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| Great Welcome for 2012 at Avington Park | ||
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Seeing in the New Year |
34 riders and over 200 followers on foot braved the wet weather and poor forecast to enjoy Charlie and Sarah Bullen's generous hospitality for the New Year's Day meet at the historic and beautiful Avington Park. Especially generous of Charlie and Sarah this year, because they hosted a big wedding the day before! We are very lucky to be invited to so many wonderful places, but few can match Avington Park's sumptuous appearance and Royal history. From the house's website one learns that the house was first mentioned in the 10th Century as "Afinton" and belonged to the Cathedral of Winchester until Henry VIII granted the estate to Edmund Clerke. In mid 17th Century, the house was transformed to accommodate Charles II and Nell Gwynne. The house has also played host to King George IV, so it is not short of Royal connections. Thanks to Charlie and Sarah's generosity combined with the Mark and Robert Stent's, David Mitchell's and Peveral Bruce's kindness in providing land for us to hunt over, it has become a New Year's Day treat we all look forward to. Quarry Captain Nick Hudson had just returned from Sicily to be joined by Leigh Saunders, Zoe Fisher and Dominique (surname unknown) to wade through the countryside in front of 12 couples of our bloodies. The meet remained dry, but once the hounds had moved off the rain started and just got steadily heavier as the day wore on. The ladies decided to leave Nick and Leigh to it after the first hunt, showing that the fairer sex certainly has more grey cells! However, the mounted Field proved pretty resilient, as 17 were still present for the last hunt, despite boots half full of water and wet knickers! Jack Jennings gets a mention in dispatches for helpfully informing the Huntsman where Jasper 11 had fallen behind the rest of the pack on the second hunt. |
"Is there anywhere on your farm that isn't covered in a foot of water Mark?" |
| Master gets his "toys" back for Boxing Day | ||
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![]() Rosie Mileham |
Jeremy was delighted to be back hunting hounds on Boxing Day and, as all 14½ coupleshounds bayed all the way hacking from the kennels to the meet, one assumes the hounds were quite pleased too! In fact the hounds were so keen they decided to start hunting early as they entered the meet field!! Order restored, Stephen and Val Batten provided generous refreshments to the best Boxing Day turnout of riders and foot followers we've ever had. Quarry Captain Nick Hudson clearly had some inside information about the . hunts Jeremy had planned, as Nick ran off to Sicily for Christmas, leaving Philip Mileham, Robin Baker (no relation to our Hon Sec),
Glyn Riley and Toby Whaley (eldest son of our |
![]() Minky Kelk |
Stephen last day as deputy huntsman at Upper Farm, Bradley. |
Stephen takes hounds to first hunt. |
| Hounds fly at Corhampton Lane Farm | ||
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It doesn't do any harm for a fledgling huntsman to experience difficulty on their first hunt. It sharpens them up and puts them on their metal. Taken down to the start of the second hunt, hounds were laid on perfectly and streaming away towards John's new jumps. Young Poppy Hebbard had a nasty fall and was carted off to hospital with a suspected broken arm. Thankfully it wasn't broken, as this would have been her second broken arm within 12 months! As the Field then enjoyed a jump round John's Arbour Trees cross country course, the Quarries sent off on a long third hunt. Hounds were laid on and they really flew. Quite a long day for a huntsman's first day, but I am sure Stephen, Issy and Minky went home feeling very pleased that things had gone so well. |
![]() Issy Silk |
| Master has unlucky break at Coombe Cross | ||
![]() The Field relax at the end of the second hunt. |
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Good weather, great country and a very hospitable meet, laid on by Chris and Alice Geaves, are all the ingredients you need for a great day out with the bloodhounds. You also need good Quarries and having Roessa Marks for Nick to chase couldn't have been better! The first hunt was straight uphill on grass, through Wilson and George Atkinson's cattle. Stephen and Tanya Hebberd were sent on in front to lure the cattle away from the first jump, and with foot followers walking up to photograph the jump, Jeremy knew it was going to be difficult to settle his 13½ couples on the line. But settle they did even managing to hunt through the sheep up on Salt Hill, to catch their Quarries up by Hyden Cross. The second hunt started at the finish of the first, and hounds flew downhill to Lower Farm, where the Quarries had put in some turns. But hounds held the line well, going back up over Small Down, back to Hockham, where the second hunt, with plenty of optional jumping, finished. For the third hunt, hounds were taken on to Whitewool Farm for the third and final hunt. Hounds found the line well and were soon running up Monarchs Way, to run below Winchester Hill to the South Downs Way, where Jeremy very nearly met his maker! There are three ways of going over a jump. 1. As the Quarries did left. 2. As Minky did right. 3. As Jeremy did below left (hound looks closer than it was and was not involved). I recommend the first two methods, as the third should only be attempted by very experienced riders, like Jeremy!!!!! | ![]() |
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Apparently, Impy tried to slide down the bank before a jump, instead of jumping from the top of the bank. At the bottom of the bank, there was no room to jump and Impy cart wheeled over the jump, driving Jeremy into the ground. Hounds flew on to the finish, which Jeremy is very pleased about. As he says, "Good bloodhounds need enough drive to keep going without seeing the huntsman, hounds that just follow the huntsman are not hunting." Nick Hudson kindly drove the hunt lorry home so that Jeremy could feed the hounds and put them and Impy to bed, after which Nick took Jeremy to hospital where X-rays revealed he had broken his arm and would be unable to hunt hounds for a while. This was going to be hard for him, as he puts it, "I never was good at sharing my toys!" A few years ago this would probably have meant no hunting for a few weeks, but we are lucky to have an understudy, Stephen Kelk MBH. And as you will see from the reports above, he made an excellent job of it. |
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Caption Competition No. 27 |
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It's your chance to show your imagination, wit and sheer brilliance as you come up with a witty caption for the photograph on the right. If your entry is accepted, you enjoy the glory of seeing your name on the website. What more could you want? Entries to captions@SouthDownsBloodhounds.com |
Captions suggested so far: Nick Hudson: This is the way the ladies ride trip trot, trit trot trip trot Louise Hudson: (1) Jeremy speaking: What do I have to do to get a ride in the air ambulance? And all I got was Nursey Nick. (2) Stephen speaking: HA HA! - finally I can get my own back on Jeremy and show everyone how easy it is to hunt his hounds....(3) Hound speaking, " Oh blimey I'm in trouble now...... " Marian Allaway: "Stephen, I think there's a shilling down there, I will get it." Jeremy Whaley: Stephen Kelk MBH (smiling in the background) educated at Hogwarts, pointed his whip at Jeremy and shouted "expelliarmus"! |
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