Crufts 2010 - Is It Me?

[TillynPip]

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Well I didn't manage to get down to Crufts on Friday so have had to content myself with watching More 4's appalling effort at televising this event over the four days. I have never heard so much banal clap trap from presenter Clare Balding and her male side kick, whose name eludes me at the moment. I wonder why they felt it necessary to crack half hearted jokes at every opportunity, trying to ad lib which was a catastrophe because neither of them were quick witted enough to do it without a script. The poor vet trying to give serious answers to serious questions looked as utterly fed up as I felt. To add insult to injury, Clare Balding then announced highlights, many of which were her male side kick acting the buffoon behind the scenes with embarrassed looking trade stand owners - even the young children seemed amazed at this idiot. What fool, calling himself an editor, thought these were highlights. The dogs seemed to come a very poor third to the organ grinder and her monkey!

The final nail in the coffin? - the beautiful Pharaoh Hound didn't get Best in Show.

 

[eve]

I am in agreement. The only good thing were the commercial breaks which enabled me to nip out for more Rum and Coke to cope with the banal chatter!

I loved the Pharaoh Hound. Such a shame that he mucked things up for himself and did not present well. Going on this showing in the Group section, he could have shown a lot better and should have won.

 

[rls22]

I did think the coverage was very poor - the bit I enjoy is Frank Kane's commentary of each dog in the Group - I would love it if we could see each dog that has made it through to the Group and not just those that made the short list.

As for the BIS winner, the right dog won in my eyes - I think the handler really let the Pharoah down with that seriously OTT style of handling; giving a dog that was clearly very excited that long lead to run on was a recipe for disaster.

As we show people know; you can only judge the dog on the day and on that performance it did not deserve to be crowned BIS in such wonderful company.

 

[whippetsrus]

I didn't watch any of the televised Crufts but did watch BIS. I did think it was an appalling offering. When I watch it I want to see the dogs and not the other stuff that they seem to prefer.

On the night I felt that the best won but did wish that that the scottie had won BIS. I didn't see the pharoah hound on friday so cannot comment on his performance then but based on last night felt that the correct decision was made.

 

[Janimal]

I thought the coverage of Crufts..was poor too....and although I too was in favour of the Pharoah Hound winning BIS.....I thought

the same as other people that the handler let the dog down......the performance looked messy and the handler running out of control with it....

and in the end the Best dog won the Vizla....dont know that much about showing

but that looked a great performance in the ring to me. :thumbsup:

 

[phill]

I agree awful offering by more4 but at least we got to see some of the showing.Padded out with stupid pointless stuff with that bloke.We want to see the groups and showing!

Also,Mary Ray...... Enough already. :wacko:

And why do they have to turn the "hero" dogs into a competition? They are ALL winners in what they do.Just set up a Telephone line to donate and split the money between the charities?

Rant over LOL Well apart from i wanted the Pharoah hound to get BIS

 

[fallenangel]

what is it with this woman she ruined the winter olimpics now crufts and i use to watch racing till she started presenting why do they keep giving her theses jobs. crufts would be fine with just peter pervics doing a voice over and show us the dogs thats all we want to see.

 

[TTT]

I think that there are so many aspects to the show, besides the breed showing, and so little time, that they try to show a bit of everything to give a general idea to the public. It is impossible to show everything in a one hour per night show.

 

[Suzycbee]

I didnt think More4's crufts offering was particularly good. However, at least its been on telly. Hopefully will improve for next year - surely they will have enough brain to do interviews away from the noisy arena. Would like to see more breed showing myself, but Crufts is about more than dog showing so they have to do a balance I suppose.

 

[Esty]

I thought it went beyond awful! I know that Crufts has a lot to offer but if I wanted to see all the behind the scenes stuff, I'd actually go there. What I wanted from the TV programme was the breed and group judging. We saw about three seconds of whippets. There was just so little of it! I thought it was completely dumbed down and that male presenter was so up his own backside with trying to be sarcastic that he patronised every person he came into contact with. He wasn't funny or clever.

Also, what was with the TV set part being right near the ring, and open to all the noise from the crowd and commentary? Even if they were saying something useful (which they weren't..) you couldn't hear it for whistles, clapping and music. Usually it is behind glass, like with football commentary.

 

[Garry Comber]

I thought it went beyond awful! I know that Crufts has a lot to offer but if I wanted to see all the behind the scenes stuff, I'd actually go there. What I wanted from the TV programme was the breed and group judging. We saw about three seconds of whippets. There was just so little of it! I thought it was completely dumbed down and that male presenter was so up his own backside with trying to be sarcastic that he patronised every person he came into contact with. He wasn't funny or clever.Also, what was with the TV set part being right near the ring, and open to all the noise from the crowd and commentary? Even if they were saying something useful (which they weren't..) you couldn't hear it for whistles, clapping and music. Usually it is behind glass, like with football commentary.

I thought Clare Balding didn’t know what it was all about and I found her annoying, it would have been better if she stayed silent.

The group line up on Sunday was doing my head in, the poor cameraman was trying to keep up as the commentary sped down the line, resulting in the camera jerking to the next dog before they moved on, I felt quite dizzy

The whole thing was a gimmick to me and you can only take so much flyball and half witted jokes…….didn’t enjoy it at all!

