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'Mechelen St.Romboutscup 2015'
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news - 22/08/2015
Mechelen St.Romboutscup 2015  -  Belgium

dogs breeders dog pictures by Karl Donvil
Mechelen 2015, back to the Nekkerhalls. For the35th edition the Club of Sint-Rombouts could get back to the Nekkerhalls instead of organising the show again in open air. Not that it was bad, on the contrary, but not alike English or Skandinavians, we in Belgium are not used to open air shows. And again, it proved to be a very hot show as temperatures rose high, in an outside the hall. On Sunday it was followed by heavy rainfall.



While last year there was a dropdown of the entries, maybe due to the open air show, this year it was made up again and it was even slightly better than two years ago, from 1542 in 2013, to 1449 in 2014 to 1568 this year. It's not bad, taken into account that the following weekend there is Luxembourg, followed by the European in Oslo and the week after the Green Trade Show in Libramont. On the other hand Mechelen is the first dog show in 5 weeks in Belgium. Dogs were entered from 14 countries. There was a dog from Norway, two from Bulgaria and 2 from Romania, 4 Russian entries, but only 9 from the United Kingdom?! On Saturday it was very quiet and there were very few visitors. The trade stand holders complained a lot. Fortunately Sunday made a big difference so that the overall results was not too bad.

20 Judges were invited coming from 8 countries. Eleven of them were Belgians. From the 20 judges 11 judged one day only. One of them was Mr. Sua Loach A. from the United Kingdom who was asked to come and judge the Golden Retrievers. It was a hit with 53 entries, the best scoring breed. Mr. Tino Pehar from Croatia had also 53 dogs of one breed, the Chinese Crested, but here the Powder Puffs are taken into account too. But Mr.Pehar broke every record on this show. On Saturday he had 128 dogs that came for his opinion, all breeds from the Retriever Group. And on Sunday he was again the most popular judge with 109 entries, besides the Chinese Cresteds he had breeds of the Companion Fogs Group. He accepted all dogs and worked non-stop without lunch. With a total of 233 dogs over the weekend he was by far the top judge of this show. Most popular of the Belgian judges was Mrs.M.Vermeire. On Sunday she was most busy with 87 entries. Mr.Dermot-Timmins from Ireland was another big hit. He collected 81 dogs in his ring on Saturday including 45 Bulldogs, while on Sunday he judged 98 dogs, all shepherd breeds. Wile Mrs. Linda Reinelt-Gebauer from Germany had time to shop and relax on Saturday when she only had 17 dogs, she was very busy on Sunday with 92 entries. Worth mentioning are the 27 Boxers in the ring of Mrs.Daniele Meeremans from Belgium, which is a very good number for this breed that seems to regain slowly its former popularity. Mrs.Anja Gregoire from Belgium is still at the start of her career. She judged on Sunday only but could attract a nice number of 38 French Bulldogs and scored a total of 51 dogs.

Mr.Jean-Pierre Achtergael from Belgium was the chosen BIS judge for this edition. All dogs had to be placed, only the winner of the Terrier Group that was judged on Saturday, did not return. Personally I am not a fan of this system. The five groupwinners of Saturday need to come back to compete for BIS but it sometimes is not so easy to come back. Some people attend another show on Sunday, or want to be free on Sunday or have other duties. And there is one chance on 10 that they are placed 10th, one that he become BIS. If it is a Dachshund, the chance to be placed on one of the 3 podia is very little, most judges don't have the courage to place them high. Why come back then? And who likes to come back to see a number 10 placed in front of you while you had a number 1 when you won the group? Nobody! It feels like having lost. Choose a Best of day and from them a Best In Show or at least, if all need to come back for the finals, place only 1, 2 and 3 and let all the rest be 4th ex-aequo! Mr.Achtergael had to place all 9, but I will stick to the 3 winners. His 3rd place went to the Chien de St.Hubert or Bloodhound "Hector of Lufon Royal Pride". This male is 7 and is owned by Mr.Fonnie De Vadder-Van Buggenhout who also is the breeder. Hector had the competition of 7 others when judged by Mrs.Danielle Meeremans from Belgium. Mr.Nenad Mateje"vic from Serbia was his Group judge. "Doc N'Camelot's Heaven Can Wait" was entered by Mr.Lenaerts and was in the ring with 8 others. Mr.Achtergael judged the breed, Mr.Tino Pehar the group. Doc is 5, an import from the States and co-owned by Lenaerts, Finch and Van der Sichel. I'm not giving my prono for BIS easily , but when I saw the Labrador running in the ring, I spontaneously expressed my admiration. The way he moved and the way he looked, impressed me and I was happily surprised that Mr.Achtergael shared my opinion and placed him 1st. It was the 3 year old male "Leonardo of Angel's Head" who is bred and lives in the Kennel of Mr.Onckelinx-De Smedt, one of our top breeders of Labradors. He had strong competition, 27 were entered for Mr.Tino Pehar. Mrs.Reinelt-Gebauer crowned him Groupwinner.

Everyone seemed glad that the was again in the good old Nekkerhalls. I am back next year but in December this time, 10 and 11 December. Let's see if this will make a difference in entries!



Text, photos and results: Karl DONVIL













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