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The 2010 Boykin Spaniel Society National Field Trial
has been set for March 25-28 at The Clinton House, Clinton, South
Carolina. Activities begin on Thursday with the arrival of the judges and
volunteer workers. Handlers arriving Thursday may check in early to beat
the long line on Friday morning. Also, if you have an auction item
to be donated please give it to one of the committee members on Thursday when
you arrive so that it may be cataloged and readied for presentation in the
silent or live auction.
This year Carson Quarles, a BSS director and
long time turkey hunter, has agreed to present a primer on training your Boykin
for turkey hunting. Carson is a very accomplished turkey hunter and avid
supporter of the Boykin Spaniel with which he has hunted for many years. Carson
plans to begin this turkey dog training primer at 2:00PM Thursday so make plans
to be there.
The Boykin Spaniel Foundation (BSF) will once again be
sponsoring free eye C.E.R.F. and Heart clinics on Thursday afternoon. Please
register in advance for these clinics and remember only one Boykin per
household. If you have more than one dog you wish to have evaluated then you
may do so at the cost the BSF pays to the participating vets.
The
annual members meeting and board of directors meeting will begin at 4:00 pm in
main meeting room of the Clinton House. Please try to attend the meeting if
possible as this is a wonderful opportunity to meet your board members and stay
abreast first hand of some of the issues being addressed by the board.
As you can see we have a lot planned for Thursday, but we have one more thing
for your enjoyment. It is our 2nd Annual “Knock the Dust Off” oyster
roast with all proceeds after costs going to the benefit of the Boykin Spaniel
Foundation. Tickets are $30 for all the steamed oysters you can eat! This was a
really fun event last year and I expect it to even be better in 2010.
All tests begin on FRIDAY morning. We will again utilize staggered starting
times for each stake, with Novice beginning at 8:00 am, followed by Puppy, then
Intermediate and finally Open. Please note that the Novice class will be closed
at 70 entries so get your entry forms in early. We will again ask handlers
participating in more than one class to report first to Novice, sign up to run
then move promptly to your next class. We shall have communications between
Marshalls at each stake so that the progress of each stake may be monitored and
handlers notified when they are needed at another stake. Testing for each class
may be stopped at or around 5:30 PM on Friday and will resume first thing
Saturday morning. The reason for this is to give everyone, especially our
judges, ample time to clean up and be ready to relax at the Banquet on Friday
night. Please remember that our judges are not paid and are voluntarily giving
up a long weekend to judge our event. Please let them know how much you
appreciate their involvement.
This will be an action packed weekend with
something for everyone. We will once again have the Duck Dog shootout, hot dog
retrieve, Children’s Handling Stake and of course the ever popular Natural
Ability stake. You may sign up for Natural Ability and the other fun stakes at
the door, however you must pre-register for the Roustabout on Sunday as the
bird order for both the Singles and Doubles flights shall have some margin for
error, but not enough for walk up entries. We also need to know if you would
like to have a Confirmation Class this year to see how your dog measures
against the standard. If so, please let us know in advance so that we may
arrange for a judge. We need at least 20 entries to make this a break even
situation.
Please make sure that you preregister for the banquet so
that we are correct in our food order. We always plan for a few extras but the
more accurate the count the better we all are.
The 2010 Gun of the
Year will be given away on Saturday evening after the awards ceremony. This
year we shall also have a Second Chance drawing for another nice shotgun.
Tickets are available for $60 each and only 300 will be sold. The gun this year
is a 28 gauge side by side manufactured by Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing
Company, the same company that did the truly magnificent 20 gauge side by side
for 2009. Pictures of the 2010 BSS Gun of the Year are posted on the webpage
and also appear in the January 2010 Boykin Spaniel Society Magazine. Please
contact the BSS office or any of your directors to purchase tickets. Last year
they were all sold by the end of the first day of the event. The shotgun raffle
is very important to the overall success of the Nationals so buy your tickets
early! As is always the case, you do not have to be present to win!
We
are recommending the Quality Inn as the official hotel of the field trial. It
is very dog friendly and conveniently located only two miles away from the
Clinton House at exit #52 off of I-26. You may make reservations by calling
864-833-5558 (Mention the Boykin Spaniel Society for a special rate).
Quality Inn Clinton -(864) 833-5558- 12785 Highway 56 N,
Clinton, SC
Directions to the Clinton House may be found on the BSS
web site as well as the Clinton House site at www.ClintonHouse.com. There are a
very limited number of camp sites available at the Clinton House.
Please call Bill Crites at 803-730-7198 if you wish to reserve a spot. These
will be on a first come, first served basis.
We are really looking
forward to seeing old friends and making lots of new friends this year. So,
come, enjoy and good luck to everyone.
Regards,
Jim Latimer
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