Editorial

Country Sports and Country Life

Editorial Comment

First there was Covid and lockdowns and then there came bird flu as if the former was not enough to put thought of game shooting out of the minds of country sports folk across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Glynn Evans, BASC head of game was interviewed in June 2022 on the Fieldsports Channel where he looked at the prospects for shooting. As was reported, on the Fieldsports Channel, outbreaks of avian flu in the UK and France have pushed up the price of gamebirds and were jeopardising shoots. And not least, the prices for game birds was also jeopardising shooting.

Glynn Evans went on to say that although the import of chicks and eggs from much of France is not possible until July, the impact on shoots varies tremendously, says BASC’s head of game and gundogs Glynn Evans. “Some shoots have had no stock. I’m actually one of those people in that situation. We won’t be shooting this year. Other shoots are able to carry on with their plans in one shape or another.”

In France, the winter outbreak of avian influenza is in the area where most of the UK’s game birds are bred. The game farms of the Vendee and Loire regions export large numbers of eggs and chicks to the UK. Around half of the low ground birds released each year are imported, mostly as eggs from France. Until July 2022, no eggs or chicks can leave these disease control zones without a licence. In 2019, the last ‘normal’ year of sales pre-Covid, the UK imported about 20 million pheasants and up to 10 million partridges from France, the majority as eggs for hatching in the UK.

So it does not take much to see that for many shoots reliant on those imported eggs, any thoughts of the game season 22/23 running as normal were dashed. Northern Ireland has been affected as well, with some shoots deciding not to go ahead with any sort of game shooting. A notable example of one such being the Cleggan Estate set in the hills above the Glens of Antrim and which usually offered some of the finest shooting in Norther Ireland. This year they will only offer simulated shooting. This will be for groups of 8 to 16, and which the Estate says ‘will replicate the atmosphere of the “driven day” as closely as possible, with a range of challenging drives offered, representing pheasant, partridge, and grouse shooting.’

Having shot at Cleggan on many occasions over the years, I have no doubt that it will indeed be the closest possible to a ‘normal’ shoot day and the lunch will be as spectacular as the clay birds.

But what of the rest. Well, Dundarave rear their own birds and so they and CherryValley should be alright. Saintfield will go ahead as planned and possibly others but the effect on the coming season will be felt by Guns and will no doubt prove difficult for funding enthusiasts as well. But count your blessings as for a time it looked like it was to be a real letdown for all concerned.

Now, on to the Irish Game fair at Shanes Castle in June. As it was the first time in three years that we were able to run the Fair, it attracted very large crowds despite the very changeable and inclement weather. We had a record turnout on the Saturday, the first day of the event, and truth to tell we were rather hoping for a spectacular attendance on the Sunday but the heavens opened early morning and I am sure deterred many from attending. In between the downpours of Biblical proportions, the sun shone and all was right with the world….. but stand in that rain and you almost got drowned! Elsewhere in this magazine there will be a photograph of me in the Main Arena with a virtual river running off my head.

All of which brings me to another point I wish to make about why I was drowning (almost) in the Main Arena. I was calling for countrysports unity. Let me explain. I have often thought of the Game fair as a microcosm of all that is to be admired in countrysports. We have experts on display, we have top gun dogs in action, there are countrysports organisations such as the Countryside Alliance Ireland, Country Sports Ireland, FISSTA, and others showcasing what they do. We have clay shooting, and we have ‘have a go’ events for the casual visitor and we have spectacular prizes for the lucky winners etc. This year we even had a superb Fly Fair on the same site where you could watch experts in action at their fly dressing tables. Advice on casting, a put and take fishery for kids again read just one person’s account of the joy it brought to their child to actually go fishing and actually land one!

Then there were the public who trooped in to join in the fun. And one thing I noticed was the number of families this year who came along to enjoy themselves. And this brings me to why I was almost under water in the main Arena clutching a microphone which threatened to drown at any minute. I was there to call for unity of support from all shades of countrysports - the anglers, dog handlers, clay shooters, terrier and lurcher enthusiasts, falconry people, game shots and rough shooters and any others who didn’t actively take part but who enjoyed the sight of others doing so.

The very people who were there at the Irish Game Fair at Shanes Castle in their thousands.

I was brought into country sports by my father, as many others have been as well. I was then taken under the wing of an elderly gardener who lived not far from my family home in Ballygawley. I was shown how to ‘tickle’ trout just below the rim of the bank, an art form in itself that he was expert in but I simply could not accomplish. I was shown how to ‘briar’ the rabbit burrows - a long briar inserted and twisted down the rabbit hole until it made contact with a resident rabbit who was attached by the scut to the briar’s twisting, a bit like a corkscrew going into a bottle and then withdrawn. I never would have believed it but I saw it over and over again. Then I took up wildfowling and eventually walked up over the moors before an odd day on a peg. And picking up on shoots became a particular pleasure, as did training and trialling spaniels for a short time in the 70s and long before the picking up.

The public at Shanes that day would I was sure have stories of their own about their Fieldsports journey. Many were there (as was told to me many times over the years) as a result of their parents bringing them as children and now they were there with their own children.

So, in a nutshell what I said was this: we have a unique sporting history that should be treasured and built upon. Yet day and daily we read of an attack by antis or others on some element of our completely legal country sports. They want it banned or they want it altered to suit their own agenda. First they take a poke at one country sport. ‘Oh we don’t mind shooting, or oh no fishing is safe with us etc. But I see it differently. Let's just say for a moment that one person is indeed genuine in only wanting to do away with one type of country sport, but if they succeed then the hardliners egging them on will turn their eye to yet another country sport ripe for the picking off.

So what I asked for is unity. Support ALL country sports as numbers are the only thing that a politician understands. And support the bodies that are YOUR representative bodies of what you enjoy. They are all that is standing between country sports as we know them now and country sports that YOUR children will read about in history books. And we certainly want to see countless thousands bringing their great grandchildren to Game Fairs in years to come as well. Please enjoy the season ahead.