Here is a picture of our very own Roly in the earlier days, I don't know how early and if I did it would probably be rude to say. (Roly if you ask Sue she will show you how to add comments to this Blog post at the bottom of the page!)
Roly has trained six search dogs over the years and always has a story to tell over a pint. One that I recently read and enjoyed was in the summer of 1980 when SARDA Wales was asked to search for a missing head on the East side of the Snowdon Gribin. The night before the search Roly had surprised a teenage boy who had broken into his home. Roly collared him and returned with him to a nearby centre for delinquent youngsters. As punishment the principal of the centre ordered the lad to join Roly on the search!
This picture is of Neil who has also been involved with SARDA Wales for a very long time, despite still not looking old enough to have been!
The photo shows Neil on the left with his dog (Wilfie?) whilst having a break on a training exercise. Theres no story to go with this one, I just thought the embarrassing old photo was too good to miss.
Another name that keeps popping up again and again in the history of SARDA Wales is that of Phil Benbow. Here is a recollection from Bob Marslen-Jones in his book Countdown to Rescue:
"Our long, unremitting battle to establish the Search and Rescue Dog Associations credibility received a tremendous boost towards the end of October 1982 when a night long search for two small children ended in success just before dawn.
The children aged 11 and 12 got bored whilst sitting in their holiday cottage in Nant Peris, they had spent the afternoon looking at the steep sided 600 metre Llechog ridge and the challenge it presented gradually became too much for them and set they off for their walk at about 3:30pm.
By supper time they had not returned and their increasingly worried parents called the Police and Llanberis MRT and SARDA Wales were called out at 8:15pm. Four dog teams were initially deployed, Roly, Bob, Heather Maling and Phil. They were tasked to search the immediate area. By 11:00pm additional dogs had also joined the search and the are was widened. At 3:30 am there was still no sign of the children and the coordinator decided to recall the searchers for a rest so that they could recommence the search at 7:00am.
Phil had to be at work for 9:00am so volunteered to do another search whilst the others went home. Hugh Davies had volunteered to go with him as navigator and so they made their way to Clogwyn Station with search dog Jet. They searched towards Nant Peris and once they had reached Clogwyn Clwyd having had no joy they decided to call it a day. They had descended a gully about 15m when Phil noticed his dog had disappeared, he called and whistled but there was no response.
Realising his dog must be onto something Phil scrambled back up the gully, made a note of the wind direction and found his dog in the light of his headtorch. Jet had found the two missing children lying in a scooped out hollow, cold and frightened but otherwise well enough to tell their story to their relieved parents back at base"
Subsequently Jet was awarded the Pro Dogs Gold medal for devotion to duty and Phil and jet had to attend a swanky awards ceremony somewhere posh! (Fancy taking a Labrador somewhere with lots of people eating!)
Posted by Rob Johnson
