THE KENT FANTASY FOUR

The winning ticket in a GWCT raffle proves to be the perfect prize: four fabulous drives on shoots in Kent to share with friends

- Ewan Davy

On the way to the first drive we pass a historic farm, low on the left. This, according to Nick Lamb of the Bourne syndicate, was used as a base by the four Norman knights who set out to assassinate Thomas Becket, St Thomas of Canterbury, in 1170. Halfway between Kent’s cathedral city and Dover, we rattle along an old farm track to the start point of what has been billed ‘a unique shoot day for nine guns on four of Kent’s premier shooting estates’. Organised by the Kent committee of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), this is the second time in five years that such a prize has been donated. Paul Kelsey, raspberry farmer and GWCT chairman for Kent, explains, “Each county has a committee of volunteers who run fundraising events on behalf of the GWCT. The Fantasy Four days are a great way of raising a substantial amount of money in one hit. It appeals to those who benefit directly from the work of the GWCT locally. Everything depends on the generosity of individual landowners and shoots, each contributing a top drive without charge.”

At £200 a ticket we’re not talking small beer but with just 250 tickets on sale the odds are good and the prize, for those lucky enough to win, is sensational: the opportunity to raise the barrels on some of the best private shoots in the country.

As we draw up to a lone farm building, vehicles start to assemble. It’s a bright day, something of a miracle given the wild November storm that tore through the county the night before. “How will the birds fly?” is the question that forms the standard pre-shoot murmuration.