The Orkney Unseen naked charity calendar 2015 shows the island inhabitants baring all to raise money for Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

The Orkney Unseen naked charity calendar 2015 has put the archipelago, just off the north coast of Scotland, in the spotlight. The Orkney inhabitants have laid bare the inner Islander, stripping off to raise money for the neuro ward at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Lambs firmly clasped to bosoms.

The Field is keen to support good causes, and country dwellers (and islanders) seem particularly happy to disrobe at the mention of charity. Just remember the hunting hotties from the Holcombe Hunt naked charity calendar, shooting sirens in the Around the Farm naked charity calendar and the jolly young farmers of the WFYFC naked charity calendar

This time farmers, farmers’ wives, shooters and riders, as well as the incredible Orkney scenery have a part in the jolly Orkeny Unseen naked charity calendar.

Caroline Kritchlow’s husband suffered an enormous brain tumour 18 months ago, and found it challengeing living in Orkney and travelling to Aberdeen for hospital appointments and treatments.

Following his successful operation and aftercare, we wanted to support the Neuro Ward at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and consequently started a charity called Friends of the Neuro Ward – ARI.  In just over a year, we have raised over £50,000 which will be spent making life more comfortable on the ward for both patients and relatives who are going through a traumatic time in their lives. We aim to refurbish the ward, upgrading 2 wetrooms, provide a respite room for those travelling from the Northern Isles and eventually provide a life-saving intra-operative MRI scanner which costs £1 million!!

Part of the fundraising for the Friends of the Neuro Ward – ARI, was the fabulous Orkney Unseen naked charity calendar 2015. To purchase an Orkney Unseen naked charity calendar please contact Caroline Kritchlow. Calendars cost £5 plus £2 post and packaging. Help the charity on their way to their £1 million goal.

The Field has donated to the cause.

How to stop rabbits eating trees is a perennial problem. Willy Newlands advises on the best course of action to protect your young trees.

How to stop rabbits eating trees is like adopting the mantle of Mr McGregor. The function of wildlife in the landscape,” a forestry expert once explained to me, “is to kill all your expensive young trees. In this work, they are wonderfully efficient.” He added, “If you want your own patch of woodland, you will find that buying the trees is the easy bit. Guarding them is what takes time and money.”
He ticked off the costs on his fingers: a broadleaf sapling from a commercial nursery, say 50p. A plastic tree guard to keep rabbits at bay, £1; timber stake, add 50p. If roe deer are a problem, use a taller tree guard, £1.50. And if cattle are likely to be browsing anywhere near, consider stock-fencing the whole site, £4 a metre.
His sums were for large orders but it does not matter who does the arithmetic – doubling or halving the cost, or adding labour – it will be expensive.

HOW TO STOP RABBITS EATING TREES

And the enemy is always waiting to pounce. The enemy is the rabbit – nearly 50 million of them at the last count – and the effects of myxomatosis, which reduced the population by 95% in the mid-Fifties, is long forgotten as the species developed immunity to the disease. And where bunnies break through the defences, the effect can be disastrous.
We had a flood last year, which smashed down the doors into our two-acre walled garden. Rabbits got in but we assumed that they could be controlled easily once the doors were back in place. However, the repairs took some time and meanwhile the invading rabbits dug their way under the old greenhouses and a summer-house. Young rabbits began to appear.
The damage over the winter was devastating. Fruit trees, young and old, were rapidly ring-barked and all sorts of “rabbit proof” plants were soon being chewed down to ground level: yuccas, fatsias, hellebores, kniphofias, bamboo, privet were all destroyed. The situation of the garden made it impossible to use gas to control the pests, so most of the counter-attack depended on some ferreting and a lot of evening shoots. The tally so far is 72 rabbits shot on two acres, and I think there are still half a dozen inside the walls.
This year’s fruit crop – apples and plums – was a total failure. There was blossom and a lot of fruit was set but nothing developed. Tiny apples and plums fell in drifts under the dying trees along the walls. A much-loved garden has become a sad sight.

Plastic tree guards can give young trees a chance before the rabbits and roe deer get to them.

We shall not underestimate the power of the rabbit in future. We will know how to stop rabbits from eating trees. Every new tree will be safe inside a plastic tree shelter and behind a mesh fence. And out in the wider garden beyond the walls, where roe are a problem (both browsing and fraying), we shall be erecting taller defences. Black plastic guards of square mesh, 1.2 metres high, will help prevent too much damage to our bigger trees.
Tubes are a good way of spending some of the landscaping budget, anyway, often doubling the speed at which saplings put on height and girth. The effect is much more pronounced with broadleaved trees. Conifers do better inside a less-cosseting protection of open mesh.
We were tempted in the early stages of developing our landscape to buy specimen trees, which promised to create an effect much more quickly than small transplants. This was an expensive miscalculation.
Thirty years of struggle with cold winds and cloudy summers has proved that a wee tree, comfortable inside a tube, is going to outperform any man-sized sapling, which often lives but rarely thrives. And over the years you will find that your list of favourite trees is likely to change dramatically. In my case, Norway maples and some willows have slipped off the list while the Italian alder has proved to be a superstar, taller and more robust than almost any other broadleaved tree we can grow, while keeping every leaf on its wide-sweeping lower branches.
Best conifer is still the much-maligned Leyland cypress – in the right place it is big and beautiful and wonderfully hardy.

Mature Leylandii are not to rabbits’ taste.

One doesn’t need to worry about how to stop rabbits eating trees when therer are mature Leyland cypress. Worth noting is the fact that rabbits ignore mature Leyland cypress but will maliciously destroy young transplants, so they do need a hoop of mesh to give them a start. Roe deer also thrash young Leylands to death if they find them anywhere on the boundaries of their territory, so a couple of stakes provide protection against this damage.
The simplest guard for any tree is a spiral of plastic wound around the young broadleaf and its cane. This will protect your sapling for a month or two, although it can actually be counter-productive in the case of browsing deer, which soon realise that the plastic is the signpost to a most attractive mouthful of fodder.
My lessons from the recent skirmishes with rabbits are that tubes and fences are a must and, where those are impossible, there is a lot to be said for shrubs that rabbits really do dislike: rugosa roses, leycesteria, fuchsia and berberis have their uses.

12 pieces of pigeon shooting kit to keep in the wagon this season. Jonathan Young reveals the best kit to keep on hand for when the pigeons are flocking.

Pigeon shooting kit to keep in the car. It might not be popular with the rest of the family, but keeping your pigeon shooting kit ready to go in the boot of the car means you can be in your hide with a freezer full of birds at your feet, before anyone has noticed you’ve gone.

With spring drillings in the ground and the last of the maize cover crops chopped, now is the time when some heavy bags of pigeon can be made. Our expert guide to pigeon shooting will tell you how to use the kit below. And once you’ve bagged your birds make them into this delicious pigeon and blue cheese salad with russet dressing.

PIGEON SHOOTING KIT – 12 PIECES TO KEEP IN THE CAR

1. A pair of binoculars for checking out the flightlines before you set up shop.
2. A score of flock-covered shell decoys with the white neckband accentuated. Pigeon see in ultra violet and this makes the decoys really stand out.
3. A pair of Air Pro spinning-wing pigeon decoys. They really add movement and can obviate the need for a whirler if there’s sufficient wind. You can just set them up on a hazel wand cut from the hedge.
4. A whirler if it’s a still day and the birds have not grown wary of them.
5. If they are wary, two pigeon flappers on timers can work beautifully.
6. A modern, lightweight hide net.
7. A set of lightweight, adjustable hide-poles with kick-in bars for when the ground’s hard. Five poles are often better than four.
8. A decent seat. A leather-seat stool is comfortable and the taller versions make it easy to rise for the shot.
9. A rucksack to take some of the clobber.
10. Enough cartridges. It’s boring lugging them in and out of the car but painful if you run out.
11. A suitable container to transport the slain. Some use sacks, others favour old fish boxes salvaged from the beach.
12. A large billhook to cut down brambles and elders to allow you hide to sit flush with the hedgeline.

