In the beginning there was......

Champion Royal Pal of Catcombe - (Honey)

11 Challenge Certificates, 3 Reserve Challenge Certificates, 6 Best of Breeds and a Championship Show Gundog Group

The foundation of our kennel today was established in 1968 by the innocent act of buying a puppy as a pet for the family. We had no aspirations of breeding, exhibiting or anything else in fact!

We (inadvisedly) bought our Honey from a multibreed puppy dealer who sold her to us for £18 as she was ‘not of show quality’. We loved her though, whatever her supposed faults were. We could find none – she was quite perfect. Honey went almost everyday of her life with David to College where she was a firm favourite with the students and children. She swam endlessly in the lake following the boats around and built up a whole army of friends for ‘walkies’.

We mated her to Pennard Golden Brumas in 1971. We kept a daughter – Amber. We were persuaded by Mrs Thompson to show Honey……6 weeks in whelp, untrimmed and with no ring training (either of us) Honey won a fistful of 1st. prizes under Mrs Ferelith Hamilton, the revered all-rounder, at a large Exemption Show in Gloucester.

 

Honey never looked back! She won her first Challenge Certificate in 1974 aged 6 ½ years. She won 6 CC’s in 1975 making her the top winning Golden of the year. She finished her show career in 1977 with the big three – CC at Crufts, CC and Best in Show at the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland and CC at the Golden Retriever Club Show. She was 9 ½ years old at the time!

Honey and her children and grandchildren.

from left lying down, Honey, Amber, Cherubin and Cy and sitting up her Grandchildren Cupid, Cherish and Charm

Honey only ever had one other litter – to Raynsgold Rainaway, and we kept three of the 5 puppies. Of these three, only Cherubin was ever bred from. Honey’s two daughters Amber and Cherubin had a few litters each. Her other daughter Catcombe Crystal belonged to my parents, was shown rarely and won 1 C.C.
Amber’s first litter to Show Champion Brackengold Max produced Champion Catcombe Charm and Catcombe Cherish.

Top left: Catcombe Crystal 1 C.C.- Top Right:Ch. Catcombe Charm and her sister Catcombe Cherish, sitting.
Bottom Left: Champion Catcombe Charm 8 CC’s 4 Res CC’s Working Test Awards. The picture taken the day after she won Best of Breed at Crufts
Bottom Right: Charm

Charm became a Champion at an early age and also worked for 9 seasons picking up at Bowood Estate with Stella Gray. She only ever produced one litter of puppies quite by ‘accident’ as she conceived at 26 days into her season. Thinking we would keep something from her at another time, where the sire was of our choice (!), we never kept any of those. (Although we tried many times, sadly Charm never had another litter.)                              
Honey (Ch Royal Pal of Catcombe) was our foundation bitch. Her lines go back to Lucille Sawtell’s Ringmaster of Yeo – who sired 6 English Champions and before that to Lucille’s own foundation stock.
Sadly Honey died in 1978 at ten years old from a tumour on the lung. She left us bereft.

Amber Honey's daughter from the left, then Cherish and Choice- three generations in direct descent

For a few years our show lines were kept going while we concentrated more on the working side. 

 Some of the dogs during those years are pictured below:

Top; Come Uppence, Cheerio, Cha Cha Cha, Middle; Cooee, Caesar, Cafuffle, Bottom; Cloud, Cosset, Cobweb.

And then in 2003 a new star was born, and a year later this was followed by the emergence of his off spring. They were to become a significant influence on our breeding plans up to the present day.

Champion Catcombe Corblimey J.W. in his prime

Corblimey at 10 years old.
 

CHAMPION CATCOMBE CORBLIMEY J.W. 

Winner of :

10 Challenge Certificates

7 Reserve Challenge Certificates

6 Best of Breeds.
Gundog Group 3
Show Gundog Working Certificate
Working Gundog
Winner of Pup of the Year 2003
Sire of 2 full Champions
Top winning Golden Retriever 2007
Hips 9:6 Elbows 0:0 Eyes clear

Corblimey in the Gundog Group at Crufts 2008

Dog CC and Reserve Dog CC Crufts 2007 with judge Mrs J. Johnson

Crufts 2007 Corblimey won the Dog Challenge Certificate and  won it again in 2008, this time going on to take Best of Breed.

 

There are three videos from 2008 of Crufts with dog judge Mrs Pauline Bevis and Mrs Ann Falconer - bitches

  1. Open Dog
  2. Dog Challenge Certificate
  3. Best of Breed and Best Puppy

Winning 3rd place in the Gundog Group at Windsor Championship Show in 2007 probably our proudest moment with Corblimey.

CORBLIMEY HAD BRAINS AS WELL AS BEAUTY.

Corblimey was a wondeful picking up dog and worked all his life with the rest of my team, three days a week on a local shoot. He was a steady and sensible worker with an excellent nose and natural gamefining ability.

CORBLIMEY IN ACTION

CORBLIMEY with his son CHAMPION CATCOMBE COCK A DOODLE DOO J.W

Doodle on the left Corblimey on the right
 


CHAMPION CATCOMBE COCK A DOODLE DOO J.W.

Winner of:

17 Challenge Certificates

14 Reserve Challenge Certificates

14 Best of Breeds

Gundog Group 1

Show Gundog Working Certificate

Working Gundog

Top winning male 2008

Top Golden 2010

Runner Up 2011 and 2012

Hips 6:6 Elbows 0:0 Eyes Clear

Doodle as a youngster of 14 months                  Doodle at 3 years old

Doodle taking Best in show at The Golden Retriever Club of  Northumbria's Championship Show.  Dog judge Mrs Ann Woodcock


Doodle taking Best in Show at Eastern Counties Golden Retriever Club Championship Show. Dog Judge Mr P. Carey. Two of the many Best in Shows Doodle won.

Leeds Championship Show GUNDOG GROUP 1 
Doodle handled by Mrs Joy Jackson Haines

Doodle in the shooting field proved to be worth his weight in gold. He was reliable, free ranging and missed very little and had natural working ability in abundance.

 

Doodle, like Corblimey his father, picked up on a local shoot all this life.  

Shows were his fun days put. Picking up was what he lived for and where he excelled. A true dual purpose dog and such a joy to live with.

DOODLE IN ACTION

CATCOMBE CHALLENGER J.W.

3 Reserve Challenge Certificates.

Show Gundog Working Certificate

Working Gundog

Hips 5:3 Elbows 0:0 Eyes clear. 

Challenger was coming into his own and maturing into a lovely dog when his career was cut short by David's passing. My showing days were limited then as David had been the mainstay for dog sitting in my absences.
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