STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION

by Thomas Garvie

Now that I have a bit of spare time (which I have very little of normally) I thought I would write a few scribbles down and the weather does not help a lot either as I think summer was very short and has well and truly gone. We must have had our summer the first two weeks in April when it was very warm as there has not been a lot of sunshine since but hopefully we will get plenty of un soon when we go off on holiday to Morocco. It can't come soon enough as both Liz and I need a break from the hectic life on the stables, and having the holiday cottage as well makes free time even more of a luxury. You have to make the most of it while you are still able to enjoy it because we love to spend as much time as we can with our other pets namely the two rescued greyhounds we have which are lots of fun as they are both different in lots of ways but identical in others. The larger one, which Liz named Beauty, is the thief among the two of them as she is large enough to reach any food on the worktops and she quite often helps herself and she follows me very closely as I am always leaving food on the work tops without thinking. As soon as she gets a chance she is off with it. Her recent food taking experience did give her a bit of an upset tummy as she ate almost half a bucket of cooked pet mince, which again I had left out to cool before putting it in the fridge. We cook all their food now, which consists of a combination of fresh home grown vegetables, pasta and either pet mince or sardines or chicken. It takes a lot of time cooking all this fresh food but what a difference it makes to the dogs and the shine and silkiness of their coats makes it worthwhile. Now they both love it and it is far better for them than the processed dried cardboard. It has made a fantastic change to the eating habits of the smaller bitch of the two, which I brought from Scotland with me, and she is named Droopy [honest, that was her name when I got her] because in the past when we tried to feed her the pelleted stuff she would mostly turn her nose up at it and it was a real struggle to keep her weight up. It was Liz's idea to try real food for them and the transformation in Droopy's eating is remarkable as now she loves her food, as the scratch marks on the door will testify to as she cannot get in for her meals quick enough now and there is never a drop left. She really loves carrots as her vegetable portion of the meal and she gets very upset if either of the two other dogs [we have also inherited a Jack Russell bitch named Rosie which her dad kindly left us when he died] try to grab some food Droopy has dropped. Rosie once ended up in Droopy's mouth and she had actually sank her teeth in to Rosie's neck. Ever since then Rosie has become very wary of Droopy and tries to avoid her whenever possible.

The greyhounds love nothing better than being spreadeagled on the sofa upside down and Rosie will try and pick a bit on the sofa as far away from Droopy as she can. Beauty, who is by far the bigger dog, is scared of the other two and she also tries to avoid both the other dogs on the sofa. It is quite funny at times watching them when Droopy just picks her spot and takes it. Even moving them off if she has to and she is continually taking toys off Rosie, not that she plays with them but she just wants to prove she is the pack leader and has what she wants. Droopy is like the Queen and she is always cleaning herself and doing her nails while Beauty uses too much energy for all the washing and pedicures as she would just rather flop down on the sofa and sleep. Beauty can really come to life when she sees a squirrel and Droopy is more a cat "loving" dog as she goes nuts when she sees one and I think this is the only downside to having ex-racing greyhounds as the chasing to kill instinct is bred in to them and they cannot be let off the lead. However, they have the riding school here if they need a run to burn off excess energy. We love taking them on holiday with us as they like to explore new places and they have been to Mull and Cornwall among other places. They were not too keen on the cold nights at Mull and they had to have their pink spotted pyjames on at night to keep them warm. They look quite funny in them, as you can see in the atattched photo. Droopy is the most mischievous of the two, one example being when in the car and driving up to Scotland to visit my mum. I was passing a sandwich over the back to Chrissy [Liz's sister] and Droopy took it out of my hand and I did not know until I went to pass another one to Chrissy when she complained that she never got the first one as the dog ate it. They are both as guilty as each other as they will both take food at any opportunity that arises and with me that is quite often. If anybody is looking for a dog for company then they should consider rescuing a greyhound as they are great pets and in some cases what happens to them when they retire is despicable. Not all cases I hasten to add but a lot of the dogs are killed as they are of no use and there have been horror stories on the news about certain incidents where masses of greyhound bodies have been found. Some even get their ears cut off and tied up so they cannot be traced as the marks in their ears are the only way to trace them. Have a look at this website greyhoundmuses.com and you will see some of the horrible things that are done to these gentle dogs and they would make you cry. I could write forever about our dogs so if you fancy a dog as a pet why not rescue one from many of the places across the country that are full to saturation point with abandoned and recued hounds. One example is Greyhound Rescue West of England but there are many more who need your help in saving these adorable dogs. I dare anybody who has a heart to read and watch the things on greyhoundmuses.com and not shed a tear. I know I certainly did. I think that is enough on greyhounds for the moment but I could write enough stories of the exploits of our two to fill the BHW for months on end

Getting back to racing, our fed was at Frome and 144 members had 2736 birds released at 07-30 in a light south/south west wind and this would certainly give the birds a full day to work home if any go astray. In the top spot was Paul Beck from Longdendale who really dominated the fed with no fewer than 11 birds in the first 14 positions in the fed. He took the first five places with velocities of 1786[2], 1785[3], 1782, 1781 so these were his first seven in the top ten, then E Sellers from Poynton on 1783, N Brian from Alton on 1782 and D Yeoman from Milton on 1779. That's what I like, a nice easy top ten so very well done to Mr Beck on a fantastic race.

The west section had 80 members sending 1491 birds and this was won by D Yeoman. The the north section had 26 members sending 552 birds and this was won by P Beck and the east section had 38 send 693 birds and was won by N Brian.

A few club notes now starting with Ipstones where 9 members sent 168 birds and winning here was R & J Goodwin and Son on 1745, they were also second on 1727, third was J White on 1723 and fourth were Burton & Jones on 1713.Mier now where 9 members sent 122 birds and taking the first four were Hand Brs on 1172 with 2, a cheq hen and a blue hen then they had another 2 on 1771 with again a blue hen and a chequer hen. BlytheBridge now where 3 members sent 81 birds and taking first and second was hard working V/President Geoff Lindopp on 1699 and 1689 and third were R & M Jones on 1678 and fourth was K Pettitt on 1674. Nice to see Roy making the result. Macclesfield now where 10 members sent 207 birds and taking the first four were R & S Geary on 1774 and three on 1669. Their first bird was a Soontjen x Vandenbeele sent sitting and is bred off their good Cherbourg cock. Their second was a Staf Van Reet x Soontjen hen with the dam being the SVR which was from J Allbutt out of his gold medal winner. Third bird was a Soontjen x Rietvink with the Rietvink dam off John Keywood when paired to a Soontjen cock they bred multiple winners and their fourth bird a similar cross with the sire winning five firsts and over £700 in pool and prize money in the NWCC. This race was sponsored by K Moore.
Final club news is from Hayfield IOC where 6 members sent 119 birds and regaining top spot along with second was Chris Mourne on 1703 and 1683 with two young cocks. Climbing back up the table in third spot was JL Gibb on 1664 and dropping back a bit was Mr Nanny Warhurst on 1642. Steve said he was a little bit disappointed with this race after the way his birds had been coming but it is hard to get to the top Steve and it is even harder staying there. We all know it is very hard to beat Chris as this year he has been the most consistent flier in the club. That ends it for another week so if you have anything to send to me my e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call on 01663 73317.