THE PLANNED Open Show due to be staged by the North Middlesex Canine Association this Sunday, 11th November has been postponed to April next due, due to the non-booking of the venue by the Association’s former Secretary.

The show was due to be staged at the Longwood Equestrian Centre, Basildon, Essex, but Barry Tookey the then Secretary of the Association did not make the booking. The rest of the Committee did not discover the problem until two weeks ago, leaving them with no venue and no possibility of obtaining a new one in time to stage the show.

An emergency committee meeting was held on Wednesday, October 31st. Mr Tookey had tendered his resignation letter, but no reason for his failure to book the venue was given. Club Chairman Mrs Sandra Martin was elected as Acting Secretary, after which she undertook the Herculean task of writing to all judges and exhibitors informing them of the show’s postponement due to unforeseen circumstances.

“What is very sad is that we had to cancel our March show because of Foot and Mouth, so we issued all exhibitors who entered with vouchers for the November show, and now they’ve had to be deferred again.” Mrs Martin told OUR DOGS.

Fantastic

“ I’ve written over 350 letters and returned cheques and vouchers and informed people of the new show date, which we be April 6th 2002, at the same venue. I managed to get all the letters in the post by 11am last Saturday, so everybody should have been informed.

“I’ve sought advice from the Kennel Club and, I have to say, the departments involved have been fantastic. They couldn’t have been more helpful. I’ve also received offers of help from neighbouring dog clubs, and received lots of positive telephone calls from members and exhibitors. I am very grateful to everyone for this, as this has been a very difficult time for the club, as you can imagine.”

Mrs Martin concluded: “Obviously, the Committee are all very disappointed at the loss of our November show, and we apologise to everyone for any inconvenience this may have caused, but it was beyond our control. However, we look forward to welcoming everybody to our show on April 6th 2002 and plan to make it an excellent event.”

The Association will be staging its AGM in April 2002 at which the election of a new full-time Secretary will take place.

Mr Tookey was unavailable for comment.