Date: Saturday 10th October 1998
Time: 5am
Location: Surrey Union Hunt Kennels, SE England
There must be better things to do on a weekend than sitting in wet grass at
dawn waiting for a hunt to make a move, but at least it's not raining now
and the sunrise is a sight to behold!
For a moment at 6.30, there is movement around the kennel yard and the
hounds start to get excited, but it soon becomes obvious that they are only
being let out for exercise today, probably having hunted the previous day.
It is quite amazing how few foxhunts actually go cubhunting on a Saturday in
the South East of England. If they do, it is often in the early evening to
avoid the attention of hunt sabs. We all know how important this time of
year is for the hunt to train and get to know their pack after the summer,
and the hunts down here know that most of us are at work during the week, so
they concentrate their killing practice then.
At 7.30 I get a call that the Old Surrey and Burstow (OSB) have been
followed to a meet on the Eastern side of Surrey, so I jump in the car and
get over there as quickly as I can. 30 minutes later, I meet up with 15
other sabs from South London and set about making the hunt's attempts to
kill foxcubs as difficult as possible.
The hunt are incensed at being found after they had taken so many steps to
keep their meet secret - however, even they must realise it is hard to hide
15 horseboxes rumbling around country lanes at dawn on a Saturday! They try
to hunt properly at first, drawing some maize fields which contain several
foxes, but with sabs calling hounds out of the crop from safe points, they
soon give up and try to gallop off to lose us. As they do so, I spy an older
fox belting down my side of the hedge, yards from the huntsman but unseen,
so I keep quiet and look the other way! It crosses a lane and is away to
live another day. The hunt's plans to draw the next coverts were reduced to
farce as the sabs call hounds out of the copse to them, leaving the huntsman
raging at the police and trying to cover his back with the masters!
The hunt cross back to the other side of the busy Redhill - Tonbridge
railway line where several hounds were run down by a train a couple of years
ago (no sabs out on that weekday, so they blamed the fox). They get onto a
screaming scent, very close to a fox making for the safety of the big
Staffhurst wood and crossing several busy roads. At one point, it is scared
back by followers and their children shouting at it, in the hope of a kill.
Despite the hounds being so close, it somehow manages to get the better of
them behind the infamous Royal Oak pub (it hosts hunt meets for foxhounds,
beagles and minkhounds). After this, the hunt called it a day as the scent
was failing, but with no kills they weren't very happy. Got a couple of pics
of some sinister hunt followers, and riders holding up coverts, but I was
trying out a new video camera for much of the day, so the stills took a back
seat. I soon found out that I can't sab and film at the same time, so
someone else will get the video camera!