Lori: the big finish

Day 3 & finals – both Will and Matt had their second runs on Sun. Matt had a good top and had a nice fetch going until we had weird miscommunication at the fetch panels when I thought I blew a small prophylactic comebye and he clearly heard an away for a shave miss around the panels. Drive was good until I had a split just before the cross drive panels and couldn’t see where two sheep were thru the little pines on that side of the course. Guessed wrong and missed the cross drive. Crap. Finished with a good shed and a tidy pen but too much handler error = 76. Needed mid 80s to get in I think. Still, I was feeling lucky to have Will already in.

Had a very nice handler dinner at a local resort.

Drew up #2 for the double lift, exactly what I hoped for. Double lift had a tricky right first outrun which Will handled without a redirect. Good first fetch. Unfortunately, when I stopped him at the drop off point, he was totally behind another clump of pines. Neither one of us is proficient enough at turn backs, so confusion ensued. He did end up going back on the correct side but after sacrificing a cross to reposition him. Good second gather and really nice drive. The international shed was a mess. I was confused with the concept of having eight collared sheep, needing to get rid of three. Should have been simple math, but in the heat of the moment, it wasn’t. Dumb. Will wasn’t very helpful either, frankly. He was pushy and he can’t do math either. We got down to one, but had a last minute escapee rejoin and timed out.

In the end, our 101 was good for seventh place.

We start for home tomorrow. Another week off not in the cards. Huge thanks to everyone for the well wishes. Really meant a lot!