But remember, if the ground’s wet and the pigeon shooting kit has to be lugged it’s better be under the flightline with some of the gear rather than set up off the line with all of it.

The Quorn gate jumping competition is the recreation of a nineteenth century sporting wager. Will you throw your hat into the ring?

The Quorn hunt gate jumping competition returns for the third year on Friday 27th March 2015 at 6.30pm at Vale View Equestrain Centre, Leicestershire.

The season has finished, so now is the time to have-a-go at some of the fun stuff, from hunt rides, to the Team Chase Championships at the Fernie, to point to point fixtures and the Quorn hunt gate jumping competition.

The Quorn hunt gate jumping is held in homage to the superlative old-school antics of the ‘Mad Marquis’, Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquis of Waterford. In 1838, after a very good hunting tea, he wagered that a horse could jump a five-bar gate set across the dining room of his Quorn hunting box, Lowesby Hall.

With no shortage of takers the princely purse of 100 guineas was eventually won by a grey horse called Don Juan, ridden by a Mr Manning from Aylesbury. Are you ready to follow in his hoofprints? The competition no longer takes place in a dining room, but it is an exciting end of season challenge.

THIS COMPETITION IS OPEN TO SUBSCRIBERS OF ALL RECOGNISED HUNTS.
And the plate is the magnificent Damazo Challenge Trophy, donated by Quorn Hunt subscriber, Ray Damazo, who hunted for 25 years with the Quorn – travelling every year from his home in Seattle, U.S.A. to spend the season in Leicestershire.

QUORN HUNT GATE JUMPING COMPETITION – RULES

For horses that have not been registered with the BSJA in the previous 3 years, other than promotional joint registrations with British Eventing and actually competed in an affiliated competition or have not won £300 or more under the Association’s rules or won more than 50 Irish SJ points.

Horses must have been hunting at least 4 times in the season 2014/15.

Riders must be paid up subscribers/masters or members of a recognised pack of hounds in Great Britain.

The gate is to be jumped away from the entry door. If the gate is knocked down then the competitor has the option to continue around the arena and jump a single pole, set at the same height as the gate. If the pole is jumped clearly then the competitor can continue in the competition until there are six horses left in the competition. At that point, the single pole will be removed and the competition will revert to a knock out, jumping the gate in one direction. There will be an optional fence, which may be jumped before attempting the gate.

In the knockout stage, if the gate is knocked down, the rider falls off, or the horse refuses the gate on either attempt, they are out of the competition.

The gate will start at a height of 3 feet going up to a maximum of 6 feet 6 inches.

If there is more than one combination successful at the highest level the prize will be shared.

In the event of a tie, a knock down will beat a refusal or fall. If there are no clears at any certain height, competitors will all jump again until the gate is jumped cleanly.

An entry fee of £55 per horse plus £30 for subsequent horses for the same rider should be enclosed with the entry form.

Competitors and their helpers will gain free admission to Vale View on the night.

Passports should be available for inspection at Vale View.

QUORN HUNT GATE JUMPING COMPETITION: PRIZES

Overall winner £1,000 to be split half for the represented hunt and half to the winning rider.

2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th ,6^th.

1^st Veteran 50 yrs or over.

1^st Youth 20 yrs or under.

1^st side saddle. (separate class.)

1^st Quorn Subscriber.

Entry forms from Zoe Mossman or tel 07714233937.

Spectators entry fee £10 adults £5 children Quorn Farmers half price. Bar & refreshments available.

Point to point fixtures for April 2015. Leave the eggs at home and head to the race track this month.

Point to point fixtures for April 2015 are listed below.

Ensure your Easter basket is full of goodies fit for the point to point. Lift the lid of your hamper and rejoice in a day of feasts hosted on the tailgate. Try our springtime wholesome egg recipies, or venison sauasge rolls or exceptional pheasent and walnut pasties.

For those with an undeniably sweet tooth, begin baking one of our deliciously soft Easter Basque cake to accompany a flask of hot tea.

The 21 best crosbreed dogs, from the puggle to the speagle. Which is your favourite crossbreed? Or will only a pure bred lab do?

21 best crossbreed dogs for working in the field and at home. Your taste may run to the Downton Abbey gundog, or a labrador when breeding or choosing a puppy. But for those keen to think outside the box choose one of these 21 best crossbreed dogs. The best crossbreed dogs can offer something different.

21 BEST CROSSBREED DOGS

1. Lurcher – the earliest and most sensible of working crossbreeds using a greyhound, whippet or, occasionally, deerhound to add speed to an intelligent working dog, often a collie or terrier.
2. Sprocker – a springer crossed with a cocker spaniel, in the hope of creating a dog with the trainability and temperament of a springer and the drive of a cocker.
3. Springador (also Spanador) – springer spaniel/labrador cross, often created by accident and can bring out both the best and worst of both breeds.
4. Labradoodle – a cross between a labrador and poodle, very trendy, looks stunning (like an Italian Spinone), with good temperament and reduced shedding of coat (helpful to allergy sufferers).
5. Weimardoodle (Weimaraner x poodle) – along the same thinking as the Labradoodle, but this hasn’t made an impact as a working dog.
6. Cockerdoodle/cockerpoo – cocker spaniel/poodle cross, very popular as an assistance dog because of its small size, trainability, affectionate temperament and reduced coat-shedding, but of doubtful use in the field.
7. Toodles (various) – a poodle crossed with any of the terrier breeds.
8. Jackadoodle (Jack Russell x poodle).
9. Westdoodle or Westiepoo (West Highland terrier x poodle).
10. Whoodle (Wheaten terrier x poodle). Very popular in the horse world, notable toodles include Basil, owned by three-day event doyenne Lucinda Green.
11. Oodles (various) – a poodle crossed with show/utility breeds.
12. Schnoodle (Schnauzer x poodle).
13. Spoodle (show springer spaniel x poodle).
14. Shipoo (shih-tzu x poodle).
15. Cavapoo (Cavalier King Charles spaniel x poodle).
16. Chipoo (Chihuahua x poodle). Poodles are by far the most popular breed for crossing because of the non-shedding coat – and the fun of thinking up “oodle” names for the resultant cross.
17. Pyrakita – a Pyrenean mountain dog crossed with a Japanese akita. Why?
18. Puggle – a pug crossed with a beagle (possibly in an attempt to reduce ugliness).
19. Speagle (spaniel x beagle). Beagle crosses are popular in the States, where Sylvester Stallone is a puggle fancier.
20. Dorgi – a dachshund crossed with a corgi, by Royal approval, of course.
21. Bichon Frisé x West Highland terrier – no name yet, perhaps Frizzie? Suggestions on a postcard, please.

The Aintree Fox Hunters' Chase is the amateur's Grand National. Cheltenham may have its roar, but the Aintree fences are the biggest in the business.

The Aintree Fox Hunters’ Chase is the amateur’s Grand National. This year the Crabbies Fox Hunters’ Steeplechase will take place onthe first day of the Aintree meeting, 9th April 2015, at 4.05pm. The amateur jockey’s have had their Cheltenham try out and now racing eyes are turning north. When you do venture to the racecourse make sure you have your best brogues and country hat. Steer clear of the local fashions.

