Cocking: the action

A day spent beating on a renowned Sussex shoot proved a watershed experience for Adam Smith, much of it as perspiration

- ADAM SMITH

The Dynamic Duo: Robin Ward-Sale and Rob Smallman

You could well ask what’s the point of an article about beating at a shoot, even the most renowned of shoots, when you’re now reading the