The best English springer bitch I ever trained and handled was F.T. Ch. Dinas Dewi Sele, who was line bred to the old Rivington dogs and contained hardly any of the famous O'Vara blood. She was owned by Lt. Col. Lewin Spittle and in all won 42 field trial awards.

The question of course arose as to which stud dog she should be mated to and I took the advice of an old stager Reg Goode, who at one time had been a private retriever trainer to a French Marquis. He had swept the boards in France and commented what rotten trainers the French were. Reg recommended a dog called Bricksclose Shellspark, owned by Peggy Pratt, which could go as he put it ' Like Hell-in-the-night' but which never had been handled to advantage by its owner and had only collected two certificates of merit. The dog was sired by F.T. Ch. Spark O'Vara out of F.T. Ch. Ludlow Gyp and was bred by Bill Sheldon from Ludlow, Shropshire. There was a slight connection as Sele was a great granddaughter of F.T. Ch. Dauntless Monty, who was a litter brother to Shellspark's dam, F.T. Ch. Ludlow Gyp. Nevertheless, the mating was almost an outcross, which always are somewhat chancy and no trial dog of any note issued from the mating but it produced some useful shooting bitches which were to have a great influence on the breed.

One was a bitch registered as Gwibernant Gwaed, which was unimpressive on open ground but was excellent in cover and I trained her as a shooting dog for the Spittles. We mated her to Hales Smut, who was over 50% O'Vara breeding as he contained three lines to F.T. Ch. Sarkie O'Vara, who turned out to be a great stud force. One bitch pup went to Will Sloan and was registered as Lady of Ardoon and the litter produced other successful springers, including F.T. Ch. Gwibernant Garran, American F.T. Ch. Lord of Ardoon, Canadian and American F.T. Ch. Yr Wybynant and the open stake winner Gwibernant Yrwyddfa.

Lady of Ardoon came back to me for training and developed into a fast, stylish bitch who was particularly easy to handle. I had no rabbit shooting at that time and not much of anything else but in her first season and in her first novice stake, she placed second and her sister Garran, was third. Her next trial was in Cumbria and in the run-off she beat Drumbro Daisy for first place, in hindsight a source of great satisfaction as daisy later became one of the great ones of all time. She ran no more that season and the following October, ran in a local trial in young forestry plantation and bracken. The trial was not over burdened with game and in her first run she had a blind retrieve but no find but in her second run, she flushed a cock. She ran off against Wilby Rory, who required lots of silent whistle. Lady required no whistle and easily outclassed Rory.

Foot and Mouth disease put paid to any more trials that season and the following year I obtained some good shooting on the Lleyn Peninsula and shot several snipe over lady, which was fortunate as that year I ran in a trial near Stranraer and had a snipe to deal with and made good job of a grouse. She had a long hare in her second run which was simple but looked good. Again she ran off against Wilby Rory and yet again her smooth, even pattern beat him. Travelling further north to Banchory, I ran her in the notorious Crathes bog where marking can be difficult but she had a find and excellent mark in really high cover. A rabbit find in her second run provided a good retrieve, then a loose hare crossed her bows, was rolled over and retrieved. She ran off against two dogs but a hare had run straight up the course and caused problems for our opponents. Certainly Lady showed interest in the hare line but required minimal whistle to keep her into her pattern and this clinched her third open stake win. Altogether during her trial career, she competed in five run-offs and won every one, so we must have done something right!