Without a doubt, our 5th Gala has been our most successful to date. Attendance was up, Greyhound show classes were up and our overall profit from the show exceeded our wildest dreams.

Given that we were so worried about losing our show sponsor just a few months before, things undoubtedly managed to put themselves right in a spectacular fashion! We are so very grateful to Country Consultancy Ltd, Instant Business and John Nicholls Ltd for stepping in and sponsoring the Gala. It goes without saying that the people behind all three of these companies own NGR dogs and we cannot thank them enough for their generous contributions.

Good weather always helps and we were able to set up on Saturday without the driving rain I and howling winds that almost wrecked the event last year! Show day was sunny and very warm again (The sun shines on the righteous!) and the crowds flocked in. The car park was almost full before 12 o'clock, always a good sign.

Annette Crosbie and Jaye Griffiths joined us, as always. Their continuing support speaks volumes about the commitment and effort that these two ladies put into promoting the re-homing and welfare of ex-racing dogs. We were also pleased to welcome Maureen Purvis to the show. Maureen helped to establish Greyhounds UK with Annette and works tirelessly for the dogs. It is appreciated that she finds time to attend the Gala each year.

Our judges had a busy, but we hope, enjoyable day. Barbara Henry was to have judged Greyhound bitches, but had recently broken her ankle, so her husband kindly stood in and judged for us. They travelled down from Oldham with a car full of goodies - both for the event and the kennel dogs! Eric Bailey was good enough to judge Greyhound dogs for us. He is very well known in the world of Great Danes, but has a keen interest in Greyhound welfare and was glad to be involved. Andy and Tracey Vella probably  had the longest  day - judging the 20 pedigree and novelty classes in the Companion show. This is quite tiring as the classes are always very large. All of our judges have our thanks for giving their time and expertise.

The auction was a huge success - just as well, given the time and effort spent on it. A good deal of this was taken on by Carolyn Dent (God bless her!); husband Nigel took on the role of auctioneer and made a superb job of it  We were given some wonderful things as lots and are grateful to all those who donated items. I would particularly like to thank Celia Walsom and Ann Oertteli for their hard work in securing some super lots for us. The auction alone raised over £2000 so, given my usual threat of "Never again"......maybe. Possibly. Perhaps!

Many of you know that we have struggled each year with our less than perfect sound system and we were thrilled that John McDonald (another of our owners!) kindly offered us the use of his and spent the whole weekend with us making sure that it was perfect It was - and he has really stitched himself up for future Galas!

My final thanks go to all of our usual NGR team who contribute so much to the event, both on the day and beforehand. It is a huge undertaking (and getting worse each year!) and there is so much that goes on behind the scenes. Our owners are also happy to get involved and this is what gives the Gala it's unique character. It is most definitely a team effort and let's hope it stays that way.

Thanks to all of you who attended and we hope to see you on 7th September

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