LIBRARY

FAMOUS KENNELS
Saighton Kennels - Talbot Radcliffe's Reminisces (part 1)
By David Miller

Talbot Radcliffe, founder of the Saighton Kennels in Anglesey, Wales, is without question the most successful breeder of spaniels for American field trials. In 1971 Charles Goodall wrote in the Springer Bark that Saightonbreed dogs (which he defined as dogs having at least one Saighton parent) had achieved approximately 200 placements in U.S. trials, including nationals, during the period 1959-1970. Since then, most readers are probably aware of the extra-ordinary record of Saighton and Saighton-bred dogs in national competition and field trialing generally. From 1970 on, in U.S. national competition alone, Saighton dogs or dogs with one Saighton parent have taken 7 firsts and a total of 24 placements in the Open nationals and 6 firsts and 20 placements in the Amateur nationals.

The Saighton Kennels are located on Talbot's estate, known as Pressadfed, near the village of Bodedern on the Island of Anglesey in North Wales. The estate is operated as a shooting lodge where guests from all over the world come to shoot duck, snipe, woodcock and driven pheasants. Approximately 20-30 male Springer pups are raised each year in the kennels. During the shooting season the young dogs of approximately 18 months are used in the process of driving pheasants out of the woods and cover to fly over the waiting shooters. The most suitable of these dogs are exported to America as field trial prospects.

Talbot started breeding and training spaniels in the 1920's and won many awards in British field trials before becoming interested in breeding dogs specifically for American trials. Now 81, Talbot recently was a guest in the home of Drs. C.A. and Janet Christensen near Portland, Oregon, where he graciously consented to this interview.

DM: Please review your early background with spaniels.

TR: Approximately 70 years ago I obtained my first spaniel who was non-pedigree and was one of 12 pups chosen when I was a boy just beginning to shoot. I soon obtained a bitch, also a non-pedigree, and for several years had great fun shooting over these two dogs. Living in the Vale of Clwwyd, Denbighshire, North wales, in a great sporting area, especially as far as shooting was concerned, I devoted the whole of my spare time to shooting and hunting with my spaniels. After that I flirted about with the dual purpose good looking show type of springers, tri-color, black and white with liver noses and heads, and I became involved as well as working this strain with showing it at shows. But I very quickly became disillusioned and after about a dozen shows withdrew with haste, never to return to that particular pastime because it was not my cup of tea. In the late 1920s I was on holiday in the island of Anglesey and went to see a litter of field trial spaniels out of a bitch called F.T.Ch. MUTALI BUSY by F.T.Ch. SPY O'VARA. Spy had won 17 open stakes and was a noted field trial dog. I was there with a new wife and we saw these dogs on the lawn of this big lovely house. The purchasing price was 10 pounds each and we just couldn't afford it. We had to leave them and really went away crying, but my appetite was whetted at that time, and I had the full intention of getting into that strain as soon as I could. The owner of field trial champion, Spy O'Vara, was Selwyn Jones who was the owner of the famous O'Vara Kennel, and he lived close by and we went to see him. We became very friendly with him and his professional trainer, Joe Greatorex, and he made me a present of a bitch on breeding terms. I think I'm the only person that he ever let a female go to. It was on condition that I, in turn, would never part with any female, a condition I have observed up to the present time, which is over 50 years. During the next five or six years I had the great pleasure of going with Mr. and Mrs. Greatorex up to Scotland to the wonderful trials held there. We were working so hard, 7 days a week, it was very, very difficult to get leave of absence. My appetite was whetted and Greatorex was very good in discussing and teaching me what there was to know about these trials, and I was able towards the end of the 1930's to do some winning in novice and open stakes just before the war started.

DM: Was this using dogs you had bred yourself?

TR: Yes, all from the original bitch, Saighton Skip. And then the war came along and everything was closed down and we immediately got down to the one bitch which was Saighton Skip. With the shortage of food that was all we could afford to feed. We followed that with one litter during the war years which we reduced to two pups. Saighton Slip was the second bitch of the war years that really kept the strain going through that very difficult period when most of the famous field trial kennels went into extinction. Joe Greatorex went into the Army as a firearm instructor, and Selwyn Jones kept a couple of bitches in Anglesey. There was a complete shutdown during the Second World War of all field trial activities, and all field trial breeding, which had a devasting effect on the breed as a whole. It meant that after the war, female lines were so limited that anything bred now is very, very closely related. It doesn't matter from what direction it comes, it really is so close that it isn't possible to do anything about it.

THE DEPARTURE - 1955
Saighton Kennels first invasion of the U.S.

DM: What comparisons can you make between pre-War British field trials and those of today?

TR: Pre-War field trials were simply wonderful. Many estates had their own strains of spaniels, working spaniels used for shooting purposes with men to look after them, and their own professional handlers. All the estates had the facility to give wonderful training, primarily based on rabbits. The excitement of a trial run on good ground with rabbits lying on top is something, that is beyond description. The consequence is that with the amount of game available and the quality of the work, the steadiness of the dogs was extremely high. And as each estate was breeding in competition with other estates, the overall standard of the breed was good and the numbers of fine dogs available were far in excess of anything that is available today. Labor was cheap, men were cheap and the estates employed quite a number of people looking after and training their dogs. These strains from the old estates are the basis of the field trial spaniels of today, however the sport of field trialing is now pursued by people from all walks of life and not merely the landed gentry as was the case before World War I.