Sponsoring a competition

On one of their many long trips 'Up North' Jenny and Blair Willis were reminiscing about the old Barbour Pairs Knockout competition and what fun it was. They remember how much both they and their dogs enjoyed doing it. It was possible that the dogs had more fun than the humans as they didn’t have the stress of making sure they were at the ring at the right time!  They decided that it would be great to revive a Pairs Knockout competition, albeit with slightly different rules and so the Laser Pairs Knockout came into existence.

Deciding to sponsor a competition is much easier than actual organising it.  Fortunately for us we approached Emma and Nigel Davis of Dashin' Dogs who immediately said we could hold the final at their Summer Show and hold a heat at their Easter Show. Now we were on our way.

The next step was trying to find shows that were willing to hold a heat. This proved more difficult than expected as we wanted to cover as much of the country as possible to give all competitors a chance to compete.  We were approached by a few clubs straight away who wanted to hold a heat, which was great and we are indebted to them for all their help and continuing support.   

The first two heats were held in September 2006 and, by the end of the year, we had another five heats organised, but were struggling to find one more show to hold a heat.  We were in the end saved by Wallingford, who had already agreed to hold a heat, but when the entries for the competition became so large it was decided to split the class into two and have two heats.

We went on to have a fantastic final at Dashin' Dogs Summer Show, once again with many thanks to Emma and Nigel for all their help and support. All the competitors who had qualified for the final turned up, so we had handlers from as far away as Scotland and Isle of Man.

Once the dust had settled we thought we had better get on organising the heats for 2008. We decided that we would encompass the whole of agility and, therefore, would hold heats at all types of agility shows, not just Kennel Club.  We first of all approached the clubs who had kindly held heats in 2007 to see if they were interested in holding another heat. Nearly all the clubs immediately said that they wanted to hold another heat. 

We were then left with just two heats to find shows for. Bearing in mind the need for a good spread over the country we approached Dog Vegas and Scrambles, both of whom very kindly agreed to have a heat.

The Scrambles show is being held under the UK Agility rules and we believe that we are the first sponsor to hold a competition with qualifiers at more than one agility organisations’ shows. It will be interesting to see how competitors react to this. We feel that, as an independent sponsor, it is nice to cover the whole of agility and give all competitors the chance to compete.

The remaining heats for 2008 are as follows:

Qualifiers

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