The Heythrop harvest victory with Barley

The first championships of the season go to the Heythrop and the Albrighton and Woodland, but local packs shine as well

- By RORY KNIGHT BRUCE & MATTHEW HIGGS

South of England, The Showground, W Sussex

FOXHOUNDS

WHICHEVER sporting wag it was who said, “Never hunt south of the Thames” got it wrong. Even with the modern challenges, there are great swathes of grass and woodland in which trail-hunting can operate with hounds of Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire, modern and old English, to the delight of their masters, hunt staff and subscribers.

Of the 15 packs showing this year, “local” loyalty was in abundance and did not go unrewarded. The introduction of cups and rosettes for the old English foxhound was a welcome addition.

From further afield, the journey for the Heythrop, Thurlow, Albrighton and Woodland, Essex and Suffolk and the Puckeridge and the Essex Hunts showed their commitment both to their hound breeding and support for this, the first major event of the showing season.

For the morning doghound classes, the day shone as bright as the sunshine for huntsman Paul Larby and the Albrighton and Woodland. Now in his 50th season of hunt service, these hounds showed well throughout.

They were rewarded with prizes for the best entered (Roscoe), best entered couple (Rockwood and Rolo) and champion doghound with the lemon and white Rockwood. In each case the breeding goes back to the influential Thurlow doghound, Ramsgate.

The depth of the Thurlow kennel, with hounds shown by their experienced huntsman Guy Allman, was also much in evidence during the morning. They were in the laurels in the entered doghound class (Dealer), entered couple class (Bandit and Devon) and took the unentered championship with Baltic, whose dam's sire was the influential North Cotswold Farmer.

A popular morning win was for the Old Surrey, Burstow and West Kent in the unentered couple class with their brothers, Samsung and Sausage, the dam's sire again being Thurlow Ramsgate.