Winning the Grand National may be the pinnacle of a professional jockey’s career but as a race for fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of ordinary, everyday horsemen and huntsmen, it is the Aintree Fox Hunters’ that satisfies more dreams. It is a fact of the modern sporting world that winning has become everything. The old amateur notion that taking part is more important than victory is often derided but with the National now virtually exclusive to the top 40 professional jockeys and winning it out of most people’s reach, taking part in the Aintree Foxhunters remains a climbable everyman’s Everest, open even to those with no pretensions to being a great jockey.

That is not to belittle the race, far from it. These days more store is set by winning the Aintree Fox Hunters’ than any other race over Aintree’s green spruce fences – apart from the National itself – and, ironically, nine times out of 10 more “mad amateurs” get round their “National” than practised professionals do in the Topham Trophy a day later.

AINTREE FOX HUNTERS’ CHASE – THE HISTORY

Anyway, who remembers a Topham winner when an Aintree Fox Hunters’ winner is often fêted back home in his hunting country for years if not decades. The race, especially when combined in a double with the Christies’ Fox Hunters’ at Cheltenham, remains the holy grail of hunter chasing, the peak of achievement for the graduate of the point-to-point field, the mark of a proper horse and horseman.

Mettle is tested over the fences. Winning the double, Cheltenham and Aintree, is the amateur’s dream.

Though not run until 1923 – 84 years after the aptly named Lottery won the inaugural Grand National, but one year before the first Cheltenham Gold Cup – it has a history rich in romance like the National. Then run over the full National distance of four and a half miles, the first Aintree Fox Hunters’ Chase was won by Gracious Gift, ridden by Captain “Tuppy” Bennett, who won the same year’s Grand National on Sergeant Murphy. The 1948 race was won by the formidable Sir Guy Cunard in whose memory today’s winning rider’s trophy is given but, with single-figure fields, it was decided in 1950 to shorten the race to just under three miles.
In 1954 the Aintree Fox Hunters’ was won by Dark Stranger, ridden by the late John Bosley. I remember him telling me – apart from the fact that the popular pastime among jockeys on the eve of the National was to toboggan down the stairs at the Adelphi on a silver tray – how he had nearly turned down the ride.
He had just bought a farm at Bampton in Oxfordshire and conditions were perfect to start drilling spring corn for the first time on his own land. When he offered it up for an excuse the trainer, Len Colville, told him he had got his priorities wrong. Having thought about it he accepted the ride. Dark Stranger, whom he had never ridden, had a tendency to lose his races at the start so he organised the starter’s assistant to give him a crack round the hocks with his Long Tom and this time the horse was first out of the gate. What was to have been the biggest day of his farming career turned out instead to be the biggest day of his riding career.

The Easter holidays are here, and so no better time to whip up this breakfast treat.

American pancakes can be a good alternative to the traditional English breakfast. Especially if one’s day on the hill might not be hearty enough to burn off the weighty fuel of the full English. Another non-meaty breakfast, eggs florentine, makes a wholesome start, but these American pancakes are definitely a kid-friendly option. For an equally child friendly supper dish do try the pheasant kiev. A trouble-free method of encouraging them to eat game.

So simple, these pancakes can be put together but even the most kitchen allergic. And will make you the king (or queen) of the kitchen with the kids.

AMERICAN PANCAKES WITH BLUEBERRIES, BANANA AND CREAM
Serves 4
■ 175g (6oz) plain flour
■ 11⁄2 tsp baking powder
■ 2 tbsp caster sugar
■ 2 medium eggs
■ 150ml (5fl oz) whole milk
■ 1 tsp vanilla essence
■ 1 tbsp olive oil
■ 3 tbsp clarified butter
■ 200g (7oz) blueberries
■ 1 banana, chopped into small pieces
■ 200ml (7fl oz) double cream

Whisk the plain flour, baking powder and caster sugar together in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla then pour into the flour, whisking until you have
a smooth batter. Finally, whisk
in the olive oil. The batter should be thick.
Put a tablespoon of clarified butter into a large frying pan on a medium heat. When the pan is hot add a ladleful of batter, carefully scatter a few blueberries and pieces of chopped banana on top of the pancake and cook until bubbles appear, about two minutes (cook as many at a time as will fit comfortably in your pan). Flip over and cook the other side for another minute and a half.
Once cooked, take out of the pan and cover loosely with foil to keep warm while you make the rest of the pancakes. Serve with lashings of double cream.

Fishing bucket list. Don't be content to simply sit on the riverbank this season. We have 5 things for the keen fisherman to add to his list.

Have a fishing bucket list? If so add these top five fishing challenges to it. And if not perhaps it is about time to start one. The fishing bucket list is here to enliven your familiar fishing patterns. Season after season our sporting lives are set, familiar beats and best fishing huts. Try something new and you will be one step nearer to the sporting man’s Valhalla.

FISHING BUCKET LIST: 5 THINGS TO ADD

1. Catch a 20lb salmon in the UK
   The River Tay holds the record for the largest-ever line-caught salmon, landed in 1922 and weighing 64lb. To find out which beat is best for your attempt and when to go, try FishPal.
2. Catch a 50lb-plus conger eel
   Watch out – they bite! It’s the British Conger Club’s Golden Jubilee in 2012, and the club is the best source of information on catching your beast. The world record for a rod-caught conger is 133lb 4oz, landed at Brixham, Devon. Also an ideal way to return a shooting invitation.
3. Go tramping for flounders
   Fish with your feet for the common flounder or fluke in a sandy or muddy seabed. The World Championships have ended but you can still enjoy this estuary pastime, the spiritual home of which is Palnackie in Scotland.
4. Grand slam at permit, tarpon and bonefish
   You will find all three saltwater species off the coast of Florida, in the Bahamas and in South America, making for perfect holiday sport. Thrilling to catch on the fly, a hat trick is certain to impress. Permit can be the hardest, so go when they’re at their best: April, May, June.
5. Catch a fish with a fly you have tied yourself
   The thrill of bringing in a fish is doubled when you have tied the fly yourself. Nimble fingers are needed to master the skill. Take advice from our feature on salmon flies and fly tying.

Eggs florentine are the perfect weekend breakfast. An indulgent treat, and so much better with home-made hollandaise sauce.

Super for breakfast, brunch or supper, eggs florentine are a delicious (and non-meaty) twist on eggs benedict. As a quick supper dish it ranks alongside rarebits of varying geographical origins. If the mood for something more fanciful occurs try the duck egg with crab sandwich, north sea brown shrimp and blade butter by Andrew Pern. Or don’t, and just feast on the simplicity of the following…

EGGS FLORENTINE RECIPE

Serves 4
■ 400g (14oz) spinach, washed and ready to cook
■ Salt and pepper
■ 4 English muffins
■ 8 free-range/organic eggs
For the hollandaise sauce
■ 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
■ 4 peppercorns
■ 1 bay leaf
■ 250g (9oz) unsalted butter
■ 4 egg yolks
■ Sea-salt, fine
■ Juice of half a lemon

Decadent and rich, this buttery breakfast always delights. This is also my favourite method of making hollandaise sauce.
Bring a pan of water to the boil ready to poach the eggs.
In the meantime, make the hollandaise. Place the vinegar, peppercorns and bay leaf in a pan and reduce by half.

