are poor sportsmen who would love to win but know they don't have good enough dogs to compete fairly so they try to ruin the win for the person with the winning dog?

 

Moving on to the racing many new All Ireland Champions were crowned and the highlight race the Master McGrath was one of the most exciting I have seen in years with three dogs in a blanket finish and the other two close up. Nicky Smith's Scooby came through on the line to win - after being runner up for two years previously he probably thought it was his turn! The Smiths were delighted and then made the sporting gesture which has resonated through the countrysports world outside of terrier and lurchers by donating the £250 winning cheque to a charity of my choice. Our spaniel director Ken Lindsay usually runs an event for a cancer charity in one of the gundog events and this year it was the cockers and the charity the NI Hospice. The entry fees for this are going to the charity and inspired by Nicky's gesture the winners gave their £20 prize money back and finally the Captain of the ROI Spaniel team Fintan Kelly gave his team expenses cheque of £200 back for the charity so quite a handsome cheque will go to a good cause. This sportmanship across the sports is what I want to see at our fairs - well done team Smith , Ken Lindsay, Cocker winners and Fintan Kelly.

Edited June 27, 2017 by AlbertJ