Field trial legend dies

June Atkinson, who has died aged 84, was an imposing presence in the gundog world, reports Graham Cox. In her hands especially Holway golden retrievers were a match for the best, and of 29 Holway FTChs she made up 14.

Her FTCh Mazurka of Wynford won the International Gundog League Retriever Championship ? which she would go on to qualify for 36 times and judge no fewer than nine times ? in 1954 and was placed second the following year. Two diplomas followed giving him an award in each of his four runs.

Equally impressive as a sire, he is behind many of the subsequent Holway FTChs, most notably FTCh Holway Gaiety who won eight Open Stakes and the Rank Routledge Trophy. That bitch line was one June bred to time and again, but her public profile in such events as the Game Fair International was mostly associated with charismatic dogs like FTChs Holway Chanter and Holway Corbiere, the ?Desert Orchid? of gundogs.

The rest of this article appears in 20th April issue of Shooting Times.

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