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Meeker Classic, 2012: Faansie Basson and Don

The South African partnership’s Meeker victory and Dennis Edwards’s late-running reserve result are preserved in organiser profiles published the next year.

At a glance

Meeker’s organiser identifies Faansie Basson and six-year-old Don as its 2012 champions, with Dennis Edwards and Ben taking reserve. The surviving profiles were published in 2013 and describe the earlier competition.

WORKING DOG reference library · Added 2026-10-19 · Editorial guide

Key facts

Champion
Faansie Basson with Don
Reserve
Dennis Edwards with Ben
Retrospective sources
Organiser profiles published May and July 2013

A South African partnership wins in Colorado

The Meeker Classic’s champion profile identifies Faansie Basson and Don, a six-year-old male, as the winners of the 2012 edition. The story places their home at that time in Swellendam, South Africa, and describes the effort of travelling to Colorado. It also records Basson’s repeated visits after an initial 2005 trip connected with South African handlers seeking overseas competition. This gives the result an international dimension without confusing the Meeker title with the separate World Trial. The profile’s May 2013 publication date is later than the competition it celebrates.

Don’s background and the practical sheep connection

The organiser’s account relates Basson’s experience managing sheep in South Africa to the dogs he developed for competition. It identifies Don as a son of Jessie and the imported male Edge, and describes his earlier South African junior success. The connection is useful context for a trial history: the winning partnership came from sustained livestock work and an established training career, rather than appearing only for a single showpiece run. These are the historical profile’s statements about Don and Basson at that stage, not a current census of the handler’s dogs or a new performance assessment.

Ben’s reserve result tells another part of the final

A separate organiser profile identifies Dennis Edwards and eight-year-old Ben as reserve champions. Running second to last on finals day, they faced hot conditions and heavy sheep and finished on 130 points. The account particularly links their work during the shed with that late-running challenge. Edwards had also been reserve the preceding year, but with a different dog. The two profiles together preserve both the winning international partnership and a specific account of the conditions faced by its nearest rival. They do not supply every stage score, so this history does not invent a complete numerical leaderboard from the stories.

Common questions

Was Don’s championship in 2013 because that is the article date?

No. The profile explicitly celebrates the 2012 Meeker title; it was published in the following year.

Sources & further reading

References for this guide. Rules and services can change; check the responsible organisation for current details.

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