Kirkham Farn, with independent hunt monitors. On sett checking this mornng a sab’ was caught up by 2 lots of quad bikes on the road, covered in mud. One reg’ plate was the wrong way round, the other smeared his with mud. They called the Heythrop stalkers and they stuck like glue for the rest of the day. Fortunately monitors were free to sett check and observe the terriermen mess about in some brambles where a fox had gone. Their presence seems to have deterred them from doing more.

Following the first draw from Slaughter woods a fox was hunted into a well known badger sett which has been blocked repeatedly over the years. With this area well known to us for many years and reported both prior to this becoming a cull zone and since it became zone 9, the sett is blocked far less often. The fox escaped and they left him alone.

Not much happened until they reached Debdene and a fox was hunted across to Hinchwick Manor, into North Cotswold Hunt country to the Warren and back. a sab managed to slow them down by a few seconds but despite Lizzie Coombes telling Huntsman Charlie Frampton that the hounds “were wrong”, this fox was hunted for a long time into the dark. There was no attempt to stop them and no one lays a trail in another hunt’s country but it is common for the Heythrop to blunder into NCH territory, even if they are hunting nearby.

We do not know what happened to the fox but heard hounds being gathered up at 4.30pm at Debdene.

Many thanks to the monitors who drove, ran and checked loads of setts (none of which were blocked) today.