Held at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday 7th April
Judges at this show
Dogs – Bill McKnight (affix Belnite) – pictured left and Sarah Hemstock (affix Jolihem) – below, right with daughter Josephine Fredrico (otherwise known as Freddie)
This show was once again held on the same weekend as National Terrier and attracted an entry of 157, made up of 82 dogs, 75 bitches.
Exhibitors were welcomed into the venue car park (below right) and into the venue itself – the poster (left) recognising the very appreciated influx of enthusiasts from mainland Europe – this year we had 28 dogs coming over despite Brexit looming large.
This show has two main sponsors; Pero Dog food – specialist suppliers of complete dog food for SBT’s – for this show they donated 15 kilo bags for BIS, Res BIS, Best Puppy and Best Veteran plus a 2 kilo bag for each of the class winners
And our other main sponsor is Leigh Plumbing who support all three shows financially – Leigh Plumbing specialise in the design and supply of a large range of modern bathrooms as well as the supply of all your plumbing needs.
This year we encouraged people in the breed to sponsor this show and we used this very generous response to give specials in the form of chocolate Easter eggs to all the placings and main winners – the higher the place the bigger the egg. There was also an engraved glass for all first place winners.
Alan Hedges donated a Stafford model from his Ramblix collection and this was awarded to the BIS; Jane Louise Roper donated one of her pictures – Peaky Blinders – which was awarded to Reserve BIS
; Bev Harrison donated a signed copy of the SBT Annual 2018 – this was awarded to the Best Puppy in show and Martin Johnson donated one of his Stafford Vet Bed’s and this was awarded to the Best Veteran in show.
Cash donations were made by the Axe family, Bunny Cockayne, Dean Cund, John Dare, Kaine Davis, Vincent Desmazes, John Dimmock, George Earle, Andy Dodsworth, Frank Gough, Pete Hopgood, Nigel Hunt, Tracy Hunting, Frank Marlow, Paul Martin, Jan Matthews, Dave McKimm, Alan Mitchell, Martin & Michelle Murphy, Anna Murray, Jacqui Northway, Tony Pritchard, Lee Rhodes, Steve & Julie Simpson and Siobhan Slattery – a bit of a who’s who of the present Stafford world assembled around the Stafford ring at Crufts; thanks to all and to Elaine who did the collecting.
The judges also contributed – Sarah brought three Fijian wooden bowls for her main winners and Bill brought a glass trophy engraved with two well known, legendary Belnite dogs for the Dog CC winner.
Around the show
The latest in dog treats from Vegan Poochy Treats and why not? Vegan Poochy Treats asked us for a stall and here they are at the show.
For more info go to https://veganpoochytreats.co.uk/
The opportunity was taken to make a couple of presentations at the interval – the first to commemorate 60 years membership of the NWSBTC for Les Aspin – he was presented with a large framed photo of himself back in the day with two of his Champion Staffords and also a hand made leather belt stamped with Scarthwaite, provided by Geoff Boote.

The second was a presentation to Barbara Green recognising her sterling efforts rescuing Staffords, in need of a home, this activity which she has lived and breathed over the last 40 plus years involving thousands of dogs. The idea of this presentation came originally from Stafford Welfare and Audrey Hubery was to perform the task. In the event Audrey was indisposed and the duty fell to NWSBT Chairman Tec Norton. As well as the engraved crystal from Welfare, the NWSBTC contributed an engraved crystal flower vase.
























































