In a separate pan, melt the butter.
Put the egg yolks into a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Strain the vinegar to remove the peppercorns and bay leaf then add to the egg yolks and start the processor immediately.
Whiz until you have a thick, pale emulsion (about two minutes). While the processor is running, pour in the warm, melted butter slowly (discard the pale butter solids at the bottom of the pan), add a pinch of fine sea-salt and, finally, the lemon juice.
Stop the processor and check the consistency – you want to be able to pour it over the poached eggs but thick enough to cling to them. If it is too thick, add a splash of hot water and start the processor again.
Scrape the hollandaise into a bowl and cover tightly with cling film (keep it warm by sitting it above a bowl of hot water), while you finish the rest of the dish.
Steam the spinach, drain well and season with salt and pepper.
Split the muffins in half and toast them.
Poach the eggs in the pan of gently simmering water.
To serve, place the spinach on top of the toasted muffin, top with a poached egg and finally a spoonful of hollandaise.

Johnny Scott discovers more about this ancient spring festival, the origins of Eostre and what Easter really means

Eostre and Easter, the pagan and the Christian spring festival, is a time for celebration. The paschal feast is not complete without a delicious tea time Basque cake with Easter spices or a brace of moreish hot cross buns. But there is more to it than food and chocolate eggs. In AD 595, Pope Gregory sent a mission of 40 monks led by a Benedictine called Augustine, prior of St Andrew’s monastery in Rome (and later the first Archbishop of Canterbury), to England with instructions to convert the pagan inhabitants to Christianity. Augustine was advised to allow the outward forms of the old, heathen festivals and beliefs to remain intact, but wherever possible to superimpose Christian ceremonies and philosophy on them.

The sheer scale of the task confronting the little band of missionaries was so colossal that, halfway on the long trudge from Rome, they got cold feet and decided to turn back. They were only too aware, leaving seasonal festivals aside, that pagan Britons believed every plant, tree, spring, stream, rock, hill or animal had its own soul and its own guardian deity. Before a tree could be cut down, a stream dammed, a mountain crossed, a spring drunk from or an animal disturbed, the individual guardian spirit had first to be placated. Every aspect of the wind and the weather also had its own god or goddess. Pleas for permission to return were refused and, two years later, the anxious group of monks arrived in Canterbury and began endeavouring to carry out the papal directives.

The Easter cross signifies the Easter festivities.

Pope Gregory’s mandate of conversion through coercion was brilliant in its simplicity: he surmised that the easy-going but deeply superstitious Anglo-Saxon peasants would not object if the seasonal festivals of the pagan calendar were Christianised, provided the ancient celebrations remained basically unchanged. Gradually, the main heathen feasts became days honouring Christ or one of the Christian martyrs, and the Church had plenty of saints in hand, ready for any eventuality. Over several centuries, all the pagan days of weather prediction – at least 40 in the year – were given saints’ names, and the big feast days were converted to Christian festivals.

Imbolc, on 2 February, celebrating the first sign of new growth and the beginnings of lactation in ewes, became Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. Lughnasadh, on 1 August, was the celebration of the start of the harvest; it became Lammas or St Peter in Fetters day, when bread baked from the new crop was blessed. The great festival of Sam-hain on 31 October marked the end of the “light” or growing half of the year and the start of the “dark” or dead half. Pagans believed the spirits of their ancestors became active at nightfall, a superstition substantiated by the ghostly movements of migratory woodcock or geese flying under the moon.

The church was quick to create All Souls’ Night, followed by All Saints’ Day. The 12-day festival of Yule at the end of December became the celebration of Christ’s birth. However, one festival was so ancient and so deeply entrenched in the pagan psyche that, although it was to become the most important and defining event in the ecclesiastical calendar, the Church did not attempt to change its name – Easter.

The Holy Scriptures tell us that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus occurred round about the time of the Jewish Passover, which equates to our spring. Easter was established in western Europe by the First Council of Nicea in AD 325, as being the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox, the day from which the hours of sunlight become progressively longer. The equinox had been celebrated as a joyous festival of fertility, regrowth and new birth by early civilisations.

 THE ANGLO-SAXONS

Did Bede invent Easter?

The Anglo-Saxons worshipped the goddess Eostre, referred to by the Venerable Bede in De Temporum Ratione (AD 725), in which he also mentions the indigenous English name of the month: “Eostur-monath has a name that is now translated as ‘Paschal month’, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.” It has often been suggested that Eostre was an invention of Bede’s, as very little is known about her otherwise, and a body of opinion theorising against her existence still has some popular cul-tural currency, but the evidence in Bede’s favour is compelling.

Bede was born in AD 672 during the early stages of the Christianisation of these islands, when the names of the Anglo-Saxon gods and goddesses would have been common know-ledge and, as the philologist Jacob Grimm (1775 – 1863), folklorist Charles Billson (1858–1932) and, more recently, Dr Venetia Newall have observed, the highly respected father of English history would have been unlikely to invent a goddess of that name. Furthermore, a number of English place names of Saxon origin, such as Eastry in Kent, Eastrea in Cam-bridge-shire and Eastrington in East York-shire, are assumed to be derived from Eostre. There is also an etymological link to Ostara or Austra, the spring goddess worshipped by the tribes of northern Europe, after whom the month of April, Ostermonat, was named, and whose existence was verified in 1958, when more than 150 Romano-Germanic votive inscriptions to the matronae Austria-henea were discovered near Morken-Harff in Germany, datable to the second century AD.

Shooting duck in Argentina is Elysium come early. Try something new and set your sights on South America.

Duck shooting in Argentina in the wake of a hurricane is for wildfolwers who love the wet. A far cry from wildfowling on Lindisfarne.

Wildfowlers either grow to love the wet or pursue drier pastimes. Even so, we cursed Hurricane Betty – or was she Charlotte? Whatever her name, she’d partied hard in the south Atlantic, crashed out somewhere and left Argentina’s taps running. We’d travelled 7,000 miles to swap a dank Britain for soused duck shooting in Argentina. “They’ll be everywhere,” murmured Nick Zoll, raising a leaden eyelid from the back of the minibus to watch a pair of silver teal dibble in a ditch. “Bleedin’ everywhere.”
Difficult not to agree as we drove through Buenos Aires province, its green livery of wheat, soy and sunflowers now stringed with splashes of silver dotted with ibis, spoonbills and bobbing duck. Why would the duck ignore this bounty to come streaming into our fed flight ponds?
When we arrived we could see the question was exercising Charlie Lanusse, the manager of David Denies’ Jacana Lodge, but our optimism was rapidly restored as we sank a couple of margaritas and demolished a steak. “There is a lot of water,” said Lanusse, “but there are also a lot of duck. We can shoot 13 species here and you should manage to shoot 11 of them. In all, we’re working an area within 50 kilometres of the lodge and we have around a hundred two-man blinds out there. Every day we have a team of boys feeding the flight ponds with maize and they report back on how many duck they’ve seen as well as signs of them, such as preened feathers and droppings. The average bag is 75 duck per blind on morning flight and 35 to 40 in the evening. So let’s go and see what we can find. ”

Pheasant as an aphrodisiac? It may get less press than its sultry cousin the oyster but pheasant has science on its side.

Aphrodisiacs have long been consigned to the ‘hocus pocus’ school of science. Chocolate might make you feel better, but there is no scientific fact linking the gloopy brown stuff to increased libido, or anything beneficial bedroom wise.

But scientists have recently learned of a powerful food source with genuine aphrodisiac value. Professors from the University of Veagarra, in Perugia, Italy, have announced a direct link between the consumption of pheasant and libido levels. Look to our top 10 best pheasant recipes to start cooking now…

This may be news to the 21st century, but Henry V believed in the priapic qualities of roast pheasant and the much married Henry VIII kept a priest as a ‘feasaunt breeder’. Now we can add to the history of the pheasant.

Professor Ivor Nurictión says:

We have been studying the link between food and sex for over a decade,analysing the cultural and dietary habits of many different countries. We have measured libido levels across populations, and what struck the research team as peculiar were the heightened levels we found from samples taken from some rural areas of Great Britain.

