30 Breed Notes – July 2020

Last week I wrote about championship shows, both the lack of and ones being cancelled. A couple of days after I did my notes BUBA announced that they were cancelling their December Ch show and this weekend Bournemouth released the following statement:

‘As we all enter the new normal and come to accept it, the world of dog showing folk need something to look forward to with our fur babies. WE all miss the dog shows, where we see our friends and have their company and the total enjoyment; we all get from a day at a dog show.

So, we at Bournemouth Canine Association decided not to cancel our show when all around us were, and just suspend till a later date. The Kennel Club had suggested no shows should take place until October in one of their press releases. Bournemouth decided to wait to see how things progressed. Then we applied for the 3rd, 4TH and 5th October 2020, and we are very pleased that the Kennel Club granted us a new licence for this date.

All our suppliers have been contacted to see if they would come and offer their normal excellent services for the show. They have confirmed and are all pleased and ready to come to the show and support us and carry out their trades all will be Covid 19 compliant. They will include the Marquee Company, Bannerdown, Touch of Class Catering Trailers, with speciality coffee and a lovely choice of food, the renowned catering in the restaurant tent with their lovely breakfast, lunches and Dorset Cream Teas. The trailer bar and the softie ice cream vans. Our wonderful Vet, reliable Paramedics, The Health and Safety officer and this year his team, Birdbrooks & Our Dogs Banners around the show ground, are all delighted to attend, along with the toilet company, and the PA. There will be many faithful trade stands that you are all used to seeing as well as some new ones. So plenty for you to browse with social distancing. All stands have plans in place to keep you safe.

So far this has been a hard task with many hours of discussion on the way forward in working out what is needed to be done to put this show in place as this will be a first for us, in so many ways as it will be for you when attending, Many of the Officers and Committee will have never had to do anything like this before. This is the first show we have had to reschedule and not an easy task and with contacting judges, stewards and helpers. In all aspects some of our faithful friends are having to shield because of are themselves and family members, but we have had many people contacting us offering their services to assist us with running the show, for which we are grateful.

Our judging panel has had some changes in both CC breed and Non cc breeds, as some have appointments that will now clash will our new date, others have various commitments, some had personal appointments and even judges unable to leave there country. To those of you that are unable to come this year, we hope we will have you company soon. The new panel will all judge in the normal way.

The Show Manager has decided it would be good for you to bring your Gazebos no larger than 10 feet x 10 feet, also small pop up tents and you can erect them in designated areas that will be clearly marked out , and NOT in the grooming rings or around the ring as you will be as to move, there will be plenty of space , to help with your social distancing and grooming. You will need to bring your own chairs to stop cross contamination. There is plenty of room on our 50 acre show site. We ask you to bring your own masks as some judges may on the day want you to wear them. There will be hand sanitising stations around the show ground. We will supply judges, stewards and helpers with masks, gloves and hand sanitisers.

The entries are open on Higham’s Press website and a schedule can be downloaded there. You can either enter online or by paper. Paper entries close on the 1stSeptember and online entries the 8th September 2020. There will be a limited numbers of schedules available from the Secretary, Mrs S Duffin, Foxholes Cottage, Poole Road, Sturminster Marshall, and Dorset, BH21 3RR. Please send a stamped address envelope if you require one.

I hope you will find this information helpful. We must ask you our friends, exhibitors and colleagues in the world of dogs in helping us succeed and putting this dog show on and therefore helping the dog world get back on the road to recovery. For all show’s sake large and small, we ask you to follow the guidelines and practise social distancing at the show. We would like us all to pull together making this show a success and start on the recovery for our dog show world.
The Officers and Committee at Bournemouth look forward to working with you one and all. If you require any more information or have any questions to ask PLEASE contact the Secretary at secretary@bournrmouth-show.org.uk or 01258 857721. I thank you for taking the time to read our post and trust you will all have a successful show with us. Thank you Sally’

Meanwhile, hot off the press, is an update from the NEC, home to LKA in December and Crufts for March 2021

The Government has announced that conferences and exhibitions will be permitted in England from 1st October 2020 & the NEC has confirmed that the NHS Nightingale currently occupying the venue is being decommissioned and will reopen for events on 1 October. In a letter to its clients, the Birmingham venue noted that the field hospital has been in hibernation since May and did not receive a single patient. However, the venue says it will continue to support the NHS with the creation of a small non-Covid standby facility until March 2021, and add that won’t affect the re-opening for event business.

“After an immensely challenging period, this is the news we’ve all been waiting for and I believe it’s the first step for our industry on the path towards recovery. Clearly there will be challenges ahead and we are certainly not out of the woods just yet, but the fact that we can all start to plan with a clear go live date is great news. It means the NEC will be open for business on 1 October and we couldn’t be more excited at the prospect of once again being able to look after you and your events.

We know there’s work to be done to rebuild customer confidence in live events and we’ll be doing everything we possibly can to help you stage successful and safe events. The message from me is that the NEC is open for business from 1 October, so let’s work together and get back to doing what our industry does best – staging great live events.”

Anji Marfleet