The last meet of the season, and usually one where the hunt either try to engineer a confrontation, or they run with their tails between their legs. This year, they did such a runner that everyone was left behind - sabs, police and all the supporters, so I doubt if they were too popular with the foot followers club!
They did a quick once over of the Albury Estate, but more to get the horses warmed up than to hunt properly as they got onto nothing. From there on, the hunt legged it about 3 miles through Farley Green all the way to Winterfold Forest, part of the massive woodlands that run along the North Downs. The only thing to do here was to follow the tracks of the hunt and hope that I wasn't too far behind, most of it was downhill until I got to the forest, and then it was pretty hard going.
Several aspects have been reinforced this season while sabbing
virtually alone for most of it: the first and probably most obvious
has been that you hear and see much more being on your own or in a
small group, I have seen more foxes and deer evading the hounds (with
or without our help) this year than ever before. The other main
finding was that if the hunt clear off into the distance, and you
think you have lost them, 9 times out of 10, the huntsman will do a
loop and come back to retry the area once he thinks he has lost the
sabs! You have obviously got to have a good idea where the hunt are
going to be drawing first, but it makes up for the inability to keep
up with hunters on horseback.
When I finally caught up with the hunt, they were drawing the plantations in the middle of the forest. I was right in amongst the bracken when a fox and 2 deer ran parallel with me heading towards the front of the Downs, with the pack in pursuit. Luckily the main group of sabs had also found the hunt, and were calling the hounds back while I was spraying everywhere. The huntsman was pretty ruffled by this and spent ages calling all the hounds back. He went off to draw around Winterfold Cottage, and just as I was trying to get my breath back, they went away after a fox over the Winterfold Road and down towards the earths at Alderbrook. Luckily the hounds checked (lost the scent temporarily) and I started to get the whole pack coming up the hill with a series of whooping holloas and horn calls. This was great as the huntsman was stuck down at the bottom of the hill and had to come around on the road by which time he had lost half his pack and had to take time out again to collect them.
From here, the hunt made for Willinghurst on the other side of the road where the terrier men where conveniently gathered. Noel Cahill and his sidekicks were loitering by their vehicles and it was no surprise when the hounds went into cry further down the hill. At this point there were probably 30 sabs at the top of the steep hill, and it wasn't long before we were joined by most of the hounds, but not the hunt! There followed what amounted to a rout, with the huntsman desperately trying to evade the sabs, but being caught at every turn. Even trying to run us up and down the valleys around Madgehole didn't lose us as we were fired up with success.
The hunt crossed to Farley Heath and the Far Plantation getting
onto a strong scent around the badger setts, but again losing the
pack to sabs. As a last draw, the huntsman put the pack into Mustard
Copse, where there were definitely foxes afoot, but also plenty of
sabs, so we had great delight in calling the hounds out and totally
ruining the last draw of the season. Nice one!
We escorted the hunt back to their horseboxes at Albury Heath, ourselves shadowed by the police who in truth hadn't been at all unreasonable this day (although they weren't with us for much of it).
From there it was a short drive to Newlands Corner for a Veggie burger and chips before getting home to a hot bath. A good end to the season if a bit of a run, but we were certain they hadn't killed, which is what matters.