nieuws - 22/08/2010 Mechelen celebrates its 30rd edition - België
door Karl DonvilMechelen celebrates its 30th edition.
With a slight increase and a very nice entry of 1679 Mechelen can look back to a great show. I still remember the days before the club could afford the spacious Neckerhalls and when the show was organized in an auction hall in a village. Now the club is really spoiled with one of the best halls of Belgium with plenty or parking facilities, lots of space inside with large corridors and huge rings.
Not only the halls are almost perfect, but the club too does a splendid job with a good and informative catalog with plenty of warnings and information for the exhibitors and data of all the member breeders/kennels. And if this is not enough, they are also very inventive as the wagons of the cleaning boys were provided with a rotating beacon on a long stick so that from far one could see where the nearest was, a splendid idea! But the club is a proud one too as they were no longer happy with the many dirty podiums available. For the anniversary they wanted a brand new one, one that can serve as an example to other shows. It ended with a strong and stable one, washable and provided with a tasteful logo-sticker and the number of the place. Absolutely marvelous. One small point for improvement was the pile of bags from the sponsor with dogfood for the winning dogs. It would have been perfect if they were not stored behind the podium but a little aside and instead of bags in highly reflective paper a panel with the sponsors logo could be placed. During the day there were several demonstrations to entertain the visitors and for the children there was a bouncer (jumping castle) and fancy make-up.
The 1118 exhibitors and 1679 represented 14 different countries, Belgium on top of course with 942 dogs, then the Netherlands with 332 specimen , France with 234 and Germany with 127 entries. The 23 judges represented 11 nationalities and only 6 were from Belgium, a good ratio for an international title (CACIB). Very nice scores on Saturday were made by Mrs.Hectors Ingrid from Belgium who did shepherds and had 24 Aussies and a total number of 70 dogs. She judged on Saturday only as did Mrs.Pedercini Pia from Italy who ended with 67 dogs in her ring, 25 of them were Dalmatians and 28 Rhodesians. Mr.Cassandra Mattera from France too judged on Saturday only. His 21 Chinese Cresteds helped him to get the nice result of 66 entries. Galofre Moragas is a judge from Spain and on Saturday he thanked his result of 73 dogs to the popular Chihuahuas (51) and Havanese (17). On Sunday he had a total of 41, including the final BIS dog. Worth mentioning is also the entry of French Bulldogs for Mrs.Reinelt-Gebauer Linda from Germany who were with 49 to compete and thus were the second most numerous breed of the show behind the Chihuahua’s .Mr Zidar Miroslav from Slovenia was the most occupied judge of both days. On Saturday he had to deal with most of the Shepherd breeds and ended with 76. On Sunday he had to focus on the biggest part of the Terriers breeds that he shared with his Russian companion Ivanov Alexander who did another part. He had a total entry of 79 that day. The most popular and numerous Terriers were reserved for Lothary Ortlieb from Germany who had 20 Staffords and 38 American Staffordshires in his ring on Sunday, the only day he had to judge. Mrs. Zidar Zeljka had a total number of 105 dogs on both days together. She judged dogs from group five on Saturday and Dachshunds, Pinshers and Schnauzers on Sunday. Mrs.AM Claus-Van Noten judged on Sunday only and also only one breed, the English Bulldogs who numbered 33 in total. Mrs.Ann Woodcock was invited from England to have a look on our 35 Golden Retrievers, her only breed of the show. Mr.Bas Bosh from the Netherlands had 60 dogs on Saturday but had a remarkable score on Sunday with his 26 Bordeaux Dogs and 19 Bullmastiffs that helped him end up with 69 that day.Mr.Nodalli Bruno from Italy judged 61 dogs on Saturday, mainly Poodles all varieties while on Sunday he judged only two popular breeds with a good score, 27 Newfoundlanders and 22 Leonbergers. One judge, Mr.Pinto Teixeira from Portugal, was so far not mentioned as for him the final judgment was reserved. Most of us know Mr.Teixeira for many years as a most experienced ,very gentle and straightforward all round judge. His task was to place the 9 Groupwinners as the winner of the Terrier Group did not stay till the end. He rewarded the Welsh Corgi Pembroke “ Siggen’s Doffen” with the 3rd place. This dog was entered in Champion Class under Mrs. Hectors and won the group under MR.Dupas from France. This Norwegian dog was bred 4 years ago by Mr. Skaggs Karen and is handled and oçwned by Wilberg Rita Tilley. The Dutch bred Clumber Spaniel “Clumburgh Artair” owned by Vanwonterghem Peter was his choice for the second place. He judged the dog himself during the day and again Mr.Dupas was offering his ticket to go to the finals. Artair is 3 years and was entered in Open Class. Black, small and often with a big mouth is not always an advantage in the main ring unless you have an experienced judge who takes time to have a good look and eye for quality. This luck was reserved for little Black Miniature Schnauzer “Harmony des Diables D’ebene”, a breed product of one of the best breeders of this moment, Mr.Colleye Orphal. Mr.Galofre Moragas gave his ticket for the group and Mr.Zidar Miroslav gave the ticket for the finals. With hardly 2 years old and already a champion we will certainly see this dog more often in the future, that seems brighter than ever for this little black devil.
If you plan to come next year to this show, reserve 20 and 21 of august already and have a look on the very good and informative website www.kvsr.be . Notwithstanding the already spacious rings, there is still plenty of space left to welcome easily over 2000 dogs. Take an extra day to visit the old imperial town or stay at least for the city festival “Moon Rock” that always takes place the very same weekend. I guarantee you a fantastic weekend.
