Meg breaks Dennis Purdham’s nursery trial duck at Windermere

The Windermere nursery held on Sunday, less than a mile from the coast at Whitbeck, near Millom, Cumbria, had no snow, although the ground was hard with frost. Despite the poor travelling conditions, the trial had an entry of 20 dogs judged by Norman Ireland.

With a fetch of approximately 240 metres (260 yards) the course was set on mostly level ground with some undulations. As the sheep were released from the left, most of the dogs gathered to that side.

Run in packets of four the Swaledale hoggs were quite good to handle over the outfield provided they were worked in a careful but firm manner.

“It was a matter of keeping the right amount of pressure on all the time,” said Mr Ireland, as the sheep could stop and face the dogs.

Clean finish

They were, however, difficult to pen with only one dog, Arthur Temple’s Ruby, finishing clean.

Second to the post, Adam Mawson set the standard gaining 66 of 90 points with Mike. They stood top until, at 13, Arthur Temple and Ruby went ahead on 67.

At 15, Dennis Purdham went to the post with Meg. Running out to the left, Meg had a clean gather and lift. After coming through the first obstacle, her sheep pulled slightly to the left and four marks were deducted from her fetch for deviations.

Over the left-hand drive Meg worked her sheep in a steady controlled manner, keeping a good line over the cross-drive. Seven marks in total were deducted from her driving, with the majority lost over her return to the pen.

Although Meg never allowed her sheep to go round the ungated pen, they tried to break a several times, costing three marks before going in. With 76 points Meg took a clear lead.

With the following run Arthur Temple gained 70 points with Bob to go into second place. At 19, Athol Clark’s Jill was running well but she slipped her sheep at the last obstacle to be the runner-up on 72.

Last to run David Harrison’s Roy earned 62 points to take sixth place. Consequently, Dennis and Meg were the winners with a clear four-point lead.

First season

Dennis competed in the trials for the first time last season, running in the New Handler classes with Meg. They won twice at Windermere and 10 times at North Westmorland, where he took the New Handler Aggregate.

This is his first full season in the nurseries, and he took his first nursery win with Meg at the North Westmorland trial held at Wythop in early December, his second nursery title coming on Sunday.

After changing from dairy to beef and sheep farming more than three years ago, Dennis became interested in trialing. He saw Norman’s Floss working and asked if he could put his name down for a pup when she had a litter. That litter was born at the end of May 2006, sired by Roy Driver’s Joe.

Meg is the first dog Dennis has trained for trialing. He has since brought several young dogs on and topped the selling prices at Skipton dog sale in September with a two-and-a-half-year-old dog called Jim.

“I enjoy trialing. It is a challenge as you never know what will happen which makes it interesting, he said.” He is planning to run Meg in the opens this summer.

The winner of the New Handler class on Sunday was the trial’s host Joe Lowry, running Sky. At Windermere the new handlers do the full course, whereas at North Westmorland they do the outrun, lift and fetch, but only the first leg of the drive before going to the pen.

Running at 14, Joe and Sky had a very good start but lost a number of points over their driving. With three more marks dropped at the pen, they scored 63.

Sky was bred in March 2007 by J. Wilson, Millom, out of Clifton Moll and sired by his Moss. She went to Joe as a pup.

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