Founded in 1885 the Scottish Collie Club was not the first club to serve the Collie community, that privilege goes to The Collie Club established in 1881 but it can claim to be the oldest surviving Collie Club in the world, a fitting tribute to an association which serves the Collie in its homeland. The Scots have always be acknowledged to be fiercely individual, so it should be no surprise that they remained independent of any outside control for more than half century which makes tracing their early history almost impossible. We do know that the Scottish Collie Club issued its own version of the Breed Standard in the year they were established, and expected judges north of the border to adhere to it. There is also a record of Mr J. Tait of the famous ‘Wishaw’ kennel being the Scottish Collie Club’s President some time around the beginning of the of the twentieth century, but little else. The reasons why the Scottish Collie Club sought Kennel Club registration in 1939 were lost during the war that erupted later the same year, official records tell us that the Stewart sisters ‘Chapelburn’ held the secretary’s post jointly, but we have no record about any war time events, when anything other than the smallest of shows which were confined to exhibitors within a restricted radius of the venue were banned. The Scottish Collie Club, one of a handful of breed clubs to maintain their Kennel Club registration status throughout the war were rewarded in 1946 when they were invited to host one of the four Rough Collie Championship Shows, all organised by breed clubs, held that year. Championship status returned in 1947, but the following year, in an effort to encourage the return of large General Championship Shows, the Kennel Club confined this level of competition to All Breed shows. By 1950 the Kennel Club were again ready to support single breed championship shows, but confined their patronage to the two national clubs, and it was a further twenty years before the Scottish Collie Club invited Mrs Nadine George ‘Beulah’ to step into the centre ring on the 16th of May 1970. Championship status has been maintained since the 1970 show, but finding suitable dates in a crowded calendar is a constant problem. After occupying an April date, when the weather can still be unpredictable this far north, for many years the Scottish Collie Club moved to its present early June date in 2002 seeing an immediate increase in support. It is unfortunate that it has proved impossible to locate images of both Challenge Certificate winners for either the Scottish Collie Club’s first Championship Show or its 1970 Championship Show, which heralded the Club’s continuous run of Championship Shows. For this reason we are featuring here the Dog CC winner from our first Championship Show and bitch CC winner from the 1970 Championship Show.
In line with Kennel Club directives the Scottish Collie Club has appointed Mrs Cathy Proctor as its Health Co-ordinator: For more details about the Scottish Collie Club, and its activities contact the Secretary: Secretary - Miss Alyson Carmichael
email: kilchrenan@yahoo.com last update 01-May-2023 |
