Gold standard for gamebirds

Golden plover are often overlooked but they offer excellent sport

- Worth Mathewson

On 10 November 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, went on a shooting party in the North Slob mudflats by the river Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. After missing a shot at a golden plover, he became involved in an argument over which was the fastest gamebird in Europe, the golden plover or the red grouse.

That evening at Castlebridge House, he realised that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe’s fastest gamebird. Sir Hugh knew there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in pubs throughout Ireland, but there was no book in the world with which to settle arguments about records.

He realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular.

A Guinness employee told Sir Hugh of twin brothers, Norris and Ross McWhirter, who had opened a fact-checking agency in London. Sir Hugh interviewed the brothers and, impressed by their prodigious knowledge, commissioned the book. Later, he published the first Guinness Book of Records — now Guinness World Records — which became a bestseller within months.

Interesting trivia: golden plover are indeed fast and, with gale-force winds behind them, even faster.

Practice