PHEASANT APHRODISIAC – SCIENTIFIC PROOF

As the team at Veagarra investigated their findings they were able to pinpoint a type of diet that showed heightened levels of zinc and phasianidae, both key to libido. These communities matched with the rural ‘Shires’ belt of England. Once communities with these raised levels were investigated further scientists were able to isolate the pheasant as the main cause of the increased levels.

“It is incredible that one bird has the power to up libido levels by 176%” says a spokesman for the Union of Gamekeeping. “We have always suspected that the romps in Lady Chatterley’s Lover were pure fiction, but judging from our findings we’re surprised Mellors didn’t risk further disgrace with the neighbouring chatelaine too. He’d obviously had one too many pheasant pasties“.

Rural communities have long been known as home to high jinks. Is the pheasant the culprit?

“It gives a whole new meaning to the ‘cocks only’ days” says Humpert La Vache, a shoot owner from Oxfordshire.

If managed wisely the increased libido levels should not be a danger. Experts from Game Eating advise a minimum of two birds a week. “We’re not saying three birds a week would be dangerous, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone in a stable relationship” says a spokesman.

Some parts of the Shires are notorious for their lax morals and robust attitude to sex, and now there appears to be a scientific reason for the Jilly Cooper-esque shennanigans.

“For years we assumed it was all that time spent in the saddle, when in fact it was the pheasant casserole we ate for hunt tea” says an anonymous Warwickshire MFH. “I’ll be asking my housekeeper to stock up on it in the future”.

Kale is no longer merely a filler for hungry sheep. The fashionable greenery is hardy and nutritious, so grow it and eat it.

Kale is so popular that they are even making crisps out of the hardy green vegetable. Perhaps it is time for the potato to watch out, although early harvest potatoes are still well worth planting and growing.

There is an old variety of field kale that has a particularly appropriate name. It is called Hungry Gap, and it grows strong and green in the bleak weeks between the end of winter and the beginning of spring – the starvation month for livestock. Sheep farmers have loved it for years and it has now been rediscovered by chefs and grow-your-own gardeners.
The words most often used to describe kale are “humble” and “hardy”. Well, the hardy bit is as true as ever but kale is less humble than it used to be. It is now “iron rich” or “nutritious”, and it has moved from the shepherd’s field to his kitchen garden, even into prepacks on the shelves of the supermarket among the all-season greens. Lincolnshire grows enormous acreages these days.

If you are not sure what to do with your kale once you’ve brought it into the kitchen, there is even a sophisticated website, Discover Kale, that shows you where it fits on the menu. The dishes suggested include colcannon, lentil-and-kale soup and a stir-fry. And the BBC’s recipe site recommends it as an accompaniment to roast pheasant or guineafowl.

KALE HAS COME UP IN THE WORLD

So kale has come up in the world, quite dramatically, and it is good to know that no plant is easier to grow in your own garden. It not only grows, it grows again after you cut it, extending the productive season right through until May. Late frosts make it even tastier, turning the leaf starch into sugars. Just make sure you pick the young leaves and it helps if you cut out the main rib of the leaf, eating only the tender bits.
As a garden plant, kale is started from seed in spring. Although super-hardy, it is sensitive in one respect: it does not like being transplanted. Sowing direct into the final bed is recommended by many experts, who say there is time for plants to establish themselves before they are needed in the kitchen as summer’s bounty dries up and the cold weather arrives.
There are numerous, confusing varieties – curly leaved ones, plain leaved, purple or red, late or early, ruddy Russians and dark Italians, marrowstems for dairy cattle, plus much else besides. Among the most familiar are the various “Scotch curled” types, such as Dwarf Green Curled, that have a long history and can be relied upon to produce a green leaf almost anywhere in the British Isles. The name “kale” is a Scottish form, the original name in England being “cole” or “borecole”. As a life-saving, late-winter crop for sheep (and people) it was perfected in Scotland and the northern form of the name was the one that stuck. Hungry Gap is one of the rape kales, with plainer leaves, which is sown in midsummer and eaten in spring.
If you are uncertain where to place kale on your menu, think broccoli. Sprouting kale can be cooked in the steamer in the same way. Instead of going to the freezer for a bag of broccoli, nip out into the garden and harvest some kale. If you snap off a few tender tops, plants will sprout again from the leaf bases farther down the stem, developing into a large, multi-headed vegetable. If you take a handful of leaves from the stem, the plants continue to grow at the top.
And for the gardener who is short of time, kale demands little attention. The plants are much less disease-prone than most members of the cabbage family and attract fewer pests. The local woodpigeon may be your biggest problem, especially in wintry weather, because the kale does tend to stand up, green and appetising, above the snow. The only answer may be a net if your kailyard is so close to the house that you can’t use the gun.
Most of the big seedsmen now stock kale in variety, with a packet of seed costing little more than £2, so it is not a major investment to experiment with “the green that helped sustain the nation through the dark years of World War II and that is making a comeback as a fashionable superfood”, according to the Daily Mail. “Kale was included in the Dig for Victory campaign as a vegetable that was easy to grow and provided important nutrients to supplement meagre diets during rationing.” New varieties are sweeter, promoters claim, and kale fits well on modern menus.
Baby Leaf Curly Kale was relaunched under the slogan “BLCK is the new Green”, and has enjoyed endorsements from every organisation that has ever loved a vitamin. From the gardener’s point of view, it’s an easy plant to try: fuss free and very, very hardy.

What do you do if you own a Munnings? Give it away to HRH THe Prince of Wales of course. The Field did...

Alfred Munnings is a name that every sportman wants on their wall. For the frugal a print, for the well-feathered a painting. He was simply an exceptional sporting artist, with an intriguing life (read Summer in February) and no one else quite hits the mark.

SIR ALFRED MUNNINGS, 1878-1959

Is there a horsy girl out there who doesn’t long to be in a Munnings painting? We weave our horses through the traffic, dutifully wearing our hi-vis tabards and approved safety helmets, but in our hearts we are hacking across open country in twill balloon jodhpurs teamed with a yellow cashmere sweater and a brown bowler hat. We are A Lady Riding a Bay Hunter.
According to Dr Bill Teatheredge, a curator of the Munnings Museum, modern country people have such a strong emotional connection with Munnings because of the artist’s own romanticism towards his subject. “Horses were his life from an early age. When he was at the Mendham water mill in Suffolk, which his father ran, there were horses there the whole time. He rode and hunted and went to the races. His second wife, Violet, was an expert horsewoman who rode at Olympia. His career spanned nearly seven decades. He was born in 1878 and lived through the Edwardian era and two world wars, right up to the modern age – which he didn’t like at all.”
So it isn’t surprising if we find an infectious sense of nostalgia in those iconic images of society ladies cantering across endless horizons, or gypsy boys trotting up their horses at the market. As Munnings saw life changing around him, those were the scenes he wanted to capture. “This comes across very clearly in his autobiography, where he writes about his love of the countryside and his memories of the old days,” Teatheredge points out. “He was nostalgic for those times, which he had always portrayed so well. As modernism took over the art world, he stuck to his genre – but he had tremendous skill. His colour, light and tone are the things that really bring his paintings to life.”
Munnings was awarded his knighthood in 1944, the year of his election as president of the Royal Academy of Art. But his dislike of Picasso’s work made him no friends in the art world and it became fashionable to deride him as a Victorian romanticist. The Field, however, didn’t bother with all this intellectual snobbery and when the moment came to present a portrait to the then Prince of Wales in 1921, it was a Munnings the magazine chose: HRH The Prince of Wales on Forest Witch; the painting was sold in 1998 for $2.3 million.
Many of Munnings’ important works are to be found in Canada, as he was commissioned by Max Aitken to be war artist to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade in the First World War. One of his works was a portrait of General Jack Seely mounted on the famous war horse Warrior in 1918, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. “Munnings really had an extraordinary life and the First World War was a massive turning point,” Teatheredge explains. “His first wife, Florence, committed suicide just days before the outbreak of war and Munnings tried to join the Artists’ Rifles to fight but since he was blind in one eye he wasn’t accepted. Eventually he got out there in 1918, painting in the middle of a major German offensive and coming under fire. But the work he did made his name and he displayed 45 paintings at the Royal Academy war exhibition.”
Commissions flowed in after this, including one to paint Poethlyn, the winner of the first Grand National after the war. Another famous racehorse portrayed by Munnings was Brown Jack; his bronze statue of the horse is at Ascot Racecourse. “We are very excited here at the Munnings Museum because this season we will have his models of Brown Jack lined up together for the first time,” says Teatheredge. “This is part of a complete re-hang of his work, which we’ve done over the winter, including a special exhibition of his studies and sketchbooks showing how he built up his paintings.”
In the past decade tastes have swung back in favour of Munnings. In 2004, The Red Prince Mare made a record auction price of £4.384 million. We knew we were right to like him.
The Munnings Museum, Castle House, Castle Hill, Dedham, Suffolk opens its new hanging and exhibition on
1 April 2015.

