It is amazing how life pans out, Joan had always wanted dogs since being very small having had a Wire Haired Fox Terrier as a family dog and then an Irish Setter in her teens, however I hated dogs as a child. This stemmed from being bitten on the achilles tendon by an aunt’s Pekinese when I was very small and the numerous times I was bitten by dogs when delivering papers and milk during my teens. I was sport mad, playing schools football to borough level until I seriously injured my knee when I was sixteen. Although it healed well enough for everyday life it was not reliable for the rigors of football so I thought it was a good idea to get a new interest. A dog was the answer and it would keep my knee exercised. Later, to further my interest I obtained a weekend/holiday job with a local breeder of Golden Retrievers who turned out to be Joan Tudor - Camrose. This was a truly wonderful grounding for me in learning about dogs and I will always be in her debt for the help and encouragement she gave me during my late teenage years. During this time I bred a couple of litters of Goldens and had registered the ROANDEW prefix in 1967, an anagram of the street where I was born - New Road.
After establishing our family in the mid seventies we decided to get a dog, although by this time we had a cosy semi-detached we did not have room for setters or retrievers so having remembered a lovely, soppy english springer at a local kennels we opted to go in that direction. Our original intention was to get a family companion, perhaps one we could show at exemption and open shows. Both of us had dabbled at ‘dog showing’ in our teens, however the interest became a way of life, something never intentioned.
We never imagined that 25 years later we would have had best of breed at Crufts and had two reserve best in show awards at general championship shows, owned 6 show champions, five of which we had bred ourselves. I first awarded tickets in 1990 and have also judged in
Sue & Derek Hales Sheledams Kennel - sheledams@aol.com www.freewebs.com/sheledamsess/
Wendy & Steve Walker Dexbenella Kennel - wendy@dexbenellaess.wanadoo.co.uk www.freewebs.com/dexbenellaess
Trudy & Bill Short Parkmist Kennel - parkmist@aol.com www.freewebs.com/parkmist/
Christine Savell and Gordon Durrant www.freewebs.com/petranellaess/
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