BFA Championships 2024

WOW what a week the champs has been, here is our journey….

The Hatchers travelled to Statfold Country Park on Monday 5th August, where the BFA were holding their Championships.  Upon arriving they set up camp and settled in for the week.  Tina and Julia were heading up the team of Admin.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Tina, Julia and Mary (Brigg) settled down into Admin producing and printing all the paperwork for Thursday Speed Trials and Future Friday.

Wednesday evening saw the majority of the Wash team arriving and setting up their camp.  Tina went over to the main marquee to work with a team handing out paperwork and receiving the majority of it back in.

Thursday saw Wash in speed trails racing for times for 3 teams:

Wash Warriors were up first and set a lovely time of 19.46

Viking Warriors were up second, we had some issues with ball spitting but set a time of 22.63 we knew that if the dogs pulled it out of the back on round robin racing then we would break out.

Aztec Warriors were up last and after setting a great time of 17.97, we gave Eddie the chance to play and try and build some confidence in the ring and qualify for racing in round robin over the weekend.

Friday we had a break from racing, this year we didn’t have any dogs ready to play in future Friday. 

Tina and Julia however were back in Admin producing Divisional Orders and all the paperwork for Saturday and Sunday Round Robin Format, where teams raced it out in tight divisions for their titles…  Once the Divisions were set, the Wash team descended on paperwork duty.  We had a fab production line going, Tina printing paperwork, Julia and Claire checking for spelling errors and anything missing, Tina G, Gem and Jemma sat pulling out the Speed Trial paperwork for each team and transferring dog information onto new C2 paperwork, collating and producing new divisional packs.  We certainly had some fun picking and choosing new names for puppies!!

Saturday Wash Warriors and Viking Warriors were set to battle out their divisions.

Wash Warriors, in typical style couldn’t get our crosses right and lost our first race, we won our second race taking it to 5 heats and had close racing with Barkshire Bandits.  Our last race of the morning was against close friends from Ramsden, again we took this to 5 heats and very close racing.  We were nearly there to win the race, unfortunately Indie fumbled her ball, recovered it well and continued on the course to complete.  The last leg of the race took us neck and neck to the finish line where Ramsden pipped us to the post. 

In the afternoon we were up against Shawcross who so far had won all their races in the morning.  Somehow we managed to push them and won 3 straight legs.  We were out for a few races before our final race took place and whilst sitting around talking and laughing we were keeping an eye on the rest of the racing. 

Ramsden and InnerWolf had broken out in the morning against other teams so we were watching their racing closely.  Ramsden was in before our final race and they were having some tight racing, they only went and broke out a second time, which turned the tables for the whole division, we were sitting at 2 wins before this happened, having them break out meant the race we lost against them turned into a win taking us up to 3 wins. 

Mr Hatcher was sent off in a hurry on his buggy up to admin to get photos of the results sheet, so we could see where this left us in the division.  Sitting working it out in my head we needed to win against InnerWolf in our last race to go joint 1st.  Not saying anything to the team, so we didn’t put each other under pressure, we only went and won 3 straight legs. 

This took us joint 1st with Shawcross and as we beat them, it put us in 1st placing winning Division 18.  This is the first time Wash Warriors have ever won a division as a team at a champs in the 6 years we have been racing together.

Viking Warriors were up next, first race in and although Mabel was ball spitting, we won all 3 heats on re-runs where she held her ball.

Second race in Mabel was substituted for Naya and in the first heat we went and broke out by 0.04 seconds, the remaining 3 heats were slightly challenging but we managed to come out with another win. 

We decided to give nearly 11 year old Charly a break on the next race and we only went and broke out again this time it was 2 seconds faster than the divisional breakout.  This meant we couldn’t come anywhere in the division but we could have some fun with the line ups and improve on the times we set.  We managed to break out again in the third race.

In race 4 we changed the line up and decided to try Naya as last dog crossing into Bonnie, Naya is a very excitable Poodle and has taken on Jack’s traits by barking and lunging at the dog going in, luckily Bonnie is very versatile and really is not bothered at all by this.  The first heat we broke out again, after that Mabel decided she really did not want to hold onto her ball.

Race 5 saw the same line, I believe Naya lost her head on two of the heats within this race because she decided to join Mabel with ball spitting and left her ball at the box.  The second heat we got it together and again broke out for the last time this day.

Sunday dawned bright and early, today it was Aztec’s turn. 

First race in and we were up against Kennet Kites, We put in some lovely times with the dogs and only went and broke out in the second heat with a new time for these dogs of 17.47.  Unfortunately Kennets were just a bit quicker than us and took the race win. 

Second race in was against Doghouse, luckily for us Doghouse were getting lights which mean we could keep our racing clean and we won 3 straight heats.

Our next race was against Monster Mafia and unfortunately we got a couple of lights and lost the race.  Lottie decided she was going to have a funny turn and slowed right down, we still don’t know what happened but after a bit of revving she was right back on track.

Fourth race in was against Wild West Mustangs, Tina had an early with Jessie and lost the first heat, but after that Wild West were getting lights and we kept our racing clean to win this race.

Going into our last race of the day we were against Star Paws who had broken out twice during the day, we only needed to win one heat to win the race.  As we were against a team who had broken out we gave Eddie the opportunity to stretch his legs and have a play and try build even more confidence.

Aztec ended up joint 3rd place with Monster Mafia, as Monsters beat us when we raced against them they took 3rd place and Aztec came 4th, we started out seeded 4th and came home with 4th place.  I’m really please with this team as this is only their second champs and last year for their first champs we had rather a few teething issues.  This team has come on leaps and bounds throughout the year and I’m really pleased with how they held their own.

Every year the BFA ask their members to vote for who they believe has the character ‘Spirit of Flyball Award’  This year out of the nominations the committee received, they could not decided who to give the award to, they had two very strong contenders, so they decided to give it as a joint award. 

The committee informed everyone, the reason the first nominee received the award was because they were always willing to give up their time to help, whether this be around the ring, offering advice, lending equipment and helping train. 

The second nominee had very similar traits, but in addition to this gave up their time to help a team set up their competition, marking out lanes, helping with their running order, judging the majority of the weekend and just being there in case they needed help.  This team at the beginning of the year had lost their team captain very suddenly and left the team very unsure on what they needed to do.

We would like to congratulate a very good friend of ours, Bhav Patel from Molten Magnets who very much deserved the ‘Spirit of Flyball Award’. 

The team are also very proud of our Team Captain, Tina Hatcher, who was also awarded the ‘Spirit of Flyball Award’.