20th Anniversary + Mepal 09

There we were at the AGM October 2008 So - it’s our 20th anniversary and 20th Mepal next year (2009) – what shall we do to celebrate it? Big piss up on the club sounds good to me. I’ve got some ideas – sez the Pres. Lets do it all in one go at Mepal – make it a 3 day event, have a junior session, get a bigger marquee, ooh yes and how about a night display in the water with the dogs – that’s never been done before – with lights and music as well. How about free booze –someone pipes up? Too expensive knowing us lot sez someone. What about free wine – good compromise. Should we have a committee? – Naa – Lynda can do it all she doesn’t work – Sylv. Can help and do catering, Greg will do the glamorous jobs like toilets and grass cutting. Rach ‘ll do crafts and all the usual stuff can be delegated. Job done (yeh right). And so the 20th anniversary juggernaut began rolling. Of course we also added a huge hog roast- which I think everyone will agree is the best meal we have ever had, fish and chip van (possibly the hardest thing to arrange!), pet blood bank, good citizens (thanks), gifts for everyone, hosting a 9 person TNS team and an extra boat borrowed from Horsham (thanks). On a less flippant note the organisation and planning required to run an event too big for a small club was excellent and I thank all those involved in keeping pace with my ‘how about doing this’ approach. The core of Mepal remains the same - training 60+ dogs each day with TNS expertise added in. The Junior session seems to be a good idea too. And so to the night display! The hardest and finest display we have ever done. We had planned 2 night sessions + a dress rehearsal just before Mepal. Unfortunately our lake would not permit night training so the first session in January (Yes January!) was a freezing daytime event instead of a walk (Tho’ we did have sunshine). In March we all tanked over to langtoft for our first night session (no music or lights but we did have flares!!). Hi-vis jackets were useless in the water and the dogs were disorientated by torches and flares when trying to find their way back to shore – but were good with sound location. Unfortunately one of the exercises (the only Gay) involved a silent rescue through noisy swimmers, and with music blaring in all the exercises we knew we could not rely on sound being their only guidance system. Pres. called for an extra night session in April where the dogs were much better- after only one session they had nearly all learnt about distracted night swimming – although Buffy’s compass seemed to be 90 degrees out – slightly critical for our finale multi-hand rescue exercise! And we did it to music for the 1st time and had fish and chips and had a plan B for it being too windy for the lanterns being lit. Things were looking up! Come the dress rehearsal – welcome to the EAWN rollercoaster. Perfect conditions, all equipment, lights, music and props ready – but not all the club could be present. Timing was way out, we knew we needed more people – BUT – Pres. could see that the dogs were fine and everybody had learnt how amazing it might be. And so to the night. Perfect conditions– Action – followed by dead PA system – quickly sorted - followed by dead boat engine – quickly swapped. But I knew at the intro. when the spotlight fell on a lone brown Newfy, that the gang were totally committed to getting it right. The dogs were perfect, the timing was perfect, the crowd and club were crying and laughing – it was exactly how I had imagined it to be. TNS were speechless with admiration. Truly magical and sensational – well done everyone and the dogs.