door Karl DonvilCharleroi 2007, nice result despite hard luck.
Although Charleroi did better the past years they had hard luck this year. France had its big show is Strasbourg and Germany had one of its biggest and most popular shows in the year too, the Dortmund show, all the very same weekend. Both Dortmund and Strasbourg are not that far from Charleroi, Dortmund only 300km and Strasbourg a little over 400km and both shows are much more popular. Dortmund attracts a lot of exhibitors from Holland and Strassbourg does the same with exhibitors from France. And if this wasn’t already enough, the very same weekend there were no less then 16 club shows. The result was that Charleroi lost 100 entries compared to last year, ending up with 1210 dogs to judge. Which is after all and seen the circumstances still a very good result.
In fact, this does not necessarily need to end in a loss of entries if well studied beforehand. If taken care that the groups judged on Saturday are judged in the other shows on Sunday and vice versa, it can even increase the entries. But of course if Dortmund and Strassbourg do this already, then what about Charleroi? This system works only if two shows make agreements, but if there is a 3th show the same weekend, there is a problem. Charleroi used to be held one week earlier and then it would not have had this problem, but that weekend, the first of October, there is always a popular yearly street fair and weekend market and that would affect the public entrance for the show. A very difficult situation.
The show gets more streamlined and compared to previous years the sound system was OK this time. Still the halls are not the most beautiful, the big, but dirty windows allow the sunlight coming in. Especially for the main ring program, it is not easy to follow, blinded by the low sunshine coming in, but this can result in nice photos with pleasant back light.
During the both days, a very well attended international Aglility competition took place in the main ring and in fact, all together, there were over 1500 dogs present. As mentioned already, for the show there were 1210 dogs in competition. The majority were from Belgium (718). France had 316 dogs, which is not bad seen the circumstances. Charleroi was always popular for the French exhibitors and usually a lot of French judges were invited too. Only 69 dogs came from Holland and 58 from Germany, not everyone apparently goes to Dortmund, or perhaps it were exhibitors that were judged in Dortmund on the other day. It is very remarkable that exhibitors from the United Kingdom seem to have found the way to Charleroi as 18 were entered. Also Ireland had a dog in competition. No less then 13 countries had exhibitors here, the furthest away came from as far as Russia(6) and Finland (5). Possibly some of them combined Charleroi with Dortmund or Strasbourg or one of the many clubmatches.
23 Judges were present to bring this show to a good end. 14 Of them were Belgians and in my opinion this is perhaps not the right balance for a good international show with CACIB title. I realize that inviting foreign and special judges is very expensive and thus also risky for the budget, but here they even not represent half of the panel. If we analyze the other shows that invite more foreign judges, then I am absolutely convinced that the show could gain an extra advantage. It was Mr. Igor Selimovic from Croatia who was given the honor to judge the BIS. There was no Best of Day and therefore all Group winners of Saturday needed to come back on Sunday to compete for the title of BIS. Only 4 of them were placed, a good thing as it is not pleasant to end on the 7th, 8th or 9th place. On the 4th place we found the multi-champion
Whippet “Daydream Di Mahana” owned by Delabelle Dominique who is also the breeder. This very same dog will represent Belgium at the Eukanuba World Challenge in Long Beach California. This almost 3 year old bitch was entered in Champions class under the Belgian judge Mr. Jean Brixhe who also judged the Group in the main ring and made him Best of Group. 3th place went to the Lakeland Terrier “Scafell Pike’s Eyeshadow” owned by Beerten-Delarbre (BE), also a bitch. Scafell was entered in Open Class to be judges by Mrs. Ricart-Mas from Spain and was later made Groupwinner by Mrs.Monique Van Brempt from Belgium, one of our allrounders who started her career in Terriers. This dog too was bred by the owner. 2nd Place was for the multi champion Weimaraner “Unity Grey Classics Double Trouble”, a dog entered in Champions Class by its owners Pilatus-Lenaerts. Mr.Theo Leenen made him Best of Breed and as Group judge also Best of Group. For the second time in only 6 weeks, the Bobtail, Eldorado Aus Dem Elbe Urstromtal, entered in Champions Class males by his owner and breeder Mrs. Conny Verelst-Loest, ended Best In Show (see Luxemburg September 2007). He was made Best of Breed by Mr.Igor Selimovic earlier that day. Mr.Tabo from Italy made him groupwinner and when at last he was in competition for Best In Show he again convinced Mr.Igor Selimovic to grant him the title and put him on the highest podium. As this dog is not even two years old we will certainly here more of him. What a splendid start of his career!
I really hope that Charleroi’s fate will take a turn for the better, they deserve a better chance and less reverse and certainly as they were on the right way since a few years.
