Hawcroft Gundog's News

Dovescar Demon made up to Ftch.

Katie was made up to Ftch by winning two consecutive Open stakes. The first was the UGBA followed by the Kintbury and District within a week. Both trials were won on ice.

Ftch Dovescar Demon and her litter sister ran in the 2012 Cocker Championship. Katie is sired by our Ftch Timsgarry Barlow.

Lovelight Garnet Glow of Rinagree wins Essex open trial.

Under judges Steve Bolton and Steve Bates, Lovelight Garnet Glow of Rinagree ran a super trial on one of the best trial grounds in the UK. Consistant ground and game for all competitors and after a three dog run off she was awarded first place and qualified for the 2012 Cocker Championship. Again sired by our Ftch Timsgarry Barlow.

Cheweky Safrane of Timsgarry wins Cocker Club novice trial.

Held at Bowhill in the Boarders, Teddy won the Novice stake held on super ground with lots of pheasants and showed his abilty to hunt hard and mark well. He has also gained a 2nd, 4th and COM in open stakes since. At the Open stake on the same ground, Lovelight Garnet Glow of Rinagree (see above) was placed 2nd in her first Open.

Kennel Club Open Spaniel test 2011.

On Sunday 5th June Simon competed with Ftch Randalyn Black Knight at Chatsworth and was placed 4th overall and top Cocker for the second year running. Competing against mostly Springers and under Judges Malcolm Taylor and Victor McDevitt, Jack made it through to the top 8 dogs  and showed his ability as an all round hunter and retriever. This was Simon's 10th year running in this competition and has either won or been placed every year and has also won the best Cocker trophy 8 times.

Success at the England Team selection for the 7th consecutive year.

On April 23rd at the Drakeshead Kennels, Simon was selected for the England Gundog team to compete at this years CLA International in July. Under judges Mark Clifford, Paul Dyson and the watchful eye of team captain John Halstead, on a teasting course against predominatley Springers, Simon secured his place with Jack (FTCH Randalyn Black Knight). This will be Jacks 3rd year in the England team following in the footsteps of his sire FTCH Timsgarry Simpson. Yet again he is the only Cocker in the team.

FTCH Sandford Black Mamba passes away.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tinka. Due to old age and after a long and successful life he passed away at 4.30pm on 27th January 2011.

Mamba was Simon's first Ftch Cocker and in his day set the standard and helped improve the ability of the modern day working Cocker. Many of his off spring have gone on to win trials and make up to Ftch`s and from him Simon has produced his highly successful Timsgarry line. He has certainly left his mark on the Cocker world and much of his line can be seen in most pedigrees today and will be remembered for producing very kind, handleable and trainable gundogs.

FTCH Sandford Black Mamba 1997-2011

Selrach Daisy wins UGBA open Cocker stake and then gains 3rd place in 2011 Cocker Championship.

In only her second open trial, Selrach Daisy or Grace as she is known, qualifies for this years championship. On 3rd December in very wintry conditions, Simon won the UGBA open stake under Judges Jon Bailey and Roy Ellershaw. There was plenty of game for all dogs to show themselves and after a run off for 1st place, Grace won, this being only her second trial this season. On January 20th and 21st at this seasons Cocker Championship, Simon handled Grace to third place after an exciting two days trialling. On her second run imparticular she showed good hunting with drive and first class retriving ability. She is another bitch we have trained and competed with for one of our clients.

Cheweky Twiggy made up to FTCH

On November 3rd, Simon ran Twiggy at the North Western Counties Field Trial Association's Open Cocker stake and won on ice making her up to FTCH.Under judges Malcolm Taylor and Ben Randle,Twiggy put together two excellent runs showing pace in her hunting, marking and handling ability particularly in the presence of a lot of game. Twiggy who is sired by our FTCH Timsgarry Barlow (see dogs at stud page) came first while another Barlow sired bitch was second and another bitch sired by our FTCH Sandford Black Mamba came fourth. In total 10 awards were made on the day indicating the quality of the trial. Twiggy has now qualified for this seasons Cocker Championship.

Cleeburf Bramble made up to FTCH in four trials but is unlucky at the Championship.

After winning his first trial with Bowdie on the last day of the2009/10 season, Simon carried on with his success and ran him in 3 open trials and won 2 of them making Bowdie to FTCH. His first open win was on Friday 19th November, where he won a two dog run off for first place. He repeated his success on Monday 22nd November again winning after a two dog run off. Making a dog to FTCH in only 4 trials is the quickest Simon has ever done so far. Bowdie is Simon's tenth FTCH and has now qualified for the ESS Championship in January 2011. At the ESS Championship on January 13/14/15th Bowdie had two good runs but was unable to get a contact flush on either due to the game running on head through lack of holding cover after 5 weeks of lying snow. He showed excellent retrieving ability, drive and stamina as on his second run he was kept down for 50 minutes but was unable to get a flush and without one was unable to feature in the awards.Full details of his pedigree can be found on our Dogs at Stud page.

