In a league of their own

She's still not sure how it happened, but Soraya Porter has found herself the Section representative for Dog Agility for the Revenue & Customs Sports & Leisure club (RCSL). So she decided to take it one step further and start an agility league for civil servants. And, before anyone says it, all competitions, training etc. will take place outside of normal office hours, and no ones taxes are going to fund this CSA.

January 2008

A Message from Soraya

I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to announce the final results of the first year of the Civil Service Dog Agility Club. The top place for the Departmental League winners was no less closely fought for than the individual awards. I hope 2008 will see the League continue to grow. We especially need more Small and Medium dogs, and I’m thinking about adding a veterans section, too.

As well as the national awards many of the individual Departments are having their own awards, and I’d like to thank all those people who volunteered to be my main point of contact and co-ordinator for their Department. Once again, well done to all of you, and good luck for 2008.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in 2007. The complete results can be found on the Civil Service Dog Agility Club website

Well done to the class and departmental winners for 2007.

Class 1 - Grades 1-2 all sizes

Class 2 - Grades 3,4 & 5 all sizes

 Class 3 - Grades 6 & 7 all sizes

HMRC is the first Department to win the League Trophy. The Departmental League table looks like this:

Departmental Leader Board

The date and venue for the League presentations will be announced shortly.  Don’t forget to update your details using the form on the front page of our website: www.freewebs.com/csdaclub. If you are interested in joining the League, all details can be found on the website.

November 2007

A request from Soraya: Can everyone submit their December points ASAP, so that work can be started on organising the presentation in January please?

Departmental Leader Board

Class 1 ~ Grades 1 & 2

Class 2 ~ Grades 3,4 & 5

Class 3 ~ Grades 6 & 7

End of Year Report from Soraya Porter

So... CSDAC is almost a year old. What's the story so far?

Well, I have to say that if I'd realised just how much work was involved, I might have thought twice about volunteering to set-up, and run, the League. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not the most organised person in the world, and ‘disaster- prone' doesn't even begin to cover it! So you could be forgiven if you heard the distant strains of Fraser's favourite phrase from Dads Army  'We're all doomed.'

However, one year on, and I've surprised myself as to what has actually been set up. It's been a steep learning curve, and I've taught myself Excel spreadsheet, learnt about web sites, found out how to put in various business cases for sponsorship, and discovered powers of persuasion, coercion, and down right grovelling, I never knew I had!

The Civil Service Dog Agility Club, is just that, a dog agility club for civil servants. It's not for the kiddies of civil servants, or their partners – yet. Never say never, and as the club grows, this may become a possibility, but at the moment, membership is very specific.

Initially I thought it would be good to have competitions at perhaps some of the various Departments Sports Days, but currently this is proving impractical, and once again this may be something for the future. I also looked at a CSDAC sponsored class to be held at one of the larger shows. The problem is though, that our members come from 20 different Departments, and from every part of the UK, with no particularly large groupings of members at any one geographical location. So at the moment, we are confining our activities to a League, where, of course, it doesn't matter where you live. The other ideas are ones that I would like to see happen eventually, but perhaps not this year or next, if I wish to maintain my already tenuous hold on my sanity!

The current set up within CSDAC
Basically there are three ‘classes', or you may like to think of them as smaller leagues. Class 1 is for all three sizes of dogs who start the competing year in Grade 1 or 2. Class 2 is for all three sizes of dog who start the year in Grades 3, 4 or 5. Finally, Class 3 is once again for all three sizes, in Grades 6 and 7. The sizes are not split in the three classes, as the numbers in Small and Medium are not great enough yet. We have 105 dogs registered with us, and twenty different Departments.

Classes 1, 2 & 3 have their own awards, but these points also go towards the Departmental League. The idea is that everyone's points, great and small, including clear rounds, count towards their own department's scores, with the winning department being awarded a perpetual challenge cup which they then keep in their trophy cabinet for a year.

So far the Department at the top of the leader board seems to have changed virtually every single month, and I really wouldn't like to say who is likely to end up the victor this year. It's certainly becoming a strongly fought for award.

I've also got a person who has volunteered to be my main point of contact in each department, and I've encouraged each of these to approach their own, ‘in-house' sports club or society to arrange departmental awards and trophies. Unfortunately I get a double whammy here, as I'm also the representative for HMRC!

The interdepartmental rosettes arrived last week. They're pretty spectacular and well worth having. The sponsorship for this has come from the Civil Service Sports Council, who have also generously agreed to provide the inter-departmental trophies, and perpetual challenge cup. The prize giving will take place in January 2008, to allow people to submit points for any shows in December, and to give members something to look forward to in the aftermath of Christmas.

Club members from CSDAC designed the club logo, and another club member designed a website for us, which has been a great help in keeping all the members informed. The new logo now proudly appears on a line of club clothing available at Groovy Dogs, and looks very smart. I'm particularly fond of the light blue polo shirts.

A very busy and productive year
There were times when I was pulling my hair out, but luckily I have quite thick hair, and the resulting bald patches don't show up too much! Next year should, hopefully, not be quite so manic, I thought I'd allow everything to settle in, before I start looking at actual show classes, sponsorship, friendly competitions etc. I may have masochistic tendencies, but not quite that masochistic.

The points for the CSDAC have been updated again. All change again at the top of the Departmental League table!

The top places in the three classes are:

Class 1 - Grades 1 & 2

Class 2 - Grades 3, 4 & 5