The Spring Field Trials  World Championships for the German Shorthaired Pointers took place from 26th of March till the 28th of March in Vitry le Francais in France.

As the year before Milano di Roccaraso was selected for the Dutch team, together with:

• Dutch Pointing Cheerfull Angel of Coen van Gerven
• Argos van de Stroomdrift of Ton Slager
• Quinten van het Axelse of Jan van Cadsand
• and  Isa van de Slotbosse Heide of Eric Mulders

Peter Eering as Team Captain, Jan van Cadsand with Quinten, Roland with Milano, Ton with Argos, Coen with Angel and Eric with Isa.

Together with my father André and our mate Jon Roberts (owner of Sanjon Kennel in England) we travelled to France, together with the other Dutch lads and teammates. We stayed in a nice hotel near the fields, so traveling of and to the fields were easy and took little time. Ofcourse we had lots of fun and laughs with the entire group and the atmosphere was in a perfect setting. On Thursday evening there was the draw for the groups, and in total 15 countries participated in the event with a total of 45 dogs!

On the first day, Milano ran as 3rd in a group of 10 dogs, judged by Jaques Gouby (France), Peter Eering (Netherlands) and Dieter Wohlert (Germany). Milano started well with a good pace and nice head carriage, he showed excellent ground quartering and made a point on a hare. After the point on the hare he contineued with the nice pace and then came in scent of the partridge, he came on point but the coullee was unfortunately empty.

Milano hunting with style and high head carriage

Two casts later he had them and the partridge flew up after a coullee and the point was born. He contiueud his run without any errors. Because of the empty point and coullee the qualification was a Very Good and at the end of the day it became a 1st Very Good and was the Winner of the Group.

Coullee with Milano                                                                                                                                                                                  1st Very Good as a result

The Fields of Winter Wheeds and Rape were a pleasure to trial in, especially the rape provided enough cover for the partridge to trial on. The circumstances were hard, mostly due to the hard wind and therefore the running partridge wich were hard to block and to point. Most dogs needed some attemps to block the partridge and to score a point, which resulted in lower qualifcations then we normally see during World Championships.

The other dogs in the Dutch Team were unable to score.  In the evening we had a nice meel with the entire squad and had lots of fun! The next day Milano was judged by Giancarlo Passini (Italy), Valimur Sruk (Coatia) and Lemmer (Germany). Unfortunately we had to swap fields so instead of a nice rape field we had a field with low Winter Wheat. Milano started well, again pointed a hare and later on he went out of control wich ment the end of the Trial. The other dutch dogs were again not able to score. Later on the day we were happy to see Gea Dell'Isola of Radames Benetti. Gea hunter extreme well and was a lovely show to watch. Unfortunately in her second run she bumped a pair of partridge.

The final order was:

1. France with 21 points
2. Russia with 13 points
3. Spain with 10 points
4. Belgium with 10 points
5. Netherlands with 5 points
6. Croatia with 5 points
7. San Marino with 2 points
8. Denmark with 2 points

Ultra de la Vallee des Dune of Mr. Viel became the best dog of the Championship with a 2nd Excellent and a 1st Very Good, second became B'Vasco of Team Vessela with a 1st Excellent.

On the Prix d'Excellence Eric Mulders won the group with a 1st Very Good, the other Dutch Dogs were unable to score.

Up to the next championship in our own back yard!