Cumbria, Lancaster, and North Tyne hunt sabs teamed up to hit the Melbreak earlier today! Unsure of where the meet was being held the groups spent the early part of the morning searching the countryside around Lorton Vale and Buttermere with no joy, so with time moving on the decision was taken to extend the search down towards Ennerdale. A good call as it was on route that the sabs luck began to change! Just after 10am, as the groups were approaching Lamplugh, they began to encounter the first of the road support then a few hounds were spotted running across fields from the direction of Crossgates. Straight away sabs began to spray citronella along the hedgerows prompting an angry reaction from one supporter who tried, without success, to attack a sab with his crook! With, as of yet, no sign of huntsman Liddle or the main bulk of the pack the sabs split into two groups, with one remaining in position and the other searching down towards Croasdale passing, oddly enough, a genuine trail hunt along the way. About half a mile out of Croasdale more, unattended, support vehicles were located so two sabs decided to check out the woodland on Lamplugh Fell to see if the could locate the so far elusive Liddle. As they worked their way into the dense woodland the two footsabs began to encounter hounds so started spraying citronella and employing horn calls to draw them to their position. At this point Liddle, who was high up on Blake Fell, began to call the pack in but met with limited success as the footsabs continued their calls frustrating his efforts. For a good hour the footsabs continued to labour their way through the woods, spraying and calling the whole time whilst Liddle struggled to regain control of the pack, before they broke onto open fell. They then worked their way up high, first onto Burnbank Fell then eventually up onto Blake Fell, calling hounds, who were by now scattered everywhere, as they did so! Meanwhile down on the roads the other sabs, some on foot others in vehicles, patrolled an area stretching from Lamplugh to Croasdale keeping a close eye on hounds that appeared sporadically on the fellsides. Only at one point, just out of Lamplugh, did a group of about twelve hounds break towards the road but the presence of sabs quickly had hunt staff whipping them back. After that the hunt was finished, occasional horn calls could be heard in the distance as the houndvan moved back and forth picking up stray hounds for the remainder of the afternoon. The sabs, all together again, monitored this closely until all hunt vehicles had departed the area then left for home job done! Many thanks to all the sabs whove travelled to help us out today, its very much appreciated and we hope to see you all again soon. :-)
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 23:58:09 +0000
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