 

[~Sarah~]

Well I didn't manage to get down to Crufts on Friday so have had to content myself with watching More 4's appalling effort at televising this event over the four days. I have never heard so much banal clap trap from presenter Clare Balding and her male side kick, whose name eludes me at the moment. I wonder why they felt it necessary to crack half hearted jokes at every opportunity, trying to ad lib which was a catastrophe because neither of them were quick witted enough to do it without a script. The poor vet trying to give serious answers to serious questions looked as utterly fed up as I felt. To add insult to injury, Clare Balding then announced highlights, many of which were her male side kick acting the buffoon behind the scenes with embarrassed looking trade stand owners - even the young children seemed amazed at this idiot. What fool, calling himself an editor, thought these were highlights. The dogs seemed to come a very poor third to the organ grinder and her monkey!

I thought the programmes were appalling - they wasted so much time cracking ridiculous jokes. :angry: :angry: Although 4 x one hour programmes is not long, they could have done so much more in that time. I was really disappointed.

 

[bertha]

It was truly dreadful, I couldn't be bothered to watch BIS. The way the programme was presented was appalling, jumping from one thing to another. That idiotic chap who knew nothing about dogs and made stupid remarks. If more4 are going to do it again they had better change the format. Most annoying hearing the hound group being judged in the background before we had a chance to see it, they did the same with the toys.

Big black mark I think!

 

[05whippet]

Completely agree with all that has been said...we Sky plus'd it & were lucky enough to be able to skip thru the intensely annoying "banal chatter" bits,yes it is great to see it back on TV but do we really need to be treated like retards by the presenters?? I mean Clare Balding is bad enough but that idiotic half-wit who was with her...well words simply fail me! Lets hope they get it sorted for next year...Jeez I'd even settle for Ben Fogle again!

 

I will say though that the Pharaoh is normally handled exactly the same way (on a long lead way out in front of the handler) the world over & usually never puts a foot wrong! I personally think it was their "fan base" that came with them that let them down and not the handler as the whooping & hollering was def putting the dog off in the big ring,this dog knows his stuff & has been shown extensively across Europe & beyond & was BIS at the WW's show so is not unaccustomed to applause & cameras etc. I think that BIS was always going to be Yogi's & he is a very nice dog but imo on a good day the Pharaoh could easily give him a run for his money.

 

[Noise]

but exactly the same thing happened last year with the Pharoah, he gave a much better performance in the group than BIS judging. from my limited experience of this breed, we had a few coming to our ringcraft, they are naturally skittish and a bit bonkers - maybe a judge could be a bit more forgiving? IMO sometimes group and BIS judging is like a handling competition.

the free style of handling is very popular in Europe.

 

[05whippet]

but exactly the same thing happened last year with the Pharoah, he gave a much better performance in the group than BIS judging.Maybe he just does'nt like Crufts BIS! :lol: from my limited experience of this breed, we had a few coming to our ringcraft, they are naturally skittish and a bit bonkers - maybe a judge could be a bit more forgiving? IMO sometimes group and BIS judging is like a handling competition.

the free style of handling is very popular in Europe.

 

[controversial]

biggest load of crap on the telly so far,the bis was easy as she had already given it 3 bis already this year so the commentator said before the judging.the good dog bad dog documentry aftrewards was far more better and the working visla shown on there was far better than the bis winner (w00t)

 

[TillynPip]

Completely agree with all that has been said...we Sky plus'd it & were lucky enough to be able to skip thru the intensely annoying "banal chatter" bits,yes it is great to see it back on TV but do we really need to be treated like retards by the presenters?? I mean Clare Balding is bad enough but that idiotic half-wit who was with her...well words simply fail me! Lets hope they get it sorted for next year...Jeez I'd even settle for Ben Fogle again! 

I will say though that the Pharaoh is normally handled exactly the same way (on a long lead way out in front of the handler) the world over & usually never puts a foot wrong! I personally think it was their "fan base" that came with them that let them down and not the handler as the whooping & hollering was def putting the dog off in the big ring,this dog knows his stuff & has been shown extensively across Europe & beyond & was BIS at the WW's show so is not unaccustomed to applause & cameras etc. I think that BIS was always going to be Yogi's & he is a very nice dog but imo on a good day the Pharaoh could easily give him a run for his money.

Completely agree, I may not be a show person but I think if the Pharaoh Hound had shown on Sunday as he did on Friday, he'd have stolen the show. Frank Kane was saying on Friday, what a sensible thing it was for his handler to let him go long. For whatever reason, Sunday just wasn't his night - shame though.

 

[rls22]

But you can only judge the dog on the day. On Sunday the Pharoah was not the star of the show by a long way in my eyes, I had three other Group winners before it, and I am a hound lover through and through.

You can't refer a judge back to a previous performance to judge on!!

 

[dolly]

biggest load of crap on the telly so far,the bis was easy as she had already given it 3 bis already this year so the commentator said before the judging.the good dog bad dog documentry aftrewards was far more better and the working visla shown on there was far better than the bis winner (w00t)

The judge of BIS at Crufts had not given him a BIS, he had won 2 gundog groups and a Reserve Best in show under her.