Cameron tops sheep trials

Having just weaned her puppies, Merv Cameron's Bonnie showed a clean set of paws to the rest of the field, cleaning up the sheep dog trials at the North Hokianga A&P Show in Broadwood.

Handler Cameron said Bonnie took control at the start and with subtle moves walked the sheep through the obstacle course to finish ahead of local Aaron Nelley with Joy, and Kris Sturge with Ice, who placed second and third respectively. Cameron said the sheep used were their usual stubborn selves.

"The sheep were very hard to control. They just wanted to run down the athletic track of the school's sports field. Guess no one told them it was a dog trial, not an athletics meet. This made it very hard for the dogs and to complete was a mission," he said.

Other notable dogs on the day were his Roy, Clarke Harvey's Boy and Tilly Bill McCready's Joy who all oozed quality.

Organisers of the Omamari Sheep Dog Trials at Kai Iwi Lakes in Dargaville were pleased to note entries were up for this year's event.

Spokeswoman Anna Blair said a highlight was seeing the hunt sheep liberate very well and this was reflected in the scores.

"All sheep were presented in excellent order and were lively on both heading courses. A quick turn of foot by both man and dog was often required on the short head drives, and penning proved testing for most dogs," she said.

Murray Child and Dice continued their winning form on the long head with an outstanding, near perfect 99-point effort.

Child also claimed the short head with his dog May, while Steve Osbourne with Jess and Scott McRae with Tobe took out the zig zag and straight hunt events respectively.

UPCOMING. This weekend sees the Mangonui leg of the Northland Centre SDT Championships take place at Dennis O'Callaghan's farm at Aurere.

Organisers say the event is open to the public and entry is free, with access by the Matthews Car Museum sign on SH10 just north of Taipa.