Monday 17th November - Travel Home Day and Celebratory Meal!!!

The journey started early - well after a hearty breakfast!  The Team said Goodbye to each other and then set off on the long drive to Calais.  

Photo from Lorraine Rohland travelling with Christina

 Rain, sun, wind - not the best of driving conditions but with three drivers and 2 hour sessions the bus carrying the majority of the Team set off.

This was closely followed by Christina and then Lucy and Rob Creek.  They had booked Eurotunnel times pretty close together knowing that if they arrived anything under two hours early there was a chance of catching an earlier shuttle if there was space for their vehicles.

At Eurotunnel the Top Lodge Bus passengers met with Rob and Lucy who had made good time in the drive from Stuttgart.

Into Passport Control where the dogs were scanned
and the microchip numbers checked against each passport.   

All the paperwork in order and time for
Denby, Amber and Spice to pose for a photo!

Closely followed by Tedi, Dewy, Hamish, Nala and Maia.

Maia ready to board!

Happy Lucy as her Pet Passports have been accepted

Teasel and Skiffle ready to board.

Nala ready to board.

Many many thanks to Eurotunnel for supporting HTM Team GBR on this trip
- enabling the dogs to travel on the shuttle.

Back home late at night but already great reminders of the competition.
This is a short video featured on German TV 

The Team met the following Sunday for a Celebratory meal - unfortunately Carol Mortimer, Allan Eves and Dylan couldn't make the drive but a toast to Louth & District Dog Club was made during the meal.

Ready to order!!!

Table for 16 please!!!

Lovely area prebooked for the Team and supporters

 

Denby's menu!!!!!!  :-)

The HTM TEAM GBR
Nicci Hindson, Kath Hardman, Helen Dennis and Lucy Creek

THE FREESTYLE TEAM GBR
Nicci Hindson, Kath Hardman, Lucy Creek, Lesley Neville and Christina Oxtoby

The Full HTM TEAM GBR
Karen Sykes (HTM Team Captain), Nicci HIndson, Kath Hardman (Team Manager in Germany), Lucy Creek, Lesley Neville (FS Team Captain), Christina Oxtoby and Helen Dennis

Supporters - David Hardman, Rob Creek, Allan Brown, Lorraine Rohland, Penny Hudson and Roger Neville

Thanks David Oxtoby for this super photo.

Thanks once again to our Sponsors: Eurotunnel, CSJ Dog Foods, Directline, Canine Freestyle GB and Louth & District Dog Club.  Thanks to Crazydogs for the uniforms and to everyone who helped raise the funds needed for the entries, accommodation and travel.  The team is very grateful.

Teasel cosy in her new bed brought home from Germany
Night Night

Sunday 16th November - Freestyle Day

Another early start for the Team - thankfully the Hotel Restaurant started serving at 06:30! A hasty breakfast eaten and the Team were off on their short journey to the OEC Venue for the Freestyle Championships.

The Venue - photo Lucy Creek

There were 14 countries competing in this Championship as follows: Germany, Belgium, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Italy, Sweden and Austria. with 49 competitors.
Again everyone had been notified of their running orders down to the time to be ready for the Warm Up Ring to the time to make their way to the Arena Entrance to the performance time. This helped immensely with having 4 dogs competing in the event (plus two demonstrations to be done by GBR dogs) and as the draw had been made in country order first - there was plenty of time for each member of the team to support and help prepare the next GBR Competitor.
The draw received was as follows:
10:15   Number 12  Lucy and Teasel
11:59   Number 25  Kath and Spice
13:58   Number 37  Nicci and Nala
15:26   Number 48  Christina and Eze.   Unfortunately Eze scuffed a pad sometime Friday and the Team all hoped that it would be good to compete, but Christina realised it was not healed enough and made the tough decision to withdraw from competition which meant the reserves for Freestyle, Lucy and Skiffle would compete in their place.
Lucy was to have taken part in a demo during the lunch break so the organisers were immediately notified Saturday evening of the change in Team for Great Britain.

This is Peter - he was asked to video a flavour 
of the competition for one of Team GBR Sponsors CSJ.

