History
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The 2011 World Trial is the fourth World Trial to be staged by the International Sheep Dog Society. The first world-wide sheepdog trials were staged by the ISDS in Bala, North Wales in September 2002 with 160 dogs from 13 nations competing. Welshman Aled Owen and his dog Bob were crowned the winners.
In 2005 the ISDS held its second World Trial in Tullamore, Ireland. This time 241 dogs from 21 nations competed each having qualified to represent their countries. On the finals day it was Gordon Watt and York who stole the show.
In 2008 the World Trial once again returned to Wales, this time to Llandeilo, Carmarthen. Here 242 dogs from 22 nations were represented and once again it was Welshman Aled Owen and his dog Roy who walked away as World Champions.
2008 World Champions - Aled Owen and Roy (Wales)
It has been well documented that the first ever sheep dog trial in the U.K. was Mr. R. J. Lloyd-Price's event at Garth Coch, about a mile from Bala in North Wales on a cold, wet 9th of October, 1873.
The competition was in two parts:
(a) Penning: 'Entrance to the pen about 6ft. wide, situated about 500 yards from the fold.'
(b) Driving: 'Sheep carried to the top of a grass field and turned out in full view, some 800 yards from where the shepherd and his dog, and the spectators were congregated.' The sheep were to be driven towards the shepherd. The time allowed was twenty minutes.
(Source: Einion Thomas, Centenary Trial at Bala 1973 Souvenir Programme).
Although the majority of competitors were Welsh, the trial was won by Scotsman James (Jimmy) Thomson with his dog, Tweed.
Jimmy Thomson was born at Glenwhargen Farm in Scaur Water, Dumfriesshire. According to John Templeton's book, Working Sheep Dogs: Management and Training, 'Jimmy' Thomson shepherded at Glenwhargen until about 1870. In 1872 he married and moved to Merioneth in North Wales as a tenant on Mr. Lloyd-Price's estate. In 1873, Mr. Lloyd-Price organized the trial at Gart Coch won by Jimmy.
One of the first sheepdog trial in the world is thought to have been at Dog Match Flat on the outskirts of Wanaka on the South Island of New Zealand in 1867. A newspaper article from the Oamaru Times in 1867, found by Marlborough farmer Ken White, who participated in the 2008 World Trial for New Zealand, records this event.
The International Sheep Dog Society (ISDS) was founded in 1906 at a meeting in Haddington, East Lothian (Scotland) with the intention of stimulating interest in the shepherd and his/her calling and to secure the better management of stock by improving the shepherd's dog. This is still the objective today, for without a good working dog the work of the shepherd, both on the hills and the lowlands would be impossible. One good dog can do the work of a dozen people, as the shepherd is the first to testify.
The Society’s first secretary in 1906 was James Wilson of East Linton. It is not recorded whether he continued in office until the outbreak of the First World War, but the organization of the Society remained then with that first Haddington Committee. One of their founders, Thomas Gilholm, was probably at the centre of things for the next 30 years since he appears in photographs with senior figures in the 1930’s.
When the Society resumed its activities in 1919 after the Great War, it was under the secretaryship of James A. Reid, a solicitor from Airdrie. It is no overstatement to say that sheepdog trialling and today’s Society have been very much shaped by his achievements. Until 1946, James Reid was the driving force for most all that was established.
In 1922, the Honorable E L Mostyn, to become Lord Mostyn, was appointed President of the ISDS. He held this position until 1962. Lord Mostyn and James Reid were truly the second generation of founders of the ISDS and are credited with bringing the Society through the next period of war, and into its second 50 years.
It was a watershed in 1960 when the Directors, empowered by a newly published ISDS Constitution, voted for the appointment of a Chairman. Although Lord Mostyn continued as President for a further two years, annual meetings were now taken by a Chairman. The first in this post was Captain T M Whittaker of Criccieth who had accompanied Lord Mostyn on his visit to Scotland in 1922. From 1963, when Lord Mostyn resigned from office, the position of President became an annual, honorary award made to someone from the country holding the International, initially to one of the Vice-Presidents.
Captain Whittaker died in 1962 and the Society entered a new era with the election of ruling Chairmen for three-year periods. Willie Bagshaw of Blyth, Worksop was elected in 1962; then in 1968 it was Archie McDiarmid of Gourock, Renfrewshire; in 1974 Frank Tarn of Brancepeth, County Durham; in 1976 Ray Ollerenshaw of Derwent, Cumberland; in 1988 Norman Seamark of Bedford; and in 1998 Jim Easton of Alnwick, Northumberland. Each Chairman has brought something of his character to the task, and added to the history of the Society.
As well as the Chairmen, who took the lead role, the Society continued to be shaped by a succession of secretaries. Mr T Harry Halsall succeeded James Reid as Secretary in 1946. Harry Halsall was the first to be paid a salary by the Society, but he would also have retained other professional interests – a practice of Secretaries continued to this day. The Society was strengthened considerably by him over the next 12 years until his untimely death in 1958. Harry Halsall is also credited with publishing the ISDS Constitution and printing the first Stud Books.
Mr Robert Jarvis took over in 1959 and ran the office for only a few months before finding the duties greater than anticipated, resigning before year-end. This sudden change caused a re-organisation of other responsibilities. The Society had always had the office of National President for each of the nations, but from 1959 much more responsibility for the organisation of trials was given to these National Presidents and their Local Committees. Wilfred Dunn was appointed Secretary in October 1959 and he oversaw continual change in the Society as membership grew to 3,000.
Jim Evans, appointed in 1968, is credited with having put the Society’s finances in order. In 1971 the BBC programme ‘One Man and His Dog’ started and BBC’s Blue Peter had its first Collie, ‘Shep’, a great grandson of J M Wilson’s Cap. Jim Evans was succeeded by Lance Alderson in 1972.
The new Chairman, Ray Ollerenshaw, took control in 1977 and directed the appointment of Philip Hendry, an insurance broker from Bedford. The new Secretary was a firm leader of the Society, industry and public office for the next 24 years; he became a director of his insurance firm, Chesham Insurance, and rose to become A. P. Hendry CBE and Leader of Bedfordshire County Council. Membership was 4,500 and the Society benefited from periods of sponsorship from Pedigree, Sun Alliance, Land Rover, National Grid and finally, to be with us in our Centenary Year, Gilbertson & Page Pet foods.
In 2001, Council appointed a new Chief Executive - Mr Norman Lorton, who still holds this office today. He will retire following the 2011 World Trial (Source: ISDS)