Northants Falcons Flyball Team

The Falcons went into their first cup race on Sunday against Cambridgeshire hoping that the ball carriage issues of Friday were over. We just wanted to run clean and the dogs to do their best and that is exactly what we did; Lynx, Pace, Drift and Thor ran three clean legs to take the win, hitting a 14.51 in the process.
Our next race against Aces wasn’t quite as smooth with multiple reruns and although we took 2 legs off them and had a tie, with Lynx putting up a new PB of 3.48, we ultimately lost our first life. Our next race was against Raptors and we knew the racing against Aces had taken its toll on our dogs. We decided to aim for clean and Lynx, Kiki, Pace and Drift delivered just that, taking the win in 3 legs. Next up was Junkyard Dogs; we had some fantastic racing and although we matched them for speed, spit balls from tiring dogs cost us the win and we ultimately finished the Gold Cup in 4th place.

We couldn’t be prouder of these dogs. Pace at 7 and a half is still showing why she is the foundation dog of our current Falcons team setting some great times and Luke always has some of our best passes. Drift and Rob always bring speed and tight passes (giving Abbie a heart attack on the line when Rob executed a nose to nose pass despite the other team having a light). Lynx showed no sign of Jeff; he didn’t make a single mistake on either day, setting consistently quick times and giving the Falcons a great start (clearly happy to have Izzy back). Without Kiki, the Falcons wouldn’t have made it into the Gold Cup on the Friday; we’re so grateful this pretty girl hadn’t come into season yet! Thor has all the speed and he brought it home for us in many of our races on Sunday, just giving us that extra edge on anchor. Katie has worked so hard on his ball carriage and to ensure he stays with her and he truly is a class act.

A huge congratulations to Barking 4 Balls for winning the Gold Cup; the standard and speed of the Cup racing was insane!

Sunday was a busy day with three teams racing but the Falcons had been boosted by a team Pie night the night before and were ready to race.

The Northants Kites was almost a junior team with Eden, Sienna and Izzy being joined by the ever youthful Liam and Katie. Envy, Cody, Lola, Tarran and Riddick are experienced and a lot of fun to race. These dogs were solid and reliable with only a couple of missed balls and early passes and they finished 2nd in their division.

The Kestrels (Jarvis, Java, Sapphire and Poi) have been getting quicker and quicker and were in a very competitive division. They ran really well with Sapphire setting the jumps, Jarvis and Java setting the speed from the start and Sienna taking on the handling of Poi like a pro. They finished 3rd.

Saturday at the UKFL Champs was an emotional day for the Falcons. In the early hours of the morning, Katie and Angie had to take Milo to the vets to cross the bridge so we all started the day with heavy hearts.

Added to this, Pippa and Mia were racing their last races before retirement but the Harriers (Purge, Zak, Pippa, Mia, Ozy and Pickle) ran their hearts out to try to win the division. The four team division racing of 6 legs of 3 is usually our least favourite but it was perfect for us for these dogs, as usually we have to swap around a lot to accommodate the older legs! However, they weren’t quite quick enough on the day and finished a hugely credible 2nd.

Our Northants Hawks looked like they were going to be up against it; Ruby was unable to race with them leaving them with four dogs and Gracie has been a little diva in the red lane at our last few competitions. However, our wonderful friends from Southern Striders offered us George and Ted as a back up which gave us a little breathing room. As it was Gracie was phenomenal, setting a new PB of 3.79 and never looking like she was going to run out. The other three dogs, Barney (who also set a PB of 3.82), Bonnie and Jake were all amazing and George and Ted slotted in seamlessly. They also finished 2nd (with a cheeky break out for good measure).

The Falcons are recovering from a fantastic weekend racing at the UKFL Championships in Anglesey. Their racing started on Friday with two junior pairs and the Falcons taking on the cup racing.

Our Junior racing consisted of a battle of the siblings. Ella and Lola were paired with Izzy and Tarran in division one and had to face off against their sisters Eden with Envy and Sienna with Poing (who put up a new PB of 3.59 on the day). The remaining pair in their division was also a pair of siblings from the fabulous Origin Flyball team! After some fantastic racing, Eden and Sienna took 1st place with Ella and Izzy close behind them in 2nd.

The Falcons have never got beyond the Bronze cup in their previous attempts but went into Friday’s cup racing on the back of three Division 1 wins and a new club record. However, the dogs (Lynx, Pace, Drift, Thor and Kiki) hadn’t quite read the script and we saw more spat balls than we have done for a while. However, the team held their nerve to finish 2nd in their group and set the third fastest time of the day to go into the Gold Cup as third seed setting us up for an exciting day of cup racing on Sunday.

New PB for Lynx!
✨3.48✨

New PB for Gracie
✨3.79✨

Poing new pb
3.59

Barney new PB
✨3.82✨

Congratulations, Envy, on achieving your Flying Officer Superior with an amazing 17,000 points! 🏆

A fantastic achievement—well done and very well deserved! 💚