Eventually the event passed off very well but....

Never mind Friday 13th the day before, it seemed quite a lot of bad luck had been left over for this day.

The hall opened to exhibitors on time at 9:30am but the warning signs we saw heading south on the M6 (and presumably on several other routes) of the complete closure of the M1 near Chesterfield was an ill omen as two of our judges and several exhibitors were coming through the area.

Our specialist judge, Ann Pickburn, was advised by police that it would take her at least more 3 hours and so was forced to abandon her journey. Susan Crossley was re-deployed from kitchen duty to stand in for her. Our all rounder, Doug Kitchener luckily stayed with family nearby. Our third judge, Carlos Saevich was a victim of an incident on the M42, taking over an hour and a half to travel from the M6/M42 junction to Marston. Luckily he arrived just as we were contemplating proceeding with only two.

Unfortunately, Peter Davies was taken ill at the event before judging began and had to be taken to hospital. After a worrying couple of days for Linda he has now been allowed home. The Club would like to offer all our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Peter and hope to see him at the ringside again soon.

With exhibitors and judges delayed we began judging at about 11:30am, only 30 minutes later than planned and from here on in things went a bit more smoothly.

Full results are posted above but we'd like to offer congratulations to Helen Howard on winning Shih Tzu Club Shih Tzu of the Year 2009 with Ch Tameron Mr Kenzo, Margaret Diffey with Marhilway Double Edged winning Top Intermediate and Jaci Marks with Tansingh Double Jepardy winning the Jospehine Johnson Top Puppy award.