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Trial Trails.
Sunday Jan 10th
Coniston tops 2.30
Pups And Seniors approx. 11 mins
Pups And Seniors Approx 5 Mins.
If you want your trial trails advertising then call
015394 45200 and ask for the Gaffer.

Pups 1 General James 2 Huntsmans Loyal 3 Queen. 11Ran Time 12 mins
Seniors 1 Jenny’s Rose 2 Lady Bethan 3 Lady Anne 10 ran.
Short trail; 1 Rooster 2 Sugar Ray 8 ran

There is something rather special about a Cumbrian sports meeting , and they don’t come much better than Ambleside Sports.

The sports with is mixture of wrestling , trailing ,fell races and trade stands shows off what is unique and wholesome about our county and I think it is always an uplifting experience being there.

Five races made up the sports hound trailing programme and the best of them was the opener where HTA senior table leader Watt Next demonstrated her class with a brilliant turn of foot at the finish.

West Garth had shown with a comfortable 20 yard lead but the Brian Graham trained Bassenthwaite bitch stepped up a gear and came through to snatch a dramatic victory by half a length.

I can’t recall owner Les McTear showing the same sort of speed on the rugby field!

In the junior trail junior puppy leader Melody and one or two others came from the side suggesting they might have run on .Midnight Express ,however, made no mistake and won comfortable for John Grisedale.

Neil Brown of Seaton was celebrating after Matrix had opened his account in the two year old brigade. This son of West Garth was an easy winner from Langdale Rover and Grange Hill.

Not so happy was Peter Green of Windermere, after his Super Club threw away her winning opportunity in the open grade event.

Coming to the final gate with a massive lead Super Club suddenly veered off towards the parked cars.  Peter moved off the finishing area at which point Super Club resumed her run to the line.

But , although Peter returned to his position and Super Club crossed the line ahead of the rest , the disqualification was automatic – very unfortunate but correct .

The eventual winner was Margaret Wintrip, from Northumberland with Cracking Finish.

The other unlucky hound  was Tribute who had shown with a good lead in the maiden race. But approaching the gate she did a circle of the fell and let through three hounds to fight out the finish.

In the end it was the Sykes family from Arrad Foot , who took the honours with Vogue, a winner by half a length from Three Shires.

Results. Ssniors

1 Watt Next 2 West Garth 3 Tequila 4 Little Gossip 5 Mandela 6 Courtwin.

Maidens 1 Vogue 2 Three Shires 3 Meadow Star 4 Tribute 5 Brookside 6 Liam’s Lady.

Pups 1 Midnight Express 2 Melody 3 Dairy Line 4 Medici 5 Chieftain 6 Quandrill.

Two Year Olds 1 Matrix 2 Langdale Rover 3 Grange Hill 4 Checkout 5 Huntsmans Master 6 Dana

OG 1 Cracking Finish. 2 Huntsmans Music 3 Spotlight 4 Lady Tara 5 Eternal 6 Lady Helena

Sincere wishes are sent to Ricky Deacon and family at the passing of his daughter Alison, who died after a long illness.

Denis and Norma Reay were accepted as honorary members.

There were 5 recommendations .

No1 . Delete rule 55.3 . This was defeated.

No2 .Alter rule 36 . This was carried.

The owner of a hound which competes in a trail which it is ineligible will be subject to appropriate action by the relevant Area Committee under guidelines set by the Committee.

No 3 Alter rule 59 Defeated.

No 4 Addition to rule 70.2 Defeated

No 5 Addition to rule 84 Defeated.

Rule 84 Re All-in trails . Area Committees will be contacted as to providing more All-In trails.

An extra- ordinary meeting of Members of the Aspatria and Wigton area will be forthcoming to discuss the future of the Committee , whether to disband and give their fixtures to other committees or to carry on. Date to be announced.

The winner of £500 for the HTA Christmas draw was———-

Number  3 Tommy Newall .      Cleator Moor.

£ 75  No 18  Billy Birkett.

£25 No 63 Lexie Raybould.

First of all the Hound Trailing Association offers its condolences to all those who suffered in the recent floods especially those members who were flooded out . Russell and Wendy were two who suffered and the rest of the association wish them well and hope they get back to normal as soon as possible.

