Dogpro Plus State Championship Arena 2023

Report by Marianne Rogers
Photos by Simon Wallace

The incredibly hard working Esperence Working Sheepdog Club committee put on yet another arena trial at the lovely Pingelly grounds.

The community of Pingelly is super supportive and this year they supplied yummy refreshments throughout the trial. A very tasty two course State

Dinner was provided at the Pingelly Golf Club on Saturday and made for a great social evening.

October trials mean the weather is heating up and the temperature was slightly hotter each day. By midday the heat ensured the clam-pool was needed by most dogs coming off the grounds.

The sheep for the Novice and Improver were challenging and happy to run despite the heat. Unlike the

sheep at most trials, they were more compliant from later morning.

Novice, with 46 runs, was judged by Tim Foster and there were 13 scores.

Friday afternoon following the first round of Improver, there was a four dog Novice Final followed by an eight dog Improver Final.

Novice Results: Grant Cooke took out the win with Grassvalley Palmer with 2 rounds of 91 for a total of 182, beating first round leader Simon Leaning with Marionvale Woody who score 94,80 for a total of 174 points.

Improver, with 53 runs, was judged by Jenny Nolan and again there were 13 scores. The sheep were even more challenging on the second day despite being from the same mob.

Improver Results: Neil Kristiansen won the Improver with a great come-from-behind score of 97 to add to his first round score of 69 for a total of 166.  Ken Atherton with Ramulam Oak came second, scoring 55, 87 for total 142.

The State Championship was judged by Jenny Atherton on a different mob of sheep. These ewes had recently had their lambs taken off them and they made the earlier mob look fairly easy to manage. They would run but were also happy to take on dogs and drive them back up the ground. From 79 runs (after a few scratchings) there were 30 scores. There were a number of sad stories on runs that ended badly after having had a promising start.

Worthy of special mention was Rose Cassidy, a relative newbie in trialling, placing in the Championship with Nolan’s Shana.

Also very commendable was the effort by Tanya de Bijl who works full-time and can only attend trials on the weekend. Tanya brought four dogs to the trial and qualified for the Championship final with all four!

Open Results: Peter Gorman took out the Championship with Pendalup steel scoring 82 and 87 for 169, beating his own dog Pendalup Lucy into second place scoring 72 and 66 for 138.
Rose Cassidy placed third with Nolans Shana 70 and 61 for 131 points

Our WA patron, Tony Boyle awarded special prizes to Simon Wallace with O’Kanes Susie Q in Novice, Sue Doherty with Karrabar Cobba in Improver and Peter Doherty with Ramulam Cork in the Championship.

The awards were for good work as judged by the respective judges. What a great way to celebrate achievement by workers who are not yet the trial winners but are showing their potential.

Despite the heat that reached unpleasant levels, triallers had a good time and the ice cream van that turned up tempted many and did great business. Pack up was achieved efficiently and presentations of State trophies under the shady trees finished early enough for most to head home Sunday.

Congratulations to Peter Gorman, State Champion 2023.

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Novice
Judged by Tim Foster

	Handler	Dog	Round  1	Round 2	Total
1	Grant Cooke	Grassvalley Palmer	91	91	182
2	Simon Leaning	Marionvale Woody (K)	94	80	174
3	Peter Doherty	Ramulam Sixpence (K)	83	64	147
4	Marianne Rogers	Marionvale Aykeira	81	Ret	81
5	Steve Wallace	Rocky Roxie	79	–	79
=6	Brett Smith	Roseana Doug	77	–	77
=6	Tara Herbert	Marionvale Morton	77	–	77
=8	Per Ostberg	Karridowns Zoftie	67	–	67
=8	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Wilson	67	–	67
10	Jenny Nolan	Nolans Jasper	63	–	63

Improver
Judged by Jenny Nolan

	Handler	Dog	Round 1	Round 2	Total
1	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Sir Ben	69	97	166
2	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Oak (K)	55	87	142
3	Steve Wallace	Rocky Roxie	81	59	140
4	Rose Cassidy	Badgingarra Zoe	50	65	115
5	Neil Kristiansen	Pendalup Indigo	51	47	98
6	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Prickles (K)	46	40	86
7	Brad Rose	Bellview Flier	60	14	74
8	Per Ostberg	Karridowns Zoftie	46	26	72
9	Per Ostberg	Bellview Lexie	43	–	43
=10	Nick Ford	Dryandra Thunderstruck	30	–	30
=10	Simon Wallace	Max	30	–	30

Open
Judged by Jenny Atherton

	Handler	Dog	Round 1	Round 2	Total
1	Peter Gorman	Pendalup Steel	82	87	169
2	Peter Gorman	Pendalup Lucy	72	66	138
3	Rose Cassidy	Nolans Shana	70	61	131
4	Tanya deBijl	Boylee Scout	75	49	124
5	Simon Leaning	Yarrabee Jack (K)	70	53	123
6	Tanya deBijl	Ramulan Secret (K)	72	43	115
=7	Ivan Solomon	Rocky Fran	84	X	84
=7	Grant Cooke	Grassvalley Theo	84	DQ	84
9	Tanya deBijl	Jarrah (K)	80	LS	80
10	Grant Cooke	Grassvalley Bluey	77	X	77
11	Tanya deBijl	Daleview Pearl (K)	74	X	74
12	Rod Forsyth	Grassvalley Hazel	71	R	71

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Novice Finalists

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Improver Finalists

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Open Finalists

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