More than two hundred people made the trip out to Morongla on the weekend to check out the Morongla Sheep Dog Trials, with the finals being held on Sunday.
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Competitors came from all over Australia, as far as Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria, along with a number of local handlers and dogs.
The competition was held across four sections: Open, Improver, Novice and Encourage.
Paul Elliot and his dog Elliots Budd of Eumungerie took out the Open competition with a total score of 187, narrowly ahead of Greg Prince with Princes Dodge of Dubbo, Paul O’Kane with O’Kanes Andrew Symonds of Cobram VIC and Mick Hudson with Ritchies Finn of Eumungerie, who all tied for second place with 186 points.
Fifth place went to Julie Birkett and her dog Brands Hatch Midori of Boorowa with 183 points.
In the Improver’s section, Cowra handler Brett Smith took out both first and second place with his dogs Wondara Tip II and Camara Chiller with 185 and 180 points respectively.
Vickie Priestley and her dog Illoura Fly of Riverstone took out third place with 142 points.
In the Novice section, Charlie Cover of Yass came first with his dog Oakdean Bloke with 181 points. Vickie Priestley also took out second place in the Novice section with 137 points, ahead of Brian Clifford and his dog Kuroona Tess of Cooma on a total of 120.
In the Encouragement section, Jayson Montanari and Brinaway Dolly from Marulan took home the chocolates on the day, with a total of 80 points.
Sarah Sydrych with her dog Wattleview Pip of Royalla came second and Cowra’s Teegan Perry won third with her dog Delrio Fly.
Some special awards were also given out over the weekend.
The fastest time to complete the course on the Encourage/Novice ground went to Sarah Sydrych of Royalla with Wattleview Pip with a time of 9.29 minutes.
The fastest time to compete course on the Improver/Open ground went to Peter Oxley of Millthorpe with Rivlin Sam with a very quick time of 7.01 minutes.
The Morongla Sheep Dog Trial committee gratefully thank their dog biscuit sponsor for 2017 – Hypro Australia, the makers of Dogpro Dog Biscuits and the many local businesses and individuals for their continued donations to this event.
The committee also would like to thank the many locals of the Morongla and Cowra communities for their help with running this important event.
This year was the 18th running of the Morongla sheep dog trials, which are held every year by the Morongla Show Society Inc.