Your hunting bucket list should definitely contain the following five things.

Here’s a hunting bucket list. Five things that anyone who rides to hounds should endeavour to do before the bucket is inevitably kicked. For those of a more piscatorial bent look to The Field’s 5 things to add to your fishing bucket list for inspiration.

HUNTING BUCKET LIST: 5 THINGS TO ADD

1. Finish the members’ race at a point-to-point
   If the season is going well and you have something that crosses country just that bit better (or faster) than the others, then get yourself racing fit (the stirrup length is the killer), obtain your Riders’ Qualification Certificate and make sure you’ve been seen out with hounds at least four times. Then it’s all eyes on the prize and the finishing post.
2. Finish with hounds
   There is a special camaraderie when hacking back in the gloaming with hounds after a good hunt. There is no other experience like it. Find details of your local pack in Baily’s, which is now online.
3. Own a leg of a racehorse
   The sport of kings is available to anyone – just join one of the many syndicates. Having your own leg means a clutch of the best badges (Owners & Trainers) at the course, access to O&Ts stands, enclosures and parking. And you may have bought a winner.
4. Identify hunting horn calls correctly
   Know your “gone to ground” from your “gone away”. The only way to learn to identify the calls is to listen to them. Hard to do out hunting, but the sabs have some uses; you’ll find clear calls and explanations on their website.
5. Ride to hounds in Ireland
   The definitive destination for the true blue foxhunter, in Ireland hunting is in the blood. A week’s trip is often the best way to hunt with several packs, and they hunt on Sundays too. Seek out the Black & Tans and the Glaway Blazers.

Shotgun servicing costs little compared to the loss of a day's shooting. We tell you when and where to have your gun serviced.

Shotgun servicing is an essential part of one’s yearly sporting routine, whether you own a useful workhorse or one of the 10 most expensive guns in the world. Shotguns are among the most reliable machines and can last for centuries in good working condition if treated with a modicum of respect. However, to ensure longevity and avoid malfunction in the field, shotguns need regular cleaning and servicing, known in the trade as a “strip and clean”.

ROUTINE CLEANING AND CARE

Basic care and cleaning are no more than common sense when it comes to shotgun servicing. The bores must be attended to after every outing and left mirror-bright, and all external surfaces must also be free of dirt, damp and residue. If the gun’s wet, it must be left to dry slowly, away from direct heat. Be especially careful to avoid condensation when you bring it in from the cold or when it has been removed from an aircraft hold. If multi-chokes are fitted, remove them periodically, scrub them and lightly lubricate the tubes and threads (oil should be used sparingly).

There is no need to be obsessive. Firearms are often damaged by over-cleaning, particularly through disassembly by those who do not have the requisite skills or tools. Never attempt to remove a lock plate unless you have a precisely fitting turnscrew (if in doubt leave it to a gunsmith). Sometimes, after a dry day’s shooting, I will just push some scrunched up loo paper through the bores with a rod (three sheets fit a 12-bore nicely) and wipe off the action face and knuckle with the same wonderfully serviceable material. If you use this method, you must take scrupulous care that none of the paper is left in the barrels.

Basic gun care is no more than common sense.

CHANGES TO LOOK OUT FOR

LOOSE BARRELS

It pays to look out for subtle changes in guns. If the barrels become loose – what is known as “off the face” – attention is required. You can check for this by removing the fore-end and simply rattling the gun. A cure may be effected by clever modern welding techniques on the bearing surfaces, putting in a replacement cross pin or fitting new studs if the gun has bifurcated lumps and trunnion hinging. A gun that is off the face will appear to recoil noticeably more and must be fixed promptly to prevent further damage. Similarly, if the butt or fore-end becomes loose, remedial action should be taken without delay. If you do not attend to the problem, you may end up with a broken stock or fore-end, which will be expensive to replace. Restocking a sidelock gun is not going to leave you much change out of £5,000 these days (double that or more if the work is done by a London maker), so it pays to keep a watchful eye.

DENTED BARRELS

Another potentially expensive problem – and a common one with English guns – is dented barrels. It is usually easily cured at an early stage. If left, though, a dent may develop into a ring bulge or become a thin spot, which can lead to serious costs. Good-quality replacement barrels on a best gun will not cost much less than £7,000 if chopper lump and may cost as much as £20,000 if supplied by the gun’s original maker. I periodically check my guns by the simple expedient of looking at and through the barrels very carefully and running the exterior surfaces between my fingertips. You will be surprised how easily tiny imperfections will be revealed by the pads of your forefinger and thumb. Dents can simply be popped out with a hydraulic tool but they can destroy a gun if left unattended.

BARREL RIBS

It’s also important to ensure the barrel ribs have not come loose. If they have, water may seep in under the rib and cause hidden damage – a common problem on older guns. You can check for loose ribs on a side-by-side (where the problem is more likely to occur) by the following method: disassemble the gun, and, taking great care, suspend the barrels by the front lump with a finger. Now tap their sides with a pencil. If they ring true, nothing is amiss, but if you hear a tinny rattle it is likely that the ribs have lifted. They will have to be removed and the barrels and ribs will need to be relaid and resoldered. Following that, the barrels will also require re-blacking and, possibly, re-regulating.

OTHER PROBLEMS

Other things to watch out for include ejectors that are poorly timed (check they’re working simultaneously with a pair of snap caps); weak strike on primers (possibly caused by tired mainsprings or worn firing pins); and a top lever that feels spongy or comes back beyond the central position. It is also important that the triggers and safety mechanism operate reliably and crisply. Occasionally, cracks develop in actions, more frequently in ejector limbs, and sometimes lumps and loops become detached from the barrels.

The collection of wild bird eggshells reawkens the beauty of natural history.

The collection of wild bird eggshells reawkens the beauty of natural history. Collecting wild bird eggshells is a wonderful and remedial hobby. In festive spirit of the  Easter weekend ahead chocolate eggs are secondary to this artful pastime. These authentic birds eggs that hold a unique dazzling array of colours. The spring has sprung and all art is in full praise.

A few years ago, naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham said that, “Children need to feel a tadpole tickling the palm of their hand or pull back a bramble to see a nest. I can still remember seeing my first hedge-sparrow nest. It was almost a life-changing moment. I stood there in awe at these amazing little blue eggs, barely able to believe a bird was able to make them.”

