UK SHOW SCHEME STRUCTURE
The Kennel Club |
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Before any breed may be shown in the United Kingdom it must first be recognised by the Kennel Club, who will place it in its appropriate Group, and unlike the Fédération Cynologique Internationale [FCI] Groups, the United Kingdom has just seven Groups as follows:
Working • Pastoral • Toy • Utility
Collies (Rough) are exhibited in the Pastoral Group
The British Show Scene is built on a pyramid with Match Meetings and Companion Dog Shows at the bottom, and Championship shows at the top, each fully explained in ‘The Kennel Club’s – Year Book’ published annually
Challenge Certificates are owned by The Kennel Club, who calculate the number to be allocated to each breed warranting Championship Status, distributing these between the General, Group, and Breed Club shows having previously been granted Championship Status according to their own criteria, it is however worth noting that not all shows offer Kennel Club Challenge Certificates for all breeds.
Rough Collies are currently allocated 36 pairs (one for each sex) of Challenge Certificates these shared between the four Representative, twenty three General, three Group, and fourteen Breed Clubs who organise either Sub-Group or Single Breed Shows (see below for explanation), which means not all designated Championship Shows can offer Challenge Certificates to Rough Collies. In 2008 this number will reduce to 35 pairs or sets of Challenge Certificates, but due to a change in the way the Kennel Club calculate the allocation of Challenge Certificates to Belfast Dog Show Society’s Championship Show, Rough Collies will again be allocated 36 pairs of Challenge Certificates in 2009.
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Representative Shows — there are only four General Championship shows which are granted Challenge Certificates for every breed having attained Championship status, and are therefore referred to as Representative Shows. These shows being; Crufts, Birmingham National, Scottish Kennel Club [May] and Welsh Kennel Club. |
| General Championship Shows — with the exception of Scottish Breeds, which limits their classification to the 12 breeds with a Scottish origin, General Championship Shows schedule classes for breeds across all seven groups, but not all breeds will have classes with Challenge Certificates on offer. Where a breed is scheduled without Challenge Certificates the principal awards on offer are for Best of Sex, Reserve Best of Sex and Best of Breed. The Best of Breed winner is still entitled to enter the Group for further evaluation. Where classes are restricted to exhibits having attained less than a number of wins, wins at Championship shows, where there are no
Challenge Certificates on offer, are classed as
wins at Open Show level. |
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Group Shows — with the exception of the Working and Pastoral Groups, which for historic reasons is classified as a single group, Group shows are confined to breeds from within a single group. By tradition the National Society of each Group will be granted Challenge Certificates for all eligible breeds within their group. Of the three associations covering the Working and Pastoral Groups, National Working & Pastoral Breeds Society is considered the National Society, whilst Working & Pastoral Breeds of Wales and Working & Pastoral Breeds of Scotland are treated as regional clubs, which do not warrant special consideration, the latter of these is not at present allocated Challenge Certificates for Rough Collies. |
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Sub-Group Shows — refer to a special class of Breed Club Show, of which the Collie is one, which cater for more than one variety or sub-group of the same breed;
ie: Rough and Smooth Collies.
The following Collie Breed Clubs schedule classes for both Rough and Smooth Collies, therefore their shows are classed as Sub-Group Shows: British Collie Club, East Anglian Collie Association, Lancashire & Cheshire Collie Club, London Collie Club, London & Provincial Collie Club and West of England Collie Society. Rough Collie Classes are also scheduled at the Smooth Collie Club of Great Britain shows.
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Breed Club Shows — refer to clubs or associations which cater for a single breed or variety of breed. |
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Breed Club CC Rotation |
The Kennel Club’s announcement in 1994 that the Rough Collie Challenge Certificate allocation to Collie Breed Clubs would be reduced by one to thirteen from 1996 came as a shock to the breed. At the time the Kennel Club, not wishing to remove Championship Status from any one breed club, also announced that from 1996 one set of Challenge Certificates would alternate between the Collie Club of Wales and the West of England Collie Society. After considerable discussion between the Kennel Club and the Rough Collie Breed Council on behalf of the combined breed club’s it has been agreed that from 2007 a rotation will be shared between all clubs starting with Ayrshire Collie Club and continuing in alphabetical order with the exception of the two originally rotating clubs who will loose theirs after all other clubs.
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2007: Ayrshire Collie Club
2008: British Collie Club
2009: East Anglian Collie
Association
2010: Collie Association
2011: Irish Collie Club
2012: Lancashire & Cheshire
Collie Club
2013: London & Provincial Collie
Club
2014: London Collie Club
2015: Midland Collie Club
2016: Northumberland & Durham Collie Club
2017: Scottish Collie Club
2018: Yorkshire Collie Club
2019: West of England Collie
Society
2020: Collie Club of Wales
RCBC CC ROTATION |
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The Show Societies Role |
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Although promoting show societies must schedule certain classes in breeds where Challenge Certificates are on offer, the remainder of each show’s classification, including which none CC breeds are granted classes, which classes are scheduled, as well as which groups share the same day, remain the responsibility of the host society, who are also responsible for choosing the venue, duration and judges, although all of this must be verified with the Kennel Club, and judges for breeds awarded Challenge Certificates must be approved by ‘The Kennel Club’s Judges Sub-Committee.
When the Pastoral and Working Groups were created out of the original Working Group in 1999 show societies generally continued to schedule the two groups on the same day, although there was no compulsion to do so. The Working & Pastoral Breeds Association of Scotland was the first Society to schedule these groups on different days when they decided to run their show over two day in 2001. In 2007 both WELKS, in April, and Midland Counties, in October, intend following this lead, and the following year Three Counties, in June, will also schedule the Working and Pastoral Groups on different days making it probable others will imitate in the future.
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