FTCH Randalyn Black Knight wins and Qualifies for 2011 Championship at first trial of the season.

After the recent success at the CLA International (see below) Simon and Black Knight competed in their first trial at Barningham North Yorkshire in the Yorkshire Gundog Clubs Open Cocker Stake. With a good number of rabbits for all competitors FTCH Randalyn Black Knight won on ice under judges Ray Pluncket and Martin Smee, qualifying him for the 2011 Cocker Championship for the third successive year.

CLA International Test July 2010.

At the CLA Gamefair at Ragley  in July, the England Gundog Team put on a strong performance to take first place overall. The spaniels were judged by David Pope and Derek Wier on a course which had plenty of cover and  was interesting and testing for the dogs and handlers. Simon with Black Knight scored the highest mark out of the England spaniels and scored well bring only 1 point behind the top spaniel overall.

Kennel Club Test June 6th, Chatsworth, Derbyshire.

In June 2010 Simon ran both FTCH Randalyn Black Knight and FTW Cleeburf Bramble in this years Kennel Club Open Spaniel Test at the Chatsworth Estate. After getting both dogs through at the lunch time cut off, Black Knight won overall against some very good Springer's and scored 50 out of 50 for hunting. Bramble was third and  was unfortunate not to get second but was not given a good enough opportunity to mark a difficult retrieve.

England Gundog Team selection, 24/04/2010 and CLA International.

For the 6th consecutive year, Simon has been selected for the 2010 England Gundog Team and is to compete at the CLA Game Fair at Ragley this July.

Again at the Drakeshead Kennels, home of team captain John Halstead, Simon along with a number of other handlers were put through their paces under the watchful eye of the captain and A panel judges, Keith Carter and Steve Bolton. A testing course was put on which caught most people out at some point but showed both handler and dogs ability under pressure. Again this year we ran FTCH  Randalyn Black Knight, who was selected last year and was the top scoring spaniel from the England Team at Belvoir.Following in his fathers footsteps (FTCH Timsgarry Simpson) Jack performed well to gain his place in the team for the second time. The other team members are John Bailey, Aubrey Ladyman, Wayne Grieg,Gary Smith and reserve Alex Badger. All agreed this is a very strong team and have the continued support and sponsorship of Roger Skinners Ltd. Yet again we were the only handler with Cockers at the selection and as for the last 6 years have got a Cocker into the team.

Diploma at 2010 Cocker Championship.

After making up Randalyn Black Knight to FTCH in October 2009, Simon successfully ran him in the 2010 Cocker Championship and gained a Diploma after a testing competition where the quality of shooting made it extremely difficult for many handlers and dogs.

2008 and 2009 Danish Championship winners are sired by our FTCH Timsgarry Barlow.

For the second year in succession the Danish Championship has been won by an offspring of our FTCH Timsgarry Barlow. Last year, Cundriebrook Damson followed in her fathers footsteps by winning a championship stake at less than 2 years old. She was supplied by us to her owner Ulrik Hansen who made a great job of training her with some help and advice from us and after winning his and hers very first field trial went on to win the Danish Championship in December 2008. This bitch was again produced from a mating by Ftch Timsgarry Barlow to a bitch sired by our Ftch Sandford Black Mamba.

FTCH Timsgarry Simpson gets Diploma and is the sire of the winning bitch at 2009 Cocker Championship.

The 2009 Cocker Championship was held at The Shadwell Estate near Thetford on the 14th and 15th January. 29 dogs qualified and 27 ran. After a cold and frosty start to day one, game was there for all the dogs but often they had to work hard for it and all produced and showed their ability. Our Ftch Timsgarry Simpson who was competing in his 4th championship had 3 of his off spring running too. Ross showed himself well on both runs but was never in a position to do better as the opportunities didn't come his way. He handled all his situations well and made good of a strong running hen which was eventually picked out of piece of cover which held two Woodcock . We also ran a son of Simpson`s, Randalyn Black Knight, who we have been running this season for his owner/breeder Lyn Randall. He had a testing first run on day one but then moved slightly on a hard flush on his second run and was eliminated. The eventual winner was Randalyn Black Jazz, handled for its owners by Nick Gregory.This bitch was sired by our Ftch Timsgarry Simpson out of a bitch by our Ftch Sandford Black Mamba. Ross gained a Diploma for his work in the Championship which pleased us as he has not had much luck in this event in previous years.

Hawcroft Gundogs Cocker Spaniel Training Series.

In association with Paul French Videos

We have produced a series of three training films devoted to the training of working cocker spaniels. We show the good ones and the bad ones,how to make it fun for both dog and handler and give tips on how to get the best out of these terrific little dogs.

