The Club's historic Field Trial in December  was the subject of an article by Nick Ridley in the March 2010 issue of Sporting Shooter magazine, which is in good newsagents now. As Nick is the UK's foremost canine photographer, as well as the Sporting Shooter's gundog editor there is no surprise that the article was accompanied by some great photos. This is the second time in just over two years that Nick has published articles relating to the SIWSC and Irish Water Spaniels. In the January 2008 issue he published a nice article on a team of four IWS on picking up duty at Chillington Hall, near Wolverhampton. 
See Nick Ridley's Field Trial Photographs

For the first time in 99 years a Club called The Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club has held a Field Trial. The Club is very proud to announce that after more than 6 years of hard work, first to obtain recognition by the Kennel Club as a Breed Club and then almost without precedent, obtaining permission to hold a Field Trial within 5 years of gaining KC recognition, an 11 dog novice retriever stake was held on Friday 18^th December 2009 at Chillington Hall near Wolverhampton.

The trial, held with the very generous permission of IWS owners John and Crescent Giffard, included two Irish Water Spaniels, father and son Paddy (Radicott Waterbug) and Doyle (Kirkmarsh Mr Doyle of Hiberna) handled by Dave Gresty and Ian Probert respectively. Paddy, at nine and a half years and in his first ever Field Trial, was by far the oldest competitor, but certainly didn’t let his age show.

Two of the Judges, Terry Dukes and Ged Leeson had, along with a number of other Kennel Club panel Judges, provided considerable support for The Club in its application to hold Field Trials after seeing the organisation of The Club at close quarters. Consequently the Club was delighted that they accepted an invitation to judge the trial.

Up for grabs was the brand new “My Way” bronze trophy, presented by Committee member Jill Taft in memory of her late husband and Kennel Club A panel Judge, Pat. It was he who spotted something that he really liked in the IWS and set about helping the Club to improve the performance of its members’ dogs, something which he certainly managed to do, leading by example with his own IWS, Ross.
Unfortunately tho’ there was no winner in the trial with the only awards being given were  certificates of merit to Bill Williams, in his first trial, with his very unusual black and tan labrador and Mrs J Lunt’s Golden Retriever bitch.

Today in Coventry & District Gundog Society's any variety, all aged open cold game working test, IWS Kirkmarsh Mr Doyle of Hiberna (Doyle) came second out of a field of 26 dogs.
Owned, trained & handled by Ian Probert, Doyle beat a field of 3 Flat Coats, 1 Goldie and 20 of the 21 Labradors for his second place.
A few years ago Doyle won a novice any variety working test by beating a field of 20 Labradors and is currently the only IWS competing regularly in UK field trials against Labradors.
Doyle's pedigree is full of competent working Irish water spaniels including a number that qualified for the Irish retriever championship back in the 1980s, including Eddie Lennon's Irish Field Trial Champion Cruiscin of Lisnabrogue.
Congratulations to Ian and Doyle.

Ian Probert and Doyle on picking up duty at Chillington Hall, Wolverhampton in 2007.
Photo: copyright Nick Ridley

A lovely weekend was had by the more than 30 people who attended the Club's training weekend on 29 and 30 August. This was generously arranged by John and Di Rolfe.
There were a number of new faces who were made to feel extremely welcome and it was good to see a lot of young IWS in attendance. In addition, a number of old faces turned out which helped to make for a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Training consisted of dummy work, including water work and also an introduction to cold game.
Apart from the training itself, highlight of the weekend had to be the spread put on by Di on the Saturday evening - absolutely nobody went hungry.

John and Di's back garden on the Saturday evening.

Once again the SIWSC was at the CLA gamefair at magnificent Belvoir Castle in July and once again we did a demonstration on each of the three days in the working gundog ring.
The demonstration centred on training an IWS for the field and used puppies, youngsters and experienced old hands to demonstrate the various stages.
In addition, Club members manned the Club stand in the gun dog pavillion on each of the three days of the fair and participated in the parades of gundogs.
Over the course of the weekend approximately 30 IWS were in attendance and members from as far afield as Cornwall participated.
Again, many thanks to the many members and their dogs who helped make this a real success.

11 months old Ciara (Fendrake Meagan's Girl) being walked to heel as part of the demonstration.

There was another successful weekend of gun dog working tests at Chillington Hall in July, courtesy of Club members, John & Crescent Giffard.
The social highlight of course, was the hog roast on the Saturday night.
It was very encouraging to see new and nearly new faces and their dogs competing.
Visitors came from as far afield as the United States, Sweden and Austria and we had one dog over from The Netherlands competing.
Nick Ridley was in attendance and took some magnificent photos of the water test which can be seen on his web site.
To view click here

Spancilhill Kate at Kirkmarsh (Katie) in the 6-12 months puppy class in the water test.
Photo: Copyright Nick Ridley.