Sabs arrived early on – an old badger sett which had been blocked earlier in the week was blocked once more, with staves rammed down the entrances. In the spring we had seen fox cubs play at an entrance. The huny spent ages listening to the rugby as we listened inland. We would like to thank the England rugby team – not only did they play well at various points, but just getting to the final, regardless of the result, meant that many hunts met an hour later than they would have done in order to watch / allow others to watch the match first, giving wildlife an extra hour of peace!

The hunt knew we were about and so took the unusual step of completely ignoring the estate and scarpering over to Toad Corner. A sab arrived at the old quarries in Snowshill as the hounds came into the area picking up intermittently. The mounted field came by and before long a fox came running across the field past the sab. Another fox was seen running in the opposite direction towards Bourton Downs and the pack was encouraged on their line.

The rest of the day was spent chasing foxes around from Bourton Downs to the Dingles and back again, with holloas and “tally ho’s” all over the place. They finished in the dark, looking for hounds for quite some time as the pack had split.

Throughout the day one sab’ was followed about by a stalker called Malcolm (you may remember him from a recent video where we talked to him about hound control… of which there still appears to be little in this hunt) and he even followed sabs back into a pub where they just wanted a quiet drink after a long, cold and wet day!