These “life-changing” moments are all but lost to the majority of today’s children, who experience nature from the comfort of their living-rooms. The best way to see birds’ eggs now is by visiting natural history museums by appointment, where one can gaze in wonder at a form of reproduction that was a revered symbol of life’s renewal pre-Christianity. Sing that to the magpies who raid the nests of songbirds across the land. Be sad at the freefall in numbers of skylarks, nightingales and cuckoos and shocked that starlings and song thrushes are on the RSPB’s “red alert” list.

Tony Ladd, ornithologist, wildlife artist and creator of beautiful replica birds’ eggs. He is the person to call upon if you are going to begin a hobby collecting wild bird eggshells. “Even in my lifetime I have noticed that children are often not aware of garden bird names and animals outside the norm. My work will, I hope, reawaken the beauty of natural history, the eggs, insects, bones and shells, which I create in a Victorian style using modern print and production techniques.’’

COLLECTING WILD BIRD EGGSHELLS

Tony Ladd’s British Wading Birds collection

It is no coincidence that most of the customers for Ladd’s egg collections are men aged 60-plus who, during a carefree youth (and pre-1954, when the law forbade it) collected birds’ eggs with the zeal with which they swapped conkers. Collecting wild bird eggshells should be completed in this tradition, following their fathers and grandfathers in what was a natural hobby, building up collections and swapping eggs, emulating the competitive Victorian ornithologist-collector. In later years, this competitiveness turned to obsession with a few sociopaths risking their lives to steal rare eggs.
For Ladd, the beauty of birds’ eggs is in their mimicry of nature. “Each one is a fingerprint series of markings with a dazzling array of colours, from blotches to streaks; the egg of the yellowhammer looks like a scrawl. Each is an original piece of artwork with no two alike, which is utterly fascinating. The patterns vary from species and within species and act as camouflage in the natural world. Except for the woodpigeon, which lays its pure-white eggs right out in the open. And then there are all the different shapes and sizes; from the large egg of the great black-backed gull to the minuscule one of the goldcrest.”

Point to point fixtures for May 2015. Rain or shine, wake up to another four-day weekend and support your local hunt.

Point to point fixtures for May 2015 are listed below. For other fixture dates see our racing page.

Couple the races with sunshine and a seasonal picnic and you have a matchless triumvirate.

Try baking our Spring fruit almond tart to pack into your homemade hamper. It is never too early to seal the sporting bond and bring with you a  hip flask to warm the palate after a win.

WHERE TO GO POINT TO POINTING IN MAY 2015

Saturday 2nd May

Lauderdale point to point

Mosshouses, Selkirkshire. Nr A20 and M20 4m NE of Galashiels between A7 and A68

Modbury Harriers

Flete park, Devon. Off A379 10m E of Plymouth, leave A38 at Ivybridge via A3121

Pendle Forest & Craven

Heslaker, Yorkshire. 1m SW of Skipton, close to and signposted from A59

Surrey Union

Peper Harow, Surrey. Nr A3, 3m W of Godalming, 6m SW of Guildford 15m from Exit 10, M25.

Tredegar Farmers

Lower Machen, Caerphilly. 4m W of Newport on A468 at Lower Machen (Exit 28, M4)

Saturday 3rd May

Devon & Somerset Staghounds

Holnicote, Somerset. Near A39, 3m W of Minehead, 2m E of Porlock

Fernie

Dingley, Northhamptonshire. 5m E of Market Harborough, nr A427

Radnor & West Hereford

Cold Harbour, Herefordshire. Nr Monkland, 3 miles W of Leominster, close to junction of A44/A4110

Monday 4th May

Banwen Miners

Llwyn Farm. 1 mile from junction 48 of the M4

Cattistock

Little Windsor, Dorset. 3m S of Crewkerne nr A3066

East Sussex & Romney Marsh

Aldington, Kent. South of A20 and M20, 6m SE of Ashford Exit 10 or 11, M20

Enfield Chace with Cambridgeshire Hunt

Northaw, Hertfordshire. 2m NE of Potters Bar off A121

North Shropshire

Eyton-on-severn, Shropshire. SY5 6PW

Stevenstone

Vauterhill, Devon. 2m SW of Umberleigh, 10m S of Barnstaple, nr B3217

Warwickshire

Mollington, Oxfordshire. On A423, 5 miles north of Banbury

Zetland

Witton Castle, Durham. DL14 0DE

Saturday 9th May

Cumberland

Aspatria, Cumbria. At Heathfield, nr A596, 1½ miles NE of Aspatria

Kimblewick

Kingston Blount, Oxfordshire. OX39 4SG

Minehead Harriers & West Somerset

Holnicote, Somerset. Near A39, 3m W of Minehead, 2m E of Porlock

Saturday 10th May

Bilsdale

Easingwold, Yorkshire. 14m NW of York, nr A19

Four Burrow

Tredbudannon, Cornwall. 5m E of Newquay, nr A39

Melton Hunt Club

Garthorpe, Leicestershire. LE14 2RS

Wheatland

Chaddesley Corbett, Hereford. DY10 4QT.

Wednesday 13th May

Weston & Banwell Harriers

Cothelstone, Somerset. 2m NE of Bishops Lydeard off A358

Saturday 16th May

Clifton-on-Teme

Upper Sapey, hereford. At Wolferlow, 6m N of Bromyard nr B4203

Fitzwilliam

Dingley, Northamptonshire. 5m E of Market Harborough, nr A427

Gelligaer Farmers

Lower Machen, Caerphilly. 4m W of Newport on A468 at Lower Machen (Exit 28, M4)

South Durham

Mordon. 4 miles S of Sedgefield, 1 mile N of Great Stainton

Sunday 17th May

Dulverton West

Bratton Down, Devon. 11m N of South Molton, 3m S of Blackmoor Gate

Golden Valley

Bredwardine, Hereford. 7m E of Hay-on-Wye, on B4352, 2m off A438

Grafton

Whitfield, Northamptonshire. NN13 5TQ

Haydon

Hexham, Northumberland. 1m SW of town between B6305 & B6306 on NH racecourse

Knutsford Races Club

Tabley, Cheshire. 1½ miles W of Knutsford between A556 and M6

Mordon. 4 miles S of Sedgefield, 1 mile N of Great Stainton

Sunday 24th May

Berks & Bucks Draghounds and Sandhurst Draghounds

Kingston Blount , Oxfordshire. OX39 4SG

West Somerset Vale

Cothelstone, Somerset. 2m NE of Bishops Lydeard off A358

West Wales Area Club

Lydstep, Dyfed. SA70 7SG

Monday 25th May

Albrighton & Woodland

Chaddesley Corbett, Hereford. DY10 4QT

South Tetcott

Upcott Cross, Devon. ½ m W of A3079, 2m S of Halwill Junction

Saturday 30th May

Mevnell & South Staffordshire

Garthorpe, Leicestershire. LE14 2RS

Sunday 31st May

Border

Hexham, Northumberland. 1m SW of town between B6305 & B6306 on NH racecourse

Exmoor

Bratton Down, Devon. Alongside A399. 11m N of South Molton, 3m S of Blackmoor Gate

North Hereford

Hereford Racecourse. HR4 9QU

It's boat race time...will the light or dark blue prevail? Either way an Oxbridge Blue is the mark of a true sportsman, and the Varsity match the only one that matters.

