A "Tail" of Two Tournaments

by roving reporter Cheryl Kramer

and

local correspondent Randall Shaw

In March and June of 2003 members of the Birmingham Bandits attended tournaments in Charlotte, NC and St. Louis, MO.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  In Charlotte the Bandits were represented by 1 team:  Oban, Mira, Layla, Dazzle, Pepper and Snap.  It was Pepper’s last tournament before maternity leave.  The 3 seasoned veterans certainly had to put up with a lot of mistakes by the green owners and dogs, but their patience certainly paid off in St. Louis. 

For St. Louis the Bandits had 2 full teams. Our first team, Clean Getaway, was represented by Oban, Mace, Dazzle, Mattie, and Snap.  Our second team, Most Wanted, was comprised of Jake, Mira, Maggie, Pepper, Layla and Gyp.  Perhaps our success in St. Louis was "spurred" by our new black Bandits team shirts, but most likely our teams were inspired by Barbara's sagacious flyball aphorisms.  These factors led to a first place finish for Clean Getaway and a third place finish for Most Wanted on Sunday.

All the dogs deserve special accolades, far more than their puperonni and ribbons, but two deserve honorable mention.  At this his first tournament Jake put all of the other green dogs to shame.  And special mention must be made of the Gypster who ran his first tournament after many moments of patience from Jenny.

Barbara won the sleeping contest, and Jenny the hostess award for the pizza party.  Drake was promoted to head cheerleader and Gage kept all the balls in line for not only the Bandits, but for other teams as well.  Special mention must also be made of Randall, who in spite of unbeknownst line-up changes and unusual reruns, kept the dogs in balls.  That is until Mira stopped the game and told him off.  Despite heroic efforts, there was nothing Randall could do to save that heat from a no-finish.  And many thanks to Mary and Carmen for their help with passes, starts and morale. 

Finally, on a more personal note, Oban and I would like to thank you all for making our last tournament with you all so special.  We will never forget the love, joy and humor of St. Louis and celebrate that WE DIDN’T COME LAST!!!!!!