Rydal Hound Show
A harrier takes top honours and a fellhound excels as foxhound champion
THE harehounds swept the board at the 114th annual Rydal show, with the Vale of Lune Harriers’ Barry 15 galloping away with the overall championship, despite being given a close run for his money by the Palmer Marlborough Beagles’ leggy and strikingly marked Darcy 14.
The judging of the final class, which pits the best foxhound, harrier, beagle and terrier against each other in the fellhound ring, was this year undertaken by Richard Williams, master for 30 years of the Eryri Foxhounds in Snowdonia, who was chosen for the honour that morning as an entirely independent adjudicator.
“I chose the hound that I would most like to take home with me,” said Richard. “The harrier was a class act and I would like a kennel full of his sort.”
From the ringside it seemed the harehounds had the advantage: they could show off their impressive movement as they galloped around the ring, while the white Jack Russell terrier, Midge,
and the champion foxhound, the Eskdale and Ennerdale’s brindle and white entered doghound, Clasher, were confined to their leads as that is how tradition dictates they are shown.
The tan-coloured harrier, tracing back to a Kerry beagle influence, is now a regular sight in the harrier ring and a noticeable trait of this type is that they all move like quicksilver. Barry 15 was no exception, stopping on the flags in between gallops and baying at his huntsman Stephen Shepley, just asking to be given the champion’s rosette.
The fellhounds take centre stage at Rydal and before the judging starts, the Coniston have their own hound show in the main ring. The judge is rotated each year among the fell huntsman and this year it was the turn of David Mallet from the North Lonsdale. A host of different classes are judged on either best conformation or best walked hound, before the open classes start.
Nigel Peel, joint-master and huntsman of the North Cotswold for 30 seasons, and Adam Waugh from the College Valley and
North Northumberland were the judges of the open classes and the Eskdale and Ennerdale won the important group class with five matching brindle hounds typical of their old-fashioned kennel type. The home pack, the Coniston, was awarded the best couple and then in all the rest of the classes, the ring seemed full of quality fellhounds and their handlers.
The Blencathra had a tall black and white dog, Scafell, by a previous Rydal winner Sergent, who took the unentered doghound class and then George Wilkinson, the smart young huntsman of the Eskdale and Ennerdale, produced the outstanding Clasher to win the entered doghounds. The Ullswater won both of the bitch classes with their young hound Maisie and then Gossip, but Clasher was worthily crowned champion foxhound.
NEW PERSPECTIVE
KEVIN PRICE, master of the West Somerset Beagles and young Archie Clifton-Brown, master of the Radley Beagles, had the onerous task of judging a large beagle entry from 11 packs. The lack of a 16-inch limit on the hounds puts a whole new perspective on the judging.
The Derby, Notts and Staffs and the Newcastle and District both won classes and most of the rosettes were well spread, with notable success for the Cumbria and the Bleasdale. But the Palmer Marlborough were a class apart. Their young huntsman, Danny Allen, had his hounds in fine fettle, winning the unentered doghounds with Dalesman, the entered bitches with Darcy 14 and then the group class.
Their bitch Darcy 14 had real star quality and the elegance of movement that was helped by being a shade over 16 inches high, so it was no surprise that she won the championship, presented by the new chairman-elect of the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles, Matthew Higgs.
James Barclay, founder of
This Is Hunting UK, was the sole harrier judge and all five packs showing had some lovely hounds
‘I chose the hound that I would most like to take home
with me’
RICHARD WILLIAMS ON BARRY 15
and shared in the prizes. The Holcombe and the Vale of Lune had a ding-dong battle for top spot, winning two classes apiece before the Holcombe’s plethora of nearly identical tan-coloured beauties edged ahead in the couple and group classes.
Both packs brought similar hounds into the championship that, from the ringside, could have been brother and sister: the unentered doghound Holcombe Viper and the Vale of Lune’s Barry 15. Barry 15 just had that extra bit of substance and ring presence and his success was carried forward to win the overall show championship.
If we could paint a picture in our mind’s eye of the perfect hound show, set in the most picturesque place with friendly, knowledgeable hunting folk in abundance, no exaggerated pomp and ceremony and a plethora of varied and quality hounds, Rydal would be that picture and for 114 years it has been thus.