ESPERANCE CLUB STATE TRIAL Ongerup, 2nd-4th November 2017 Article and photos by Jane Dorrell Our WA State trial was hosted by the Esperance Club this year at Tim Foster’s farm “Linthorpe,” just east of the small town of Ongerup. The Esperance Club has been running for 25 years this year, and the Esperance members celebrated this by presenting every competitor with a lovely bottle of wine at the conclusion of the trial. Entry numbers at the trial were smaller than usual with 33 entered in the novice event, 32 in the improver and 46 in the open. Although Spring has sprung and the feed dried off already, an overcast day greeted triallers on the Thursday morning, with a cold east / south easterly wind blowing across the trial ground that increased in revs rather rapidly and had everyone reaching for coats and woolly hats before the day had progressed too far. Friday faired not much better but the arrival of Saturday morning found the wind had eased and the sun decided to put in an appearance, warming things up somewhat. The novice and improver sheep were well grown mixed sex white tag lambs, who although had a bit of run in them, generally hung together but still proved to be very challenging for both dogs and handlers alike, resulting in only 4 scores out of the novice field and 9 in the improver. The open sheep were more of the same, but must have had a talk to their novice and improver mates through the fence and decided they would run more and charge down the ground, mainly along the fence, and split, just to add a bit more excitement and give us more of a headache. The open dogs managed to get 25 scores up on the board. Novice judged by Jenny Whitelock 1st. Andrew Gorton. Olboa May. 48 + 84 = 132 . 2nd. Tony Boyle Boylee Gus. 64 + 67 = 131. 3rd. Dave Lacey. Coshies Buddy. 81 + 21 = 102. 4th. Rod Forsyth. Grassvalley Hazel. 73 + 27 = 100. Best Cast, Lift and Draw..........Andrew Gorton with Olboa May Improver judged by Phil Dorrell 1st. Jenny Whitelock. Jensown Microchip. 75 + 89 = 164 . 2nd. Tony Boyle. Boylee Midget. 73 + 81 = 154. 3rd. Jane Dorrell. Rocky Dusty. 61 + 89 = 150. 4th. Dave Lacey. Coshies Buddy. 79 + 43 = 122. 5th. Nick Webb. Morillo Max. 50 + X = 50. 6th. Helen Svalbe. Boonining Swag. 49. (Kelpie) 7th. Jenny Whitelock. Boylee Talent. 48. 8th. Jane Dorrell. Perangery Buster. 47. 9th. Nick Webb. Morillo Roy. 46. Best Cast, Lift and Draw.............Nick Webb with Morillo Roy Open judged by Gordon Curtis 1st. Grant Cooke. Badgingarra Fly. 83 = 77 = 160. 2nd. Frank Sutherland. Pendalup Sue. 70 + 75 = 145. 3rd. Grant Cooke. Grassvalley Moss. 72 + 72 = 144. 4th. Tony Boyle. Boylee Sugar. 75 + 65 = 140. 5th. Dave Lacey. Akoonah Lady. 50 + 84 =134. 6th. Ken Atherton. Ramulam Punch. 63 + 53 = 116. (Kelpie) 7th. Nick Webb. Morillo Cinda. 44 + 55 = 99. 8th. Phil Dorrell. Jandoree Clive. 62 + 31 = 93. 9th. Jane Dorrell. Olboa Spanner. 40 + 46 = 86. 10th. Nick Webb. Morillo Roy. 39 + 44 = 83. 11th. Jane Dorrell. Rocky Dusty. 58 + X = 58. 12th. Jenny Whitelock. Boylee Talent. 40 + RTD = 40. Best Cast, Lift and Draw............Grant Cooke with Grassvalley Floss | 
