Page 174 - ShowSight - July 2019

Lommel 2019
BY KARL DONVIL
THE SUNNY SHOW
We get used to this show as one of the sunniest in Belgium. But that does not mean it is hot, at least not inside. The show is held in a modern sport complex and it is cool inside and although the contrast with the bright sunlight inside, makes it look very dark inside, but that is not so, it is only the result of the big con- trast between inside and outside. The good climate inside was very important on Sunday as then it was pretty warm outside. Inside there is enough space for the dogs to relax in a cool corner. There was absolutely no reason to leave dogs in cars and that was checked more than often. Fortunately, no dogs were found. Going to the show in Lommel is a good reason to combine it with a long week- end. Less than 3km away is a huge holiday village with lots of things to do, water fun guaranteed and dogs welcome. And Lommel itself is famous for being one of Belgium’s favorite shopping cities and if you want to jump over the border to the Netherlands, no problem biking or walking, it is that close. However, from the 1,131 entries of this year, only 172 were from across the border. The show had also a small loss of 38 dogs compared to last year. From France the club did not have to expect many entries as they had the Champi- onnat de France the very same weekend. Only 22 dogs from France were entered. Germany was better represented with 60 dogs and there were also eight entries from the United Kingdom. In total 15 nationalities were gathered here for this show, even from Ireland, Russia, Israel and...Australia! As on any show lately, the number of commercial boots was going down again and with the nice weather the number of visitors was not big either, quit logical in fact!
Sound system spoils speaker comments.
What I always liked on this show is the interactive speaking duo. With questions and answers Jolien and Sven are comment on the show and that tightens the attention of the audience. But this year the committee did not rent an audio set but used the intercom of the halls. The effect was really bad, a kind of echo made it all hardly understandable, a pity! Lommel has a tradition to invite new Bel- gian judges or Belgian judges new in a breed, but notwithstanding that, as that has a negative effect on dogs/judging day, the score was still OK with 46,3. There were nine Belgian judges, only one was
judging both days. All foreign judges had high scores. On Saturday Mr. Vilmos Kardos, one of the three Hungarian judges at this show, had no less than 92 dogs to judge, 32 of them Golden Retrievers. Mrs. Swysen from Belgium had 50 Dachshunds and compared to the total it is a good score! Mr. Ferenc Gröschl from Hundary had 27 Bernese Mountain Dogs on Saturday and 30 Chinese Cresteds on Sunday, along with some other breeds, he had 114 dogs in total over the weekend. Mrs. Van Raamsdonk-Blatter from Belgium had 31 Chihuahuas plus several other breeds, 50 dogs in total. Mr. Nodalli from Italy was the best scoring judge this weekend. On Saturday he had 21 English Bulldogs, a good number for a show of this size, and in total he had 131 entries.
The Best In Show judge was Mr. Augustin Ionescu from Roma- nia. He is very popular in Belgium and he was very pleased with this honor. While only three dogs were placed for each part of the finals, which is excellent, for the very end all group winners had to be placed and that was a pity as it makes no sense to place a number 10, 9, 8, 7 ... 4 in front of a dog that had number 1 a short while before. His 3rd place went to a nice Australian Cattle Dog that really stood out in his group. It was a German entry, named “Bavar- ian Heelers Does Your Mother Know” owned by Josef Schlammert who was the breeder as well. The dog is not yet two-years-old, a male, entered in Intermediated class. Six were entered for Mr. Kot- lar from Hungary who was also the group judge. Reserve to Best In Show went to the Whippet “Courtborne Chewbacca”, a choice of Mr. Nodalli as breed winner and group winner. Chewbacca is co-owned by Veenstra-Scheerens, Scheerens and Valkenburg, and presented by Bart Scheerens from Belgium. Ultimate winner was the Irish Red Setter “Oakdene Que Du Bonheur” who won group seven on Saturday under Mr. Kotlar, judged earlier as Best of Breed by Mr. Vanaken. Seven were entered. Du Bonheur is two-years- old and bred and owned by Aleksandra and Willem Lauwers from Belgium. The show finished well in time so that everybody could still enjoy the nice weather or return in time. That is how it should all be, smoothly, relaxed and in harmony. That is also what you can expect next year! I’ll be there, what about you and your dog?
168 • ShowSight Magazine, July 2019