Rushing headlong into the main events at 3 Counties and Driffield showground over the next couple of weeks makes me wonder where the rest of the summer went! It's been really pleasing to see how much has been achieved by dogs and human members over the past few months. Together, we have successfully transitioned to the new wider jumps without any drama and we have a uniquely BFA ulna device with measurers trained and clubs able to purchase their own practice ones. The dogs are performing well with loads and loads of shiny new seed times and club records out there, with lots of teams coming into form right at the right time, both of our Championship events could be the most competitive ever, especially in the top divisions with 3 clubs sub-14 now and a whole raft just queuing up in the low 15s, ready to join them.
The entries for the Championships events has been fantastic, thanks to everyone for your support; with over 200 teams entered for the Outdoor event, this could well be the biggest dog sport event in Europe this year! The Committee have worked hard to provide an event for everyone and something that is uniquely a 'Champs', that looks and feels different, that is exciting, but most importantly, trying to give the same experience to everyone and be something that literally anyone can be a part of. So they will both be different from what you may have been used to especially for those who couldn't make the Festivals last year where we trialled some of our innovative thinking. We are really pleased that we found a way to include foundation activity as the uptake has been amazing, and I hope this remains a feature of our Champs events going forward, as these dogs will be the future of our sport. Making room for the foundations and singles and pairs was one of the factors driving our changes to the open racing which will now be run in 2 blocks, one of Speed Trials and one of Round Robin, rather than spread across the whole weekend. To remind everyone of the format, all open teams will now compete in ST on Day 1, 3 races of 3 legs to set the fastest time you can do with the dogs you have, on the ground you will be racing on, winning or losing doesn't matter, it's all about time; the times set in ST will determine the division and placing for the RR later in the weekend. All divisions will be doing RR this year, a change from previous years where the top 3 divisions raced Double/Single Elimination. Everyone will therefore compete in the same format, regardless of speed and everyone will get pretty much the same amount of racing (previously, many teams in the top 3 divisions would only actually get 2 flyball races at the Champs). RR divisions will be made up of 10 teams (some will be 9 or 11), and for racing the division will be split into 2 halves; Seeds 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9 will race each other RR format, and seeds 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 will race each other. The 2 teams that win their half of the division will race each other later in the day in a divisional grand final. This way every division will have a final that will be run in the main ring, live-streamed, and hopefully with a big crowd of attending members cheering every one on. This is all about inclusion and ensuring everyone has the same chance of an epic Champs experience, regardless of how fast your dogs are. The result of the final will give us a divisional winner and runner up with joint 3rd going to second places in the RR event. We will then list everyone in result order so there will be a final Champs ranking as well. We've never done this before, we hope you will enjoy it, and as ever, your feedback is crucial as this event is about you and your dogs.
We've thrown in lots of other stuff to keep you engaged and give you things to think about and do over the weekend. There are loads of mini-games to look out for, fastest multi-breed at the Champs, fastest single-breed, oldest and youngest teams, YMS activities; we will also be running the BFA 100 challenge which will rank your team's performance against your seed time to find out which teams are the most consistent racers in the BFA (race clean, and race close to your seed time every leg so even if you don't make a final you could still be a winner!). We have lots of workshops and non-flyball dog activities to get involved with as well, training, luring, disc-dog, physio, first-aid. Details of all these events are in the Champs Welcome Packs - there's still time to get your name down for these extra activities, so if you haven't read the Welcome Pack, check out BFAMO for details.
Finally, it has been a gradual emergence from the covid crisis, and its been a difficult time for committee members and officials staying motivated and dedicated, with fewer competitions over recent years and dwindling numbers of members; they have had a lot thrown at them and I would like to thank every single official member of the BFA volunteer support crew for making sure there was a healthy and functioning BFA for people to return to - because they have! All of their efforts have been so worthwhile, and it is so pleasing to see that BFA membership numbers are already back at 2019 levels, which is amazing. It's really great to see so many new faces and new clubs joining the sport, as well as more familiar faces returning to the lanes as well. These next 2 weeks are about celebrating flyball, enjoying quality time with your friends and your dogs that give so much for you, we can't ensure success and celebration will be spread equally among everyone, but whatever your goals and whatever your results, just enjoy it, you have great dogs and great friends, this is a hobby and it's not about the winning or FB posts with a rosette, it's about the memories we make. We are so looking forward to hosting everyone over the next 2 weeks, try to be the best you can be, but more importantly be kind, try to have fun, and enjoy what we hope will be your best Champs yet.