The annual Midsummer Working Test was held on
Saturday 1st July 2006, at Cinder Hill, Horsted Keynes by
kind permission of Rory Clarke, and in conjunction with
the Countryside Alliance.

This annual ‘funday’ is a really popular event and despite the
relentless sunshine and soaring temperatures there were some
74 entries for the main ‘Competition’ – 25 ‘Open’, 35 ‘Novice’
and 14 ‘Pre-Novice’. The Judges for the day were Doug Raven,
Ron Sills, Rodger Ketley, Kelvin Nettleingham and Chris Marshall.

The ‘Competition’ was made up of 5 ‘tests’ – a ‘blind’ in woodland;
a ‘blind’/‘mark’ over a jump; a ‘mark’ over water; steadiness with a
‘mark’ over water and a ‘long mark’. Everyone managed to ‘achieve’
in some way and the Judges were more than willing to offer advice
to the less experienced competitors.

Rory Clarke, the Judges and some of the award winners

Apart from the main ‘Competition’ there were also several
other ‘scurries’ – a ‘Jumping Lane’, ‘Dog and Gun’, ‘Jumping Rabbit’,
‘Double Mark’ and ‘Hunt-Up’. As always these proved not only
to be great fun but also very competitive as points gained here
were added to those for the ‘tests’ resulting in a total for the
Victor Ludorum awards.