At the end of the five-day national event, 11 dogs and their Canterbury whistlers were on the top-seven leaderboards in the finals of the four sections.
The nationals were held simultaneously with the South Island championships at the Warepa Collie Club course near Balclutha.
A total of 44 points earned the team the CP Perry Memorial Shield for the centre with the most points in the runoffs.
Canterbury Centre president Steve Blanchard said the team did exceptionally well to win the shield again after securing it three or four times the past five years.
Competition bred competition, he said, and that had shone through in the past few years where Canterbury was consistently high on leaderboards in the national event.
"There is a very high standard in Canterbury," he said.
"We have 18 clubs which is the biggest centre in New Zealand and it amounts to a lot of members over a big area and over a lot of different sheep and different courses.
"To qualify in the Canterbury centre I would suggest is just as tough as qualifying anywhere in New Zealand, so you’ve got to be of a very good standard just to qualify and get the points in Canterbury."
The province has about 8000 runs over a season for club and other events and sometimes there are up to 100 competitors in a club trial.
Mr Blanchard said the national championships was a tough competition, so for Canterbury triallists to rise to the top was a worthy achievement.
He reserved special praise for the small Omihi club, which had three members who often made several run-offs.
"The whole of Canterbury is pretty good at that — not that other centres don’t do that — but the top guys are passing on their knowledge and it’s certainly coming out in the results."
The challenge every year was to be consistently good.
On the Warepa course, Banks Peninsula’s Barry Thompson running his 7-year-old heading dog Bolt was first in the South Island championships and national runner-up in the long head.
The results continued for Canterbury in this event with Anthony Barton and Jess third in the South Island final and fourth in the national final. Methven’s Mark Copland with Don was fourth in the South Island final and seventh in the national final, while Omihi’s Neil Evans with Tess was seventh in the South Island final and sixth in the national final.
Mr Evans had a memorable run in the short head, coming third with Tess in the South Island finals before claiming the national title for the second year in a row.
When he changed dogs to Smoke, he finished sixth in the South Island finals and fourth nationally. Fellow clubmates Fergus McLean, with Dan, was fifth in both the island and national finals, and Ian Stevenson, with Zac, was runner-up in the South Island final and sixth nationally.
The results kept coming in the zigzag hunt with Waikari’s Grant Plaisted and Coke fourth in the South Island final and fifth on the bigger stage.
In the straight hunt, Banks Peninsula’s Dan Broughton joined with Louie to come fourth in both the South Island and national finals. Mr McLean carried on strongly from his previous success by emerging fifth with Suzie in the South Island final and third in the national final and Mackenzie’s Steve Kerr and Charge were sixth in the South Island final and fifth nationally.
The celebrating continued after Mr Evans was named captain of the New Zealand team for the transtasman test against Australia with Tess. He is joined by Mr Stevenson (Zac), Waikaka farmer Brian Dickison (Jake) and King Country’s Leo Jecentho (Tess).
The test series will be at the Ashburton A&P Show on October 27 and 28.
