BOX CLEVER Flyball Club sent three teams to the national tournament at Acremead Kennels, Didcot last weekend including the trainee Mystery Box team competing in one of the novice divisions.

The weather conditions were atrocious on the Saturday for the top team and the novice side, it was wet muddy and very slippery "underpaw".

The Box Clever team, seeded fourth in Division Four, looked to have a difficult task on their paws with several more established teams ranked above them but the conditions called for consistent, accurate, experienced and courageous flyball, something the line up of Reuben, Flynn, Rhona and Cerys all have in large amounts.

From their very first run they ground out accurate, complete runs at a good pace that the more fancied sides could not live with, first the top ranked Buccaneers and then local friends and rivals Bassetts fell to the steady, relentless pressure from the Boxers.

At the lunch interval Box Clever held a perfect 3 and 0 record and a clean sweep was on the cards.

The final match was against the very dangerous Recall Rebound who had already notched up a faster time than the Boxers earlier in the day but yet again the relentless, accurate running from the western raiders told and a handsome 3-0 victory was earned.

A fantastic performance from Box's top team gave them five wins for a perfect record and a glorious, well deserved first place.

The day belonged to the novice Mystery box side who found themselves lined up against teams for some of the top flyball sides around but unfazed by that and the terrible weather produced a stunning display for a first time out.

The team of Pippa, Rocco, Bee and Buddy outclassed all the teams in their division and came away having won all their matches for another Box clean sweep and first place.

More icing was added to the cake when the results showed they had produced the fastest time from any of the three novice divisions on the day, all four of these dogs showed they have great flyball careers in front of them.

Sunday saw the skies clear but the damage done to the ground was still very evident as the Box Pacers set about their division, seeded fourth, so some tough racing was to come.

The team, rotating their six dogs Tilley, Mopp, Evie, Libby, Zillion and Fergus, struggled with the tricky conditions in their first race but then settled and at the lunch break had won two and lost one, a record shared with three other teams, so the afternoon was going to be wide open and anyone's title to take.

The Pacers opened up with another win to put them in the hunt going to a last match shoot out with Scallywags, they got their noses in front but were hauled back just losing in the fifth and deciding leg but ending up a commendable third in their highly competitive division.

A fabulous weekend for the club was then rounded off when three team members were presented with awards, Reuben with Phillip Moore along with Wilson and Heather Gregory (absent due to an immnent arrival) got their National Flyball Silver Award for 10, 000 career points to date and Zillion and Lauraine Chiverton gained their National Flyball Dog award for hitting their first 200 points.

The club travel to Wokingham next Sunday hoping to round off a great first season in Flyball.

For more information on the club please visit boxcleverflyball.weebly.com