Suffolk at centre stage

After last year’s event was cancelled by COVID-19, David Tomlinson is looking forward to the forthcoming IGL Retriever Championship

- David Tomlinson

ONE OF THE MANY sporting casualties of 2020 was the International Gundog League (IGL) Retriever Championship. This wasn’t the first time it had been cancelled — in 1967, it fell foul of an outbreak of another disease (foot and mouth), while it wasn’t held during World War I or II. Despite the former ending in 1918, it wasn’t until 1920 that it was held again, on the Crown Point Estate, near Norwich, the first year that spectators were admitted.

I can’t find any records of how many spectators went to watch that event, but you can be sure that there will be a gallery of several hundred on the Ampton shoot in Suffolk when this year’s championship is held on 29 and 30 November and 1 December.

It was first held at Ampton in 1988, returning in 2006 and in 2016, and would have been run there again last year if the pandemic hadn’t intervened. Ampton makes an ideal location as it’s easily accessible, especially now that improvements to the A14 to the north of Cambridge have been completed. There is plenty of accommodation available close by, with Thetford only a few miles to the north and Bury St Edmunds a similar distance to the south.

Another advantage is that it is ground that will already be familiar to many of the handlers taking part, as it has hosted numerous trials and training days over the past 30 years.

Former shoot manager Peter Hammond was not only a keen trialler himself but was keen to encourage others, which he certainly did. The shoot is now run by Peter and Charles Rushbrook, who are equally supportive, as are the owners of the estate, the Turner family.