The Oxbridge blue is much coveted by sporting types. Just try to avoid having proceedings interrupted by a sporting streaker, and your chances of success should be fine. Winning an oxbridge blue was about as good an experience as you can ever have in life, and losing was about as bad a one.” So says triple Cambridge Blue, Dick Tyler, of his two victorious and one inglorious Varsity rugby matches. Dick, a lawyer, won his final Blue in 1980 yet he’s attended every single Varsity match since. “I saw about 20 or so of my team-mates last time,” he tells me, “and you’re straight back to where you were 30 years ago. There’s a very strong connection. We went through hell together for weeks, training six days a week, and playing a first-class fixture list, too. But none of that mattered – only the Varsity match.”

What is it about winning an Oxbridge Blue that takes control over sane men’s hearts? Why is this particular badge of honour recognised the world over? And more to the point, how do you get one? Ask the man on the street what an Oxford Blue is and he would probably say, “a rower”. Oarsmen, after all, grace the sign of most pubs of this name. It was at the second running of the Boat Race, in 1836, that Blues came into being when an Old Etonian decided that his boat should have a “colour” on its bows, so nipped to the haberdasher’s for a strip of pale blue ribbon.

Though the colours concept soon spread to other sports, there are fewer than two dozen sports at Cambridge and 20 at Oxford in which Full Blues are awarded to all Varsity team players. Mostly, these are mainstream sports like rowing, cricket and rugby, though gymnastics, karate and dancesport also qualify for women.

At Cambridge, a division of Discretionary Full Blue sports such as orienteering, rifle-shooting and badminton, allows their captains to award Half and Full Blues with the approval of the Blues Committee. Really off-the-wall pursuits, such as korfball, even ultimate frisbee, are ranked “Half Blue sports”, along with some oddly mainstream ones .

Why, for example, are the lightweight rowers thus classified when they train just as hard as the heavyweights but on half the food? Still, since the Nineties, these sports may also win Extraordinary Full Blues for outstanding achievement, adding mystery to an already complex system.
An absolute condition of being awarded an Oxbridge Blue for men (though not the women where other criteria are used) is representing the top team in the Varsity match – the annual showdown with “the other side”. It’s a day that no Blue ever forgets – particularly the rowers, for the Boat Race has a worldwide audience of around 74 million, with a good 250,000 pitching up to watch from the towpath.”It’s unlike any other race. It really gets to you mentally,” says George Nash, a third year engin-eer and member of last year’s victorious Cambridge crew, who will be rowing again this March. Although he’s not short of elite racing experience (he rowed in the Junior World Championships in 2007), he found that nothing prepares you for the Boat Race. “It’s very intense because of all the people around. The nerves are a real barrier,” he says.

The Oxford full blue blazer and sweater are much sought after.

According to George, whose grandfather was a boxing Blue, the way to distinguish a Cambridge Blue rower from a yet-to-be Blue when you watch crews training on the river, is that Blues wear outlandish, light-blue leggings. And does George wear his more than the more practical black ones? “Er – yes.”

Most Blues will admit, with various degrees of sheepishness, how important it is to indulge in the kit available only to them: blazers, bow-ties, scarves – the list goes on. Some get worn to threads over successive Henley Royal Regattas; others don’t reappear after the Varsity team photo.
Some 150 to 250 Full Blues are awarded at each university annually, including some in special circumstances in less mainstream sports. “Our yacht club did exceptionally well last year,” says Enni-Kukka Tuomala, President of Oxford University Sports Federation, “so a whole crew got Blues.”
“Cambridge has recently awarded them to some outstanding fencers,” says Dr John Little, a material scientist from St Catharine’s College and secretary of Cambridge’s Blues Committee. He recalls a remarkable engineering undergraduate, too: “At weekends he raced at Formula 2 and nearly won the championship. So we felt he deserved one.”

Henry Day, a natural scientist at St Catharine’s, holds another Extraordinary Full Blue for long-range target rifle shooting, last year participating in the British Rifle Team. “Representing Britain means more to me than the Blue, but being a Full Blue is a huge honour,” says Henry. “It’s recognised everywhere.” Added to which, there is a host of clubs and societies open only to old Blues, and Henry sits on the committee of Cambridge’s Blues-only Hawks Club. “Cambridge,” Henry points out, “also boasts more shooters than most universities. We’re quite well equipped, partly because of how old we are. Cambridge University Rifle Association is older than the Varsity match.” Dr Little’s job is to have a longer memory than most student captains, thus offering a broader perspective when young clubs prematurely demand Half Blue status: some Gaelic footballers were politely rebuffed for being insufficiently established.

While all Blues agree that the award marks one of the proudest moments of their lives and, for most, the apex of their sporting achievements, there is also quiet acknow-ledgment that it carries cachet for life: “That people have organised themselves to get through exams and play sport to a high level says something about them,” says Dick Tyler. Double Blue Andy Jennings also acknowledges that “Almost everyone who has won a Blue will put it on their CV.” His Blues (for playing in the Varsity football match at Craven Cottage in 1997 and 1999) may have been especially useful, given that he is now a geography teacher and coach of the Association (First XI football team) at Eton.
“It does help open a few doors initially, since, especially in a school like this, a vast proportion of what we do is out on the games field,” says Jennings. His Blues are also unusual in that he won one at both Oxford and Cambridge, when he “swapped sides” to take on a post-grad PGCE teaching qualification. “I did get a few Judas chants from the stands,” he laughs, “but it was all quite tongue in cheek.”

Sarah Winckless is remarkable for having so many Blues she’s actually lost count. She represented Cambridge in the discus, hammer, netball, rowing and basketball (among other things) and subsequently became a double world champion and Olympic bronze medal winning rower.
Though only Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University has been brazen enough to poach the Blue epithet, other uni-versities in the British Isles offer recognition in other hues, while most give out unspecified “colours”. Durham awards “Palatinates”, Bristol “Bristol Reds”, Manchester “Maroons”, and Trinity College Dublin “Pinks”. But since none has a Varsity match equivalent, they are awarded more haphazardly, even stringently. At Durham, I won nothing for rowing for the university women’s eight, though, bizarrely, earned a Half Palatinate for rather less exhausting endeavours with the riding club. Durham contemporary James Acheson-Gray concurs: “Even the year we won the tennis university championships, not every team member got a full Palatinate,” although James collected two eventually. “This was probably helped by the fact I was on the committee that awarded them,” he laughs modestly.

But none of the above has one tenth the clout of a Blue as no one’s heard of them. So why is the Oxbridge Blue internationally recognised, and why does the Boat Race enjoy an audience of millions? History is a big part of it. “The Varsity match is the longest-standing fixture between two rugby clubs in history,” points out Dick Tyler. Perhaps we find brawn coupled with brains utterly seductive, or perhaps it’s the fact that the outcome of months of training is decided not through knockouts or heats but in one death-or-glory showdown, where defeat reduces grown men to tears.

This is, I suspect, part of the Blues’ mystique. There are no bronze medals or vestiges of consolation to be found in making the quarter finals in a Varsity match. It’s all or nothing. “It’s also unique,” says Sarah Winckless. “All that history, and the gladiatorial battle of a Varsity contest.” Though we’re a nation that loves losers (think Eddie the Eagle and Tim Henman), we still celebrate the excellence represented by a Blue. Or perhaps we can’t help thinking when we spot a Blue blazer, tie and scarf, “Did they win, or did they cry?”

OXBRIDGE BLUES IN NUMBERS

1836 The year in which Blues first came into being
200 to 250 The number of Blues awarded at both Oxford
and Cambridge each year
£189 The cost of an Oxford Full Blue Blazer today
74 million The worldwide audience of the Boat Race
3 Number of British universities that award Blues
20 The number of Full Blue sports in Oxford
139 Olympic medallists went to Oxford
11 The Boat Race this year will be held on 11 April