The 2018 Field Macnab Challenge

CHALLENGE

Rules of engagement, in association with Blaser, and the best estates for an attempt, by Mungo Ingleby

As August rolls around, many people start beetling off towards rocky Cornish beaches, the flat broads of Norfolk or Pembrokeshire’s delightful coast. Not at Field Towers. Here, August heralds the most revered time of year, the start of the sporting season and our favourite sporting adventure, The Field’s Macnab Challenge, is underway again.

John Macnab, written by John Buchan in 1925, is a tale of derring-do and robust spirit that still inspires sporting sorts today and is required reading for any aspiring Macnabber. The Challenge, based on the notion of Buchan’s book, has long been on sporting bucket lists.

The Classic Macnab entails catching a salmon on the fly, grassing a stag and bagging a brace of grouse between dawn and dusk. The rich colours of the purple heather, home to the grouse, the blood of the grassed stag and the silver flash of the salmon are found in The Macnab Club’s Livery and our club tie. They will also mark the pages of our Macnab content in every issue it appears, so those keen to keep up to date can see at a glance where their favourite content lies.

This year we are delighted to announce a new partnership with Blaser, makers of fine sporting shotguns, rifles and the appropriate sort of clothing kit to see you from a dawn start dashing to the river to crawling through the heather and taking your final shot. For those unfamiliar with the Macnab Challenge, there are 11 types of Macnab you can attempt, so if, like many of our Macnab Club members, you have already mastered the Classic version, why not try a different format, from the Macmarsh to the Macafrican? But if you are set on the Classic Macnab then read on, to find out where you stand the best chance of success this season. To blood!