A FAMILIAR face around Droitwich took part in the prestigious Crufts event recently with his four-legged friend.

Trevor Clark, a community warden for the Droitwich area, usually spends his time visiting victims of burglaries, and reassuring them by arranging for new locks and safety equipment as well as investigating environmental crimes like fly tipping.

However for the Crufts show, Mr Clark swapped his blue warden’s shirt for an elasticated bungee cord to take part in Canicross, a new sport where owners run with their dog attached to them at the waistbelt by the cord.

Mr Clark said “I’ve been a keen runner for quite a while now and regularly run at Park Run in Worcester and with the running group I helped set up the Pershore Plum Plodders. But after getting my new rescue dog Kizzie, a lively collie cross, I wanted to combine her exercise with my hobby and Canicross was great for this.”

Mr Clark has two rescue dogs, and he had only tried Canicross for the first time with Kizzie, when the pair took first place, and were approached by Canicross Worcestershire to demonstrate the sport at Crufts.

He added: “It was such an honour to be asked to compete at Crufts, especially in an event that promoted the growing sport to more people. We did the demonstration as a relay where I competed with four other people. We did pretty well but got knocked out in the quarter finals by Cornwall.”

To find out more about Canicross, visit the Facebook page ‘Canicross Worcestershire’.