Now we go back to remembering a hound that in the all time record of senior wins is the fourth highest with 54 but never won a Championship and is therefore not in any annual .

The hound in question is Black Diamond who had the misfortune to be born in the same era as Perivale, who is regarded by many as the best hound of all time.

‘Diamond ‘ won 173 trails between 1946- 1952. As a pup he won 18 trails in 1946. He won 14 in 1947; 54 in 1948; 42 in 1949; 24 in 1950 ; 16 in 1951 ; and 5 1952. The wins were as far afield as Barrow in the south, Warton ,Blackwell (Carlisle) Aikton and Frizington. As with most hounds the older you get the more local you become and in 1952 his wins were Ulverston, Allithwaite, Holker and Flookburgh . He also recorded 45 seconds and 34 thirds. One of the best but not always remembered!

Humour in the sixties : Somebody wrote to the news warning the officials about the alleged use of illegal substances being used in trailing : The list was as follows –

Egg Nog — Sherry Special – Arsenite Annie- Vets Vim – Strychnine Sam- Bella Donna- Spanish Gyp and Top Secret. The sender remained anonymous but I’ve a good idea it might have been the ‘old fella’.

The reason being – on opening a cupboard I discovered an array of exotic substances on questioning the old man I was assured that they weren’t for the hounds but for my mother!

The funeral of ‘ POP’ Robinson will be at Uldale on Monday 14th December at 11 am. Midway between Uldale and Ireby.

Langdale Ranger  — Rhinestone Cowboy- Jenny’s Pride.

Langdale Jack    —-  Dairy One- Dairy Dancer.

Sundays Meeting of the area Committees has been cancelled.

Will be rearranged for a later date.

Rearranged for SUNDAY 13th DEC Con club Keswick 2.00pm.

1 Delete rule 55.3.

2 Alter Rule 36 to . The owner of a hound which competes in a trail for which it is ineligible shall be fined.

3 Alter rule 59 .Entry fee can be increased in proportion to prize money.

4 Fresh rags to be used for all trails .

5 Every week  One All- in trail to be held in the HTA.

Hound trailing history was made on Saturday when hounds from the HTA, Border HTA  and Yorkshire HTA competed in a four trail meet at Lowther park, near Penrith.It was the first occasion on which a joint meet has ever  been held and the Low Deer Park at Lowther Castle was an ideal venue for the first ever ‘ national’ hound trail meet .

The meet was organised in aid of the Willie Irving Testimonial fund and the popularity of the retiring secretary was reflected in the large audience that attended from all three of the competing areas.

There was a total turnout of 200 hounds of which 141 HTA , 47 Border and 12 Yorkshire. All four trails were won by HTA hounds, the Border claiming three minor tickets.

Arrangements for the meet were in the hands of the Penrith Area Committee and were warmly commended by the President of the HTA , Mr Henry Kirkby and the President of the BOrder HTA , Mr C Dodds. They also thanked Captain, the Hon A G Lowther , who acted as starter and judge and Mrs Lowther who presented the trophies.

There were thrilling finishes to all of the trails. In the Vaux brewery senior trail, HTA senior table leader , Whiplash was joint favourite with Demander, the 1963 puppy Champion and the winner of the Vaux trophy at Kendal Show this year. At least 40 of the 65 runners were racing down the long, straight finish at the same time.Scawfell and Whitrigg Lad led into view but Demander came through in brilliant fashion to beat Scawfell by half a length, Whiplash although only fifth was beaten by less than four lengths and there were twelve hounds in a space of ten yards.

Even more exciting was the finish of the maiden trail in which Western Lady just pipped Deep Mist by a head to win the Matthew Brown Brewery stakes .

Longcroft ran a great race to narrowly beat Landmark in the John Peel brewery stakes for Dog puppies and High Lady won by a length from Miss Lesley in the Dutton brewery stakes for bitches.

Now if my memory serves me right, the hounds finished along the old racetrack and the public and bookies were parked along side the River Lowther.

It was one of the first trail meetings where bookmakers had to be licensed and the customs and excise visited the venue to check on whether all the bookies were indeed ‘ licensed’. They started checking and hadn’t gone far when two or maybe more ‘ bolted’  that is,  they downed tools grabbed what they could carry and ran along the riverbank towards Bampton , hotly pursued by the C/E.