First to compete for Team GBR - Lucy with Teasel

Teasel jumping as high as possible!

Kath with Spice

Spice so keen to run fast!!!!!!!!!! Finishing in 26th place.

The State Vet - Photo by Helen Dennis

Straight after Spice had competed, the State Vet arrived to administer the worming tablets for each dog travelling back to Great Britain the following day.  Microchips scanned and checked against each Pet Passport, worming tablet given and the necessary notes with stamps made into the correct page!  Phew - all done and ready to enter GB any time on Monday from 13:00.  Sorted!

Nicci with Nala

Ah - don't cry - all going well ;-) Finishing in 16th place.

Lucy with Skiffle this time!  

Special lighting effects added to the drama!!
Finishing in 25th place

A chance for the Team to watch the final routines.
 It was certainly busy!

Lesley with Dewy

 Demo time after the competition.

The FS Team - placed 8th

The Judges - Freestyle Day

Lucy with a hiding Teasel!

A happy Nicci and Nala - 16th place

Smiling Lucy with Skiffle in 25th place

Kath with Spice in 26th place

The Individual FS Winner Sandra Roth from Germany

The Team Winners - RUSSIA

Sadly, the Championships for 2014 were over - the competition was a great success for the organisers and was certainly a success with all the handlers. 
Well Done to Carmen Schmidt  and all the Team of helpers and stewards.  You all made the Championship a very happy affair for all attending.

Team GBR had competed well, enjoyed their experience, had been proud and honoured to be there and now looked forward to their evening meal with fellow team members and the journey home on Monday.

Saturday 15th November - Heelwork To Music Day

The Championship opened at 08:15am so unfortunately the team once again had to be up really early to reach the venue in good time. Each handler had a specific time in the warm up ring - then a specified time for their routine - this was organisation at its very best!  Stewards were collecting handlers for their warm up time and informing them when to set off for the actual competition ring - a choice of stairs or lift and the route was cleared by marshals.  Perfect!

Good Luck wishes  from the other competitors!

There were 15  Countries entered - with 43 entries from Italy, Japan, Denmark, Russia, Sweden, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, Finland and Germany.  The draws had been made about 3 weeks prior to the competition - drawing countries first and then a random draw of each handler per country. This worked really well as the Team GBR received their running orders as follows:
09:32   Number   8  Lucy and Skiffle
11:32   Number 19  Kath and Denby
13:24   Number 30  Kath and Amber
14:44   Number 40  Helen and Maia  
This gave time for each competitor to be supported and cheered on by fellow team mates!

Lucy and Skiffle

Super - fun routine!   Very well executed! Their score gave them 3rd Place!!

Denby ready for the start of his music

And the end pose!!

Kath with Amber

Concentration needed!!!  And finished in 7th Place

Helen and Maia - setting a good pace

Great footwork!  And finishing in 16th place

The HTM Team GBR worked really well and their combined scores gave them a well deserved 2nd place in the Team Championship!   WELL DONE HTM TEAM GBR!

The HTM Team GBR - Lucy Creek, Kath Hardman and Helen Dennis
led by Team Captain Karen Sykes - entered the Arena

 

All the HTM Teams were invited back into the Arena for the announcement of the Top Ten Finalists for the Individual Championship.  They would have to repeat their routines and the new score would be added to the earlier score for their final placings.

Nicci and Nala
HTM Team Reserves were given the opportunity to perform
their super routine and entertained the audience during the break

They worked really well giving a great performance

The Individual Final with Lucy and Skiffle first in for HTM Team GBR

Another great performance!

Followed later by Kath with Amber

Kath was pleased how well Amber worked for a second time.

The Judges : Katharina Henf (Germany) Nóra Karlyik (Hungary)
 Esther Niemeijer (The Netherlands) Heather Smith (Scotland) Attila Szukalek (England)

Kath with Amber finished in 9th Place

Lucy and Skiffle finished in 4th Place!!!

A very proud HTM TEAM GBR 

The HTM Team Trophy

The end of HTM Day with a parade around the ring.

HTM Team Winners Russia - HTM Team GBR Second Place and Belgium Third Place.