So it’s a wrap for our ESS Club shows for 2024 and it seems such a long time until our next one in May 2025. This will be our Championship show and again held in partnership with National Dog show on 9th May. We are delighted that the judge will be Linda Lillie (Freeway) who has kindly agreed to come out of semi-retirement from judging to do the honour of officiating at our 2025 Championship show. Linda, whilst being still very active in our breed, hasn’t judge at CC level for a few years and we are grateful that she will stand in the centre for the English Springer Spaniel Club.

Any present or past secretaries will know what I’m talking about when I say about the effort that goes into organising a show of any type for any kind of club. We are usually those people who look calm and cool but like the graceful swan on the surface, but we are paddling like crazy underneath the water level. I couldn’t do it without the support of my fellow officers and committee.

One of the beauties of running shows in partnership is that we don’t have the stress of certain things on the day like ring set up, catering worries or putting out signage etc. we are lucky with the venues we use that both societies are wonderful to deal with and nothing is ever too much trouble, and again, we are grateful for the support we get from them.

So whilst our shows for the year are over, our activities are not and we are delighted to be able to announce a further two BAD/MCE online assessment evenings which will be run on 4th September 2024 and 4th December 2024. This is a requirement for any upcoming judges. Please email me to request further details or to book your place. We limit places so that everyone has an opportunity to ask questions and fully participate in the discussions. We find that when there are too many people, it becomes a little less interactive and we like people to feel they can participate fully. My email is holtkath@gmail.com so please get in contact if you are interested.