James Bond teamed with a very glamorous Bond girl and glasses of bubbly is a familiar concept to most people, but it is not often you picture them on a damp overcast afternoon, in a field in rural Lincolnshire with 30 Wolfhounds, raising money for research into osteosarcoma. On Sunday 14th June 2015 this unique combination did indeed come together with sensational results and not even the inclement weather could dampen the spirits of the participants. The Long Nose Day fun show is now in its 10th year and is a 2 day companion show organised by the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust with the Saturday reserved for Greyhound only classes and the Sunday opened up to other breeds and novelty classes, plus various other canine activities such as giant dog agility, pet gundog scurry and speed jumping.
This year the Lincs Greyhound Trust kindly put on Wolfhound classes, both standard and novelty classes, with all class entry proceeds being donated to Wolfhound osteosarcoma research through the IWHG. Owners were invited to come along and enter classes on the day, with the hope of raising two or three hundred pounds maybe. What happened on the day was so phenomenal that the organisers were stunned at not only the amount of money raised, but the huge generosity and level of support shown by those who attended and also those who could not make it, but still wanted to show their commitment to the cause and made donations after the event. On the day, the class entries, raffle of several prizes, donations for cakes offered to all and just money ‘thrown in the bucket’ totalled £740 and at time of going to press, the current total is over a £1,300 and still rising!
Like all other such events, a large amount of hard work and organisation went into the show and the Wolfhound classes in particular and the afternoon was aimed at providing all the attendees with a real different ‘show’ experience and an outrageously good time. The James Bond theme for the classes was kicked off by the very glamorous judge, Caroline Sheppard (Goldswift) being escorted into the ring by her pair of 007 stewards, dressed in tuxedo’s and sporting sashes of Carl ‘the Cube’ Brown and Hugh ‘the Hair’ Broadbent, obviously to the classic theme tune of James Bond playing loudly in the background. This set the tone for the rest of the day and was greatly appreciated by all attending the show.
There are so many people that need to be thanked for their efforts, but the most important people are the owners that gave up their Sunday afternoon with their hounds (and some honorary hounds) and gave their all to support the show. Also a big vote of thanks to those generous people that donated raffle prizes and cakes (some of which were sold in the village hall and some of which were offered free, but with people kindly throwing money in the tin). Naturally, the cakes and raffle were only successful thanks to those at the show extending their generosity all afternoon.
At the end of the show there were some presentations of gifts made to thank the judge and stewards. Another very poignant moment was when a surprise presentation was made to Colleen Ellis in recognition of her amazing fundraising over the years through her beautiful fine art pastel portraits of dogs. Colleen has raised thousands of pounds with her artwork and donated all the proceeds to Irish Wolfhound Health/Rescue causes. Some other personal gift presentations were also made to others as a vote of thanks from Wolfhound owners.
We hope that this will now become an annual event in the Wolfhound calendar and that money can be raised for other issues/causes in the Breed.
If anyone wishes to make a donation then it’s not too late, follow this link to donate online: follow the link to the donations page
Thank you all for your participation and see you next year!