Neil Gillon’s Hill Trial had to be cancelled this year because a mist came down on the hill making visibility impossible, but as we say in Ireland, “its an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good”.

The fact that the Hill Trial was postponed meant that on the Sunday myself and John Heffernan were delivering a bitch to Scotland, we also got to meet up with Neil for a chat and run a dog in his trial.

Neil was a finalist in the World Trial this year with his dog Bhoy and he got through to the semi finals with his Bhoy son, Shweep. Neil was the Scottish team captain for the International in Tywyn after winning the Scottish National with Shweep in 2016.

John Heffernan & Stuart McCrindle

The pair were runners up when they represented Scotland in London on the One Man And His Dog TV competition earlier this year.

I would have liked to talk with Neil about a lot more things but the trial was just finished and Neil was needed to announce results and award prizes. Granted, it was a slightly easier task given that Shweep won and Bhoy was third!