Page 102 - K9News_Issue13_October2020_download_Neat

CK
I G
KN
RO
The Bulldog journey of the Kingrock Kennel
Although we had both been involved in the show
world before we first met, it had taken us in a
slightly different direction in the early days. Chris
started showing a Rough Collie in the mid-60s,
as a junior handler and later becoming involved
in Obedience training, whereas Graham’s first
interest was in the world of Dairy Goats, an
interest he still follows today after more than 50
Graham with
UK & SW Ch
Tretun Sam Wella
at Kingrock
BOB Crufts 1993
Sam Wella was one of the champions we
offered at stud at the time who were sons of Ch
Kingrock Buster, grandsons of Ch Kingrock
Canis Pugnax, great grandsons of Ch
Kingrock Freezo and great, great grandsons of
Ch Kingrock Captain Christian.
102
K9 NEWS DIGITAL / JULY 2020
by Chris Thomas & Graham Godfrey
years.
Chris saw his first Bulldogs whilst competing
with his Collie and in 1975 he purchased his
first, a beautiful bitch bred by John and Sheila
Alcock. Sheila was well-known at the time for
her weekly column ‘The Feminine View’ in Our
Dogs. She was also the Bulldog breed note
writer for that paper. Around this time Graham
started in Cardigan Corgis, encouraged by
fellow goat keepers, who were also the owners
of a couple of famous Cardi kennels.
The Kingrock affix was registered in 1975 and
the kennel’s first champions, Kingrock Captain
Christian and his sister Maybe Baby, were
born in 1979. They were sired by the famous
sire, Merriveen Son of Satan and their dam,
Kingrock My Nora Tee, went on to become
one of the breed’s top producing bitches. The
Merriveen kennel was just 10 miles away from
the Kingrocks and over the next 10 years
the two kennels, working together, went from
strength to strength.
The owner of the Merriveen kennel, Pat Dellar,
famous in so many breeds, died earlier this year
(this has not been a good year for the breed,
with the loss of several great bulldoggers)
leaving us as the only remaining UK kennel to
have bred bulldog champions since the 70s.
With 41 champion bulldogs there are too many
to mention individually but Ch Kingrock Freezo
is particularly worthy of note, as he has gone
down in history as one of the breed’s top sires.
Chris and Graham were introduced at Crufts in
1985 by Ann Winters of the famous Rosskear