Northern Hawke's Bay sheep dog trialists were in magic form in the remote hills of southeastern King Country winning all but one of the East Coast's clean sweep of the first four titles decided at the North Island and New Zealand sheep dog championships on Friday.
The big win was a national straight hunt title for Wairoa trialist Ned George, with Sprocket, while Putere farmer Tom Manson and dog Buck were in the money in all four events decided on the penultimate day of the championships at Pamu (Landcorp) block Meringa Station, east of Taumarunui, and won both the North Island and national zig zag hunt titles.
Manson and Buck dropped the form in the straight hunt national runoff and finished seventh but in the gathering gloom of the zig zag national title decider were runner-up to Ruie Bridge, of Waingake, between Wairoa and Gisborne, with his dog, Flash.
Tim Stevenson, of Dannevirke, with Banjo, was runner-up to George in the national straight hunt runoff, in which David Scragg, also of Wairoa, was fifth, while in the North Island straight hunt Hawke's Bay filled the first four places, with Scragg second, George third and Stevenson fourth.
The form continued a boom year for Hawke's Bay trialists and signalled a dog-trials wind change, after Southern Hawke's Bay trialists won two of the four titles at the South Island championships last month in Central Otago.
