Adventures of Nick & Ted

A new chapter in the histories of Sporting Gun and Sporting Shooter has Nick Ridley reflecting on the dogs he has trained over the years he has been associated with the magazines

-  Nick Ridley

Age 88 months

Some of you may have picked up that Sporting Gun has been bought by Fieldsports Press, and this issue is the first combining it and Sporting Shooter.

When I heard the news, it got me thinking about how long I have been sharing the highs and lows with the readers of both magazines about my dogs, especially as I began writing for the Shooter over 20 years ago. At that time I was writing a diary about my first cocker, Sweep. I had many happy times with that little dog.

Back then, I was doing the show circuit with our photography unit, and it never failed to surprise me what a following of fans she had. There were always plenty of visitors coming to the trailer to say 'hello' to Sweep and it was nice to hear that people enjoyed reading about our exploits.

Tilly the lurcher featured in a series on ferreting that I was commissioned to write and then there was Harry and Fuss, followed by my dog of a lifetime, Ted. Then came Percy, followed by Dott and my latest, young Twig.

Next

The question I now find myself asking is: "How many more will there be?" I was going through some images for this article, and it was as though my life flashed past me. I am not sure my grey hairs are due to ageing or from owning spaniels for all these years.