Ambassadors of hound trailing 1968.

The Ambassadors of hound trailing was the name given to the members who went to the first ever Irish International trail meeting at Cloyne, a round trip of a 1000 miles , Carlisle to Stranraer, Larne, and Cork.

English hounds take the honours at Cloyne was the headline in the ‘news’.

English hounds take the honours at Ireland’s first -ever International drag hunt Which was held at Cloyne in County Cork.

In the main event, the Guinness senior hound trail four of the six places , went to the hound trailing association.

The winner was Mr M Porter’s bitch Shamrock, who returned the remarkably fast time of 26 minutes 44 seconds for the tough ten mile course. She had several seconds lead over Meg, the entry of Mr J Lenihan, Kerry Pike. Another Cork hound Pincers, Mr J Mahoney’s , Northern Hunt finished fifth.

The winners time was one of the fastest recorded at a draghunt in Ireland and is all the more commendable in view of the toughness of the course, English hounds ,as a rule, are not accustomed to Irish ditches and hedges and the course carefully chosen by the Cloyne and Carrigshane Harrier Club included a plentiful supply of ditches. On that score alone it was thought that the advantage would lie with the Irish hounds, but the English hounds surprised everyone, except their owners , with their amazing turn of speed.

In the second event , the Harp Lager Maidens, English hounds again dominated winning the event and taking third ,fourth, fifth, and sixth places.

The staging of the event was mainly due to the efforts of Mr Albie Murphy, secretary of Cork City and County Harriers association.

Yesterday’s event attracted a large crowd.  Mr Frank Quinlan was judge and was assisted by Mr Jim Casson.

Seniors 1 Shamrock 2 Meg 3 Jackpot 4 Snowdrop 5 Pincers 6 Ballerina. 36 ran Time 26 44

Maidens 1 Tyneside 2 Sporter 3 Happy Collector 4 Signal Queen 5 Castella  6 Cool Comely.60 ran Time 27. 14

Observation from a neutral: The hedges had holes cut in them to assist the hounds, on reflection , as one supporter remarked after the English success , ‘ We wont be cutting holes next time .

And as for the winner , ably assisted by Jimmy Glaister, Bill Porter, Bill Jackson and ‘Boy’ Jackson, went to Ireland under their own steam a couple of days earlier.

In their own words , ‘ to get accustomed to the surroundings’ which in plain English meant, we’ve had a ‘gallop’ up the finish.