COMEDY GOLD AT THE TORRINGTON/LAMERTON/EGGESFORD JOINT MEET
On Wednesday we were (un)fortunate to witness the triple act that literally no one should ever have to see: a three-hunt joint meet between the Torrington, Lamerton and Eggesford.
The day started as bizarrely as it would go on, with an extremely normal looking woman who had DIY’d some eyeholes in an orange camo balaclava sitting with us in creepy silence at the meet. We can’t really blame her, we’d much rather hang out with sabs than a bunch of psychopaths too. This same woman (who we were later told is unstable and on drugs, and the wife of terrierman Steve Mitchell) continued to behave like the hunt-supporting weirdo that she is, by demanding sabs’ names at random intervals, attacking sabs and stealing their property, and then less than an hour later asking to go on a date with us. We couldn’t make this shit up if we tried.
In the absence of usual Torrington huntsman Steve Craddock, who we hear has broken his leg (shame), Jack Rowles put on his big boy pants to hunt the hounds in his place. With backing dancers in the form of Lamerton huntsman David Lewis and Eggesford huntsman Jason Marles, the day was every bit as ridiculous as it sounds.
The hunts set off from South Brentor Farm near Tavistock where they were hosted by Deborah Kivell, with most of the riders heading straight towards Blacknor Park, and Jack setting the scene for the day by hunting on foot by himself through the valley at Wortha Mill Bridge, escorted by sabs, failing to hunt anything, and falling ass over tit in some brambles.
After Jack found his horse and galloped off to join his pals at Blacknor Park, sabs were in pursuit when they were set upon by Steve’s wife, screaming incomprehensible nonsense about owning the land, while flailing around and grabbing at sabs’ possessions. She was quickly joined by Steve, who tried (and failed) to put one of our sabs in a headlock.
Making a quick exit, sabs rejoined the hunt who had moved off to hunt Blacknor Park and Smallacombe Bottom. This is a long valley, with one side covered in gorse. The hunt moved up and down the valley so many times that we lost count, with hounds barely going into cry. At one point a sab almost stepped on a fox who was lying up in the gorse. With quick thinking, they managed to turn him away from the hounds, who were very close by but suitably distracted by Jack’s random horn calling.
The hunt moved southeast along the valley, where sabs spotted another fox running for his life. They crossed the valley to cover the line of the fox, and hounds were not far behind. With one team busy dealing with the fox’s scent, another team began horn calling to try and bring the hounds to the other side of the valley. As Jack tried and failed to bring his hounds back, more horns started sounding. With three huntsmen in a horn-calling battle against one sab, it took them an embarrassingly long time to gather their hounds and we are confident that this fox got away.
The hunt moved off west towards Holyeat Farm, where yet another fox was seen running for his life. Sabs intervened to cover the scent once again, and another one managed to escape the hunt.
The final draw of the day was Heathfield Plantation, where, again, the hunt went round and round the same ground with hounds barely managing to pick up on a scent. At one point, sabs saw a fox break right in front of the huntsman, hounds and support (any other day this would have meant almost certain death), but somehow Jack failed to put his hounds on the line and yet another fox got away.
Checking in with Jason at the end of the day to find out his day had been, he described it as “plain”. We couldn’t disagree more. It was non-stop comedy.
Gallery
