Sunday Oct 3rd, Greens Norton

With cars piled high with wet weather gear and spare clothes the members of the Working Section gathered at one of their favourite venues; Greens Norton, Northamptonshire on 3rd October 2010. 

The land, which is owned by Frank Henderson, is predominantly arable with the majority of the fields down to oilseed rape.  We are very grateful that we are helped by Adam who gives up his Sunday to lay the lines for us using his quad bike. 

There was a large pack of 30 beagles and their owners braving the rain and wind to go dragging at our second meet of the season.  The recent heavy rain combined with some of the land having been just cultivated made the hounds work very hard.  Some of our veterans decided that as they knew what they were doing they could take a shorter route round and still get a treat at the end. 

We now have 3 new beagles that look very similar to the taller, rangier pack beagles and all of them worked the lines very well; Merlin Johnston was consistently searching out the line and the other 2 pack beagles, Ralph and Sniffs Millins, got the idea by the end of the meet. 

Having run the entire field for the first line, the pack was split into 2 groups which makes identifying the individual hounds a lot simpler.  There were 7 working certificate holders to show the others how it is done with Folly Peach storming round leading the first group in and for the second group Nubie Lehain with Bryn Richmond showing the way.  Milo Barber, for whom this is his first season, continued his good record from our first meet 2 weeks ago. 

As the morning progressed we were able to move on to some grass land which did a grand job of cleaning both boots and paws.  Here the veterans Riot McSheehy and Tia Bidey were able to shine.  For the final 2 lines all the hounds ran together.  With a larger pack it was clear to see that some of the more timid novices and newcomers gained confidence from the increased number of experienced workers that drew them on to the line. 

It was great to see the Haylocks out with their recently acquired beagle, Louis, who became brave enough to run the whole of the last few lines.  It was then back to the cars and out with the towels to dry the hounds off before retiring to the village pub for lunch.