A BERE Alston schoolgirl made a 750-mile round-trip to achieve great success at a game fair in Yorkshire earlier this month.
Ann Jones, aged 9, travelled 375 miles each way to attend the Country Landowners? Association?s Game Fair at Harewood House on August 1 to 3, and entered several gun dog competitions with her four-year-old Springer Spaniel Ben.
The three-day event was Ann?s first competition and she won three classes. Her first win was the under 16 ?Beta pick-up? retrieval of five hidden dummies against the clock.
She also did the double in the ?double bulldog?, winning in Saturday?s and Sunday?s competition. In this Ben had to find two dummies hidden at a distance of 75m in under a minute ? Ann and Ben did this in 44 seconds on Saturday and 41 seconds on Sunday.
Ann, who attends Bere Alston Primary School, has trained at the West Dartmoor Gun Dog Club for seven months and now hopes to compete in her first novice test in September, before starting to beat with her dog at two local shoots in the coming season.