Seeing in the New Year
" in style"!

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.

Sharon's pictures                              Kevin's pictures

"Is there anywhere on your farm that isn't covered in a foot of water Mark?"

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 senile senior Master) to experience the pleasure of long hunts, over plough, up and down steep hills! White feather in the post Nick!! Following her success whipping-in to her father for his short experience of hunting hounds, "Minky" Kelk (right) has been appointed official 2nd whipper-in and was having her first day in full hunt uniform. The mounted Field enjoyed three long hunts on the Silk's land at Prior's Dean and Mr Mitham's farm on the Rotherfield Estate. At the end of the three planned hunts, with the surviving 3 Quarries wet and covered in mud, Jeremy played his joker (as Philip put it) and requested the Quarries run back to the start of the day, so giving us a short sharp dash of a fourth hunt! We are so lucky that these landowners and farmers are so kind to us, for we have had so many good days here. Boxing Day has to be special - and it was.

Sharon's pictures

Stephen last day as deputy huntsman at Upper Farm, Bradley.
Jeremy sent out 10 couples of hounds for Stephen Kelk MBH to hunt on his last day as deputy Huntsman. Mind you, on the morning of the day before, much to Stephen's disgust, Jeremy sent Stephen a text saying he was fit enough to hunt the hounds at Mike and Julian Gibbons' Upper Farm. Then, at the end of the day Jeremy sent, "wind up over, you're hunting them tomorrow!" I would give you Stephen's reply, but I think the website would be taken down for obscenity! The mounted Field had to be restricted for this meet, with people having to compulsorily book in. Nick Hudson was our sole Quarry, and he hade an excellent job of running in quite a tight bit of country. Hares tried to interfere with the first hunt, in the final field, but Huntsman and Whipper-ins quickly controlled a couple of young hounds who were slightly tempted to change Quarry. There was a fascinating bit of hound work for all the foot followers to witness as hounds crossed the first road on the last hunt. The majority of the pack strayed off the line as they approached the road crossing. Sumo 03 (oldest doghound in the pack) and Stilton 11 (one of the youngest doghounds in the pack) stuck to the line, running through the foot followers, over the road, turning sharp left, as did their Quarry, straight over the line of two ramblers who crossed Nick's line long after he passed, and then these hounds turned sharp right, giving plenty of tongue to take the line on. Stephen and his Whips had to pull their fingers out and get the pack back up to the leaders. Which they did in good style.

Sharon's pictures.

Stephen takes hounds to first hunt.

Bolstered by his first very successful day hunting hounds at Stocks Farm, Stephen was given 10 couples of hounds to play with at Corhampton Lane Farm. Issy Silk and Minky Kelk were on hand again to whip-in and it was very clear that this new team had gelled together very quickly. I think that anyone seeing the hunt for the first time that day would easily have formed the impression that this team had been working together for a very long time. The weather was good and Dick Hill had been very generous in giving the hunt so much ground to hunt over, all on grass and grass headlands. Quarries Nick Hudson, Hugh Green, Freddie Green and Leigh Saunders set great hunts giving the Field a good gallop on good going, over the mobile hunt jumps, thanks to Katie Burton and her friend volunteering to help Jeremy pick up the mobile jumps the following day. I'm not saying that becoming Master and Huntsman has gone to Stephen's head BUT, he seems to be getting quite bossy with his staff! (right)

Stephen Kelk MBH jumps for joy at Stocks Farm - and so do the Field.
Following Jeremy's bad fall at Whitewool Farm, Stephen Kelk suddenly found himself facing 7 days getting ready to hunt hounds for the first time in his life. Had he got what it takes to be a huntsman? Well Kate said he had become impossible to live with since he found out he was to hunt hounds, so he was half way there then! Seven days of practising his horn blowing in the car, at home and at work had left him with sore lips, aching cheeks and very few friends!! Wisely Stephen had enlisted the help of Issy Silk and his own daughter "Minky" to whip-in to him, and he took hounds out on exercise the day before. Jeremy sorted out 9½ couples of hounds to take to John Dalton's Stocks Farm. John and Emma laid on copious amounts of nerve stiffener both for Stephen and the mounted Field. As if this wasn't enough, John had also built a large number of new jumps and, as always, kindly said we could use them on our hunts. I don't think it is unfair to say Stephen looked a little nervous as he took hounds up to the first hunt. It didn't help Stephen's nerves when he heard there was a "metal detectorist" working in the middle of the first field. However, Stephen laid hounds on and, without hesitation, they flew away in pursuit of Nick Hudson, Francesca  Peckham, and Leigh Saunders. All the new hunt staff then recieved a very sharp lesson on keeping alert as, unbeknown to anyone, a lady had walked round the edge of the field with a dog and then crossed a road to go down a bridleway. Unsurprisingly, hounds went wrong here, but a good bit of team work soon got the show back on the road - or to be accurate, off the road!

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.

Sharon's pictures

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.

Sharon's pictures

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

Previous Caption Competition Photos

Captions suggested so far:

Nick Hudson: This is the way the ladies ride trip trot, trit trot trip trot 
This is the way the gentlemen ride gallup gallup gallup
This is the way the old man rides. Hobble-dee hobble-dee And down in a ditch

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"!