It was a day for real veterans as retired farmer Rod Mead and trusty dog Lad won the Hawke's Bay A and P Show's annual dog trials.
Now retired with wife Donna to a lifestyle block near Te Karaka, north of Gisborne, Mead is 75 and Lad is 10.
Mead and Lad were among a possible record entry of about 190 for the Hawke's Bay show trials – almost 30 up on the 2019 show entry and among several show sports that highlighted the thirst for competition and fraternity among those shut-out of most of their sports since the Covid-19 pandemic alert levels peaked with the lockdown in late March.
Mead ran four dogs in the trials which spanned three days, and headed an all-visitors podium with fellow veterans, and well-known Bob Bryson, also from the Gisborne region, and Neville Child, from Northland, claiming second and third places respectively in the 15-dog runoff on Friday afternoon.
Peter Williams, with Ike, headed the Hawke's Bay competitors in fourth place, centre president Scott Wedd made the cut-off and was placed seventh with Dell, and Mohaka triallist Sheena Martin qualified two dogs into the runoff but was unable to reach the top money.
