Warren Farm 5/2/06
Stephen and Val Batten Kindly hosted this meet at their home on a very picturesque, sunny dry day. The hounds were a bit wild at the start, one of the problems of keeping them so fit, but only being able to hunt them once a fortnight. They roared away from the meet - having roared all the way to the meet! Unfortunately the Master forgot to tell the Quarry to avoid going near the footpath and the hounds got on to the line of some walkers who had recently used it in the Hawkley direction! Fortunately he got them back without too much delay, and they got settled to the line as they got on to Anthony Silk's grass by Five Ash Farm. They crossed the road onto the drilled ground between Church Farm cottages and the Manor House, and hunted well across to the first hedge. Most of the hounds hunted on confidently behind the Manor House, but a few chickened out and came back to follow the Master up the road to meet the lead hounds as they crossed the next track we could ride on. The pack then hunted on over the drill to the water trough, before cutting up to the rough ground and through the next hedge line, before swinging back down over the drilled ground, to cross the Hawkley/Priors Dean road to catch the Quarry back below Warren Farm. The hounds were very warm and enjoyed a dip in the nearest Jacuzzi (water trough). A fast hunt with some enjoyable jumps.

The second hunt was on the Rotherfield Estate from Slade Farm and the hounds got off to a bit of a tricky start in the first field, as there had been fresh muck spreading the day before! They managed to own the line a bit better on a clean track before they had to follow the Quarry over some recently drilled ground by Lye Farm, where they needed some assistance. However they were good enough to ignore the hare that jumped up. They then managed to get "in tune" with the line as they hunted the edge of the track below Goleigh Wood. The Quarry had taken to the middle of the plough and it really was a glorious sight to watch the hounds work the line the full length of the plough without any help from the Master. On reaching the grass at the other end, they ran well as they turned up to cross through some narrow woodland. A roe deer jumped up in front of the hounds here; all bar one of the hounds, Cowslip 05, completely ignored it and kept their noses on the line. The errant hound was immediately informed of the errors of her ways and she quickly rejoined the pack. The pace hotted up as they ran over some rape fields behind Heards Farm and then onto grass, before turning back down the other end of Goleigh Wood to catch their Quarry at Slade Farm. This was one of the best hunts of the season. Our thanks to the Rotherfield Estate, Mr Carter and Peter Rose for their permission and help for this hunt.

The final hunt of the day started from the bridleway to Hawkley, once more on Anthony Silk's ground, but as the Quarry had got off to a confused start and had to retrace their steps before starting again, this caused the hounds some confusion too. The Master had only just got the hounds settled when the hounds crossed the line of someone walking four dogs! Just as he thought it couldn't get worse and had collected the pack to lay them on his next reference point - the telegraph pole on the hill - he saw two roe deer run past it, with another walker yards away - and some people say hunting the clean boot is easy and boring! Nonetheless he managed to get the hounds settled and running on down through James and Carolyn Fair's Keyham Farm to finish on the edge of Hawkley village. Quarry Captain for the day, Chris Lee had managed to persuade three other people to share duties with him for that day and we are very grateful to them all for giving us such a good day.