About Us - The Humans
Averil Cawthera-Purdy & Sean Gwynne
About Averil
I've have bred and shown my Poms since I was a young girl. My parents bred and exhibited Samoyeds and I wanted a breed small enough that I could show myself and Poms (living Teddy Bears - every little girl’s dream) were my choice.
Breeding and exhibiting, initially with my parents & latterly with my husband Sean Gwynne, I have always been the main handler and presenter of the Poms. Initially, I left the breeding side to my Mum and Thelma Alsford of the Thelbern kennel, to allow me to follow my career in education, but I was always involved in the breeding programmes and puppy rearing at home and, of course, the showing. From ‘05, as my Mum’s health started to fail, I had to become increasingly involved with the breeding. In August ’10, following the death of my Mum in Sept ’08, I gave up my career to fully concentrate on the Lireva Poms and Springfield Kennels.
I first awarded CCs in the breed in 1986 and have also judged both the Pomeranian Club Championship Show in ‘01 and the breed at Crufts in 1999 making me one of this country’s youngest judges across all breeds at this level. I have judged in my own country and throughout Europe and also in Asia. I also awards CCs in the family breed Samoyeds and Finnish Spitz. I have served on the Pomeranian Club committee for over 25 years and as an Officer of the Club for the latter half of those years. I have been a full member of the UK Kennel Club since 2000.
For 30 years I wrote the 'Youth Has Its Say' column for junior handlers in Dog World and gave of both my time and expertise to help juniors starting out in the hobby of breeding and showing. I was the North West Regional Organiser for the Kennel Club Junior Organisation and also served on the KC Council at the start of the Young Kennel Club, serving juniors in this way for over a decade. I have judged all the major Handling Competitions in the UK, many more than once.
I currently serve on the Kennel Club Liaison Council for Shows as a Championship Show representative.
About Sean
Sean was brought up in his family’s Krishe Samoyed show kennel. In 1981 he handled his Pom, Lireva’s Star Charmer, the full litter sister of Ch Lireva’s Shooting Star, to become the Junior Handling Association’s Junior Handler of the Year. He visited Westminster and the Pomeranian Specialty the following year as part of his prize. With his parents and sister he successfully showed Poms under the Gwyndora affix. In August ’89 we got together and he joined Lireva. Following a career in mechanical engineering and Project Management within the Aerospace & Automotive Industries we realised the dream of owning Springfield and running our own Boarding Kennels, Cattery and Grooming business alongside property development and management.
Whilst Sean prefers to be in the background he can both handle and present Poms with the best, having been taught to trim by the late great Bob Flavell. He won a number of the Lireva CCs through the 90’s at shows that I was unable to attend and managed to beat me to win Ch Lireva’s Dancing for Gold’s first CC at Paignton in ’14.
Sean is Treasurer of Southern Counties, one of the country’s premier Championship Dog Shows and is a past Treasurer of the both the Pet Education, Training and Behaviour Council (PETbc) and The Pet Charity. He currently serves on the Board of the Pet Industry Federation. Sean has been the Chairman of the Pomeranian Club since ’09, having been the Vice Chairman for the decade prior to that. He is a Championship level judge of Pomeranians, Samoyeds and Handling. He is also a member of the Kennel Club. A keen biker since his teens, he is a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorcylists and still enjoys an occasional blast on the race track!
About Fay Matthews-Jones - handler for the Lireva Kennel
Fay has been around the Lireva kennel for a number of years however began handling exclusively for us in 2011 when we entrusted her to campaign our young pup 'Lireva's To Hell An Black' (pictured right). Their partnership was a huge success and Fay firstly qualified Elen for the Pup Of The Year followed by gaining her Junior Warrant and qualifying for the JW Semi Finals. Not content with those achievements she made up her first Champion in Elen and then also went onto gain a Bronze Award in the Good Citizens. Fay's currently campaigning two of our youngsters; Dottie and Justin.
Fay started showing Pomeranians at the age of 14 years after hounding me for months around the show circuit! Her love of showing dogs began age 7 and she is well known for her Junior Handling successes in both Junior Handling Association and Kennel Club Junior Organisation (now Young Kennel Club) competitions with her first breed of Rottweilers as well as the Poms. Fay has judged handling classes for a number of years and two of her proudest moments were being invited to judge the YKC Handling Finals at Crufts in 2015 and the JHA Handling Finals in 2022. She also handled, with great success, her godparents Finnish Lapphund, 'Sulyka Valio 'Is' Curdeleon', to Top Import Register during the 90's.
Fay awards CC's in Poms and she is also a committee member of the Pomeranian Club. In her other life, Fay married Dave towards the end of 2015 after a whirlwind romance and they have three teenage children between them. Fay went back into education later in life than planned, attending firstly a year of college followed then by three years at University, to graduate as a social worker. In her professional life Fay works with children in care for a national fostering agency.
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