Barry Is The Best

A harrier takes top honours and a fellhound excels as foxhound champion

- Frank Houghton Brown

Ambleside, Cumbria

THE hare hounds swept the board at the 114th annual Rydal show, with the Vale of Lune Harriers’ Barry 15 galloping away with the overall championship, despite being given a close run for his money by the Palmer Marlborough Beagles’ leggy and strikingly marked Darcy 14.

The judging of the final class, which pits the best foxhound, harrier, beagle and terrier against each other in the fell hound ring, was this year undertaken by Richard Williams, master for 30 years of the Eryri Foxhounds in Snowdonia, who was chosen for the honour that morning as an entirely independent adjudicator.

“I chose the hound that I would most like to take home with me,” said Richard. “The harrier was a class act and I would like a kennel full of his sort.”

From the ringside it seemed the hare hounds had the advantage: they could show off their impressive movement as they galloped around the ring, while the white Jack Russell terrier, Midge, and the champion foxhound, the Eskdale and Ennerdale’s brindle and white entered doghound, Clasher, were confined to their leads as that is how tradition dictates they are shown.