Irish Setters UK & Ireland Website

Breed Notes - Christine Morgan

IRISH SETTER BREED NOTES

W/C MONDAY 16TH MAY 2022

At Bath Brian Limpus has an entry of 119 making 131. The following week at Southern Counties Dee Milligan-Bott has drawn an entry of 53 dogs making 64 entries and 71 bitches making 85 entries. In total that’s 124 Irish making 149 entries. There were no Championship shows last weekend so there is little to report on the show scene this week.

I had the following message from Gill Partridge: “Hi Chris, I have just had a message from Linda Swain (Lockley) to let me know that her father, Mike Lockley (Moyola) sadly passed away last Tuesday after a short illness. I am sure many people back in the 70's/80's will remember him showing his Irish Setters. His funeral will be held at Cattistock Church on Thurs. 26th May at 2.30pm should anyone wish to attend.” I send my most sincere condolences to his family. The earliest record I can find of Mike is a dog he bought in from the Wendover kennel. Wendover Wright was whelped in July 1962 out of Sh Ch Wendover Dry Bracken by Wendover Game and gained his stud book number. In 1970 he sired a litter to Wendover Grainnie who they also owned.

Due to the lack of news I will entertain you with the story of how me and MLM got our affix of Cwsscwn. Me and My Little Mate had had our own affixes for years. Mine being Buckset registered in 1977. Buck was my name then and we had setters. MLM's was Risanda being an abbreviation of Chris and Dave. We went into partnership with Hungarian Wirehaired Vizslas and Welsh Springer Spaniels and so decided that we should have a joint affix. Naturally she left it up to me to contact the Kennel Club. As everyone knows us as The Chrisses I tried various forms of this and all 6 were rejected. I tried 6 more times and got something of a rap on the knuckles from the Kennel Club who emailed me saying: 'Putting an 'S' on the end or 'The' at the beginning simply will not do'. Our first litter in partnership had already been born so panic started to set in as time was of the essence to get them registered before they went to their new homes. In her wisdom My Little Mate decided that she'd like something Welsh sounding; probably with the words 'wire' and 'spring' in it. So it was left to me again to sort it out. Google is my friend so I did some research and soon found out that the Welsh for dogs is Cwn and that wire is gwifren whilst spring is gwanwyn. But no, she didn't like these words. A long telephone conversation ensued during which I drank a bottle of red wine. In desperation I fired off an email to the KC asking if it would be possible to have any of the following 6. I can’t remember what they all were but I was only asking a question. Imagine my horror when a week later the certificate arrived granting us the affix CWSSCWN. Where the hell had this come from? What did it mean and how on earth should it be pronounced? My typing skills are not good at the best of times but after a bottle of red they are non- existent! Fearing for my life I managed to put off telling her for 3 weeks. Only when she was going frantic about the puppies not being registered did I decide that I’d better come clean. So, I drank another bottle of red and plucked up the courage to tell her. She went crackers! I took a right ear bashing and she wouldn’t let me get a word of explanation in. I've always been good at thinking on my feet so as she screamed at me 'How the hell do we pronounce that?' I answered: CHRISWIN. 'Ooh I like that' she replied 'But what about the C in the middle?' Me: It’s silent. (As if there's ever been anything silent about us two)