Rosemary accepts her gifts from Ronnie Irving Photo by Marc Henrie

ROSEMARY HALL has just retired as Field Trial Secretary of the Kennel Club and friends from various aspects of the FT world have paid tribute to her work.

Fifteen years ago at Bournemouth championship show, the late chairman of the Kennel Club, John MacDougall, and Martin Sinnatt, then secretary of the KC, asked Rosemary whether she would take over the role of Field Trials Secretary from Vanessa Gibson, who is now the KC’s Canine Events Executive.

First to thank her at a special presentation at the Kennel Club were the owners of Pointers and Setters who, at the KC trial last April, which traditionally ends the PS spring circuit, presented her with a handsome porcelain wine cooler and a matching bedside and travelling clock. Handing over some of the gifts, together with six bottles of champagne, Mrs Betty Town thanked her for all she had done to make the spring trials such a success.

Rosemary also has taken retriever and open av spaniel trials to Northern Ireland. The spaniels have always visited Copeland Island in the bay of Belfast and in November she was presented with a specially commissioned landscape painting in oils of the island with a partridge in the foreground. The painting, by David Carlisle, was subscribed to by eight Northern Ireland gundog clubs and presented on her last visit in November, by Mr Jimmy Magee, a field trialler and long-standing friend, at a specially organised dinner in her honour, attended by many in Northern Ireland who know her.

Then, at her last Field Trials sub-committee meeting at the Kennel Club in February, the chairman, Mr Alan Rountree, presented her with 12 Waterford crystal wine glasses, so heavy that they had to be sent to England from Ireland by courier.

Finally, the majority of the Kennel Club staff, joined by members of the General Committee, who had met earlier that day, saw Kennel Club chairman Mr Ronnie Irving present her with two Waterford crystal carafes, matching the wine glasses.

Mr Irving recalled some humorous moments from 15 years of field trialling by Mrs Hall, including one recent trial at Lauder, Scotland, where the terrain was so sheer that the only way she could get down a particular slope was to sit and slide! He added that a cushion would have been a good idea and so there was great laughter when he gave her a parcel containing a cushion on which was a picture of a Corgi (her second breed after Labradors) on which was inscribed ‘Of course, one is related’.

On behalf of the staff Mrs Kathryn Symns, assistant secretary at the Kennel Club, presented Rosemary with a large model of a sitting black labrador which she immediately christened ‘Casey’. There were also further individual presentations from friends on the staff. The whole evening was arranged by Anne Greeves, field trials administrator, who had also composed a long and humorous ‘ode’ to Rosemary.