The Croome and West Warwickshire met at Blackmore Park near Malvern at 6.30am. We arrived at the meet and there seemed to be some reluctance for the hunt to move off for 20 minutes or so on seeing us. Two foot sabs went in on one of the many footpaths. Meanwhile the driver remained and was soon accompanied by 6 West Mercia police officers who had been told that we had been wearing face coverings…! Hmmmm, not long ago the police were called if you were not wearing a mask to cover nose and mouth.

It is suspected that someone from the hunt had come up with some particularly imaginative story to get such a response. One officer refused to give her collar number before beating a hasty retreat from the bemused sab who had calmly explained that we were there to protect wildlife from an illegal cub hunt! As if by magic a rider then turned up with a duster on a whip, this is what many hunts regard as a cunning plan to thwart the fact that they are hunting foxes. Get someone to wave a hanky or an old sock about and no one will take any notice of hounds chasing foxes, ripping foxes apart, trashing badger setts, etc. Not exactly fool proof in the week in which the director of the Master’s of Foxhounds Association is on trial but the “smokescreen” was in evidence this morning, well away from hounds.

We have reported illegal hunting and many trashed setts to West Mercia police. They have our phone number so really this was a bit overdramatic. Meanwhile foot sabs witnessed the mounted field wandering off here and there trying to evade them. They ran to one covert nearby and hounds did pick a scent. The hunt followers mounted and on foot did actually start holding up that covert. “Holding up” is when young foxes are deliberately frightened back into the hounds during cub hunting it is a sure sign of illegal hunting, the idea is that adults and bolder cubs will flee regardless and provide “sport for the main season and that the “weaker” ones will get killed by the pack and that the young hounds will learn to chase and kill foxes from the older hounds. Usually this is very noisy with dozens of people banging and shouting but just one silly rider was clapping rather than saddle slapping, the others were somewhat subdued in sharp contrast to what was filmed last week by West Midlands Sabs at this hunt. Anyway, they noticed that they were being filmed, that we were all present and went back to their boxes and home.