FILM 1 - Covers all the early requirements from selecting the right pup, through to bringing it up and stimulating the dogs natural ability as well as instilling early lessons on retrieving hunting and other puppy training.

FILM 2 -This second film is the important part of training, covering the basic lessons through steadiness, directions, hunting commands, stop whistle, introduction to shot, blind retrieves and much more.

FILM 3 - Shows what stage you should be at before introduction to game. In detail, we cover game steadiness on both fur and feather and show how to progress in to the shooting field successfully. Includes footage of working in a rabbit pen and actual rabbit and pheasant shooting over cockers.

IN TOTAL AROUND 5 HOURS OF FOOTAGE ON DVD

• Film 1 £32.95
• Film 2 (2 disc set) £49.95
• Film 3 £32.95
• Box set of Films 1, 2, & 3 (4 discs) £99.95
• Postage to UK £1.50 per item
• Postage overseas £2.25 per item
• Any orders over £90.00 postage will be free for both UK and overseas

To purchase please call Hawcroft Gundogs to arrange delivery by return after payment.

FTCH Timsgarry Simpson (Ross) is selected for the England Gundog Team for the third year in row.

At the end of April 2008 Simon along with Ross attended the England Spaniel Team selection at Drakeshead Kennels with the England Captain John Halstead. Against 24 ESS and 2 other Cockers, Ross was selected for the team of 5 with one reserve to compete at the CLA at Blenheim this summer. Although there was some unnecessary comments and reaction to this years team, mainly from those who are not and never will be capable of achieving the standard required or understand the working or the construction and selection of each annual team, a very strong and experienced team has been put together. Yet again Simon was the only Cocker handler to be selected.

FTCH Timsgarry Valtos (Woody) wins the 2008 Cocker Championship.

This years championship was held on the 9th and 10th of January at Sandringham the pesticious Norfolk estate owned by Her Majesty the Queen. On excellent ground of bracken, some bramble and thorns, 26 dogs competed.

Both days were dry with a cold wind which gave all handlers various conditions to deal with. There were plenty of pheasants and woodcock.

Woody`s first under judges John Dickson and Dai Ormond was along a track just inside the wood. We had three woodcock which he dealt with very cleanly and worked his beat well. His second run under Andy Robinson and Alan Gwynn was in bracken where woody had an excellent find on a cock pheasant and retrieved clean although it was not easy to mark the exact fall. He followed this with a difficult loose hen which ran a short way. Both his runs took place on the first day.

The second day was in woodland but the judges only needed to see 3 dogs to complete the championship. After a short deliberation 6 dogs were called forward to run off and we were not included. A total of 15 dogs completed the championship. At the presentation by the Queen we were given first place for the second year running and again won it on ice. This result was more than we could have ever dreamed of.

We chose not to run FTCH Timsgarry Barlow again as he has nothing to prove and unless he won some may be keen to criticise, what he has achieved can never be taken away from him. FTCH Timsgarry Simpson competed well and completed both runs, but was deemed to have put a bird down when it actually got caught on bracken on his return, but were more than pleased with his performance.

FTCH Timsgarry Valtos is totally home bred being sired by FTCH Cadboll Zachary out of FTCH Timsgarry Kelly.

For pedigree details please see our Stud Dogs page.

FTCH Timsgarry Barlow wins the 2007 Cocker Championship at just over 19 months old.

At the 2007 Cocker Championship on the 16/17th January at Conholt Park, Kenny won on ice, was also guns choice, won the Peter Hall trophy for the most points gained by a cocker in open stakes this season and finally had the breeders trophy presented to us as his breeder.

On the first day in driving rain in mixed woodland of briars and very tight stick piles, Kenny showed his class with excellent hunting and good marking ability on two separate birds.

The second day started similar to day one but the rain was not quite as heavy and began to clear towards the end of the stake. Kenny had an almost repeat performance of the first day but seemed to give a little bit extra with hunting with very little whistle. A clean find and retrieve of a cock bird was followed by some more hunting when the judges had seen enough.

After a three dog run off which we were not called up for, most people present realized that someone was on ice. Kenny has finished his first seasons trialing in the best possible way and we feel that you have not seen the last of this amazing young dog. Kenny will now have a little time off and will no doubt be in some demand for bitch`s this year.

A few points of interest are that Simon made up his first Cocker Champion, FTCH Sandford Black Mamba, at Conholt Park and last ran a trial there in January 2005 which he also won with Mr Gouldings Cocker bitch Our Majestic Molly, a daughter of Mamba.The 2007 Championship was Barlows tenth trial, he gained his tenth award and was running at number ten in the stake. Barlow is a grandson of Mamba so proving that this line is producing top quality Cockers.

For pedigree details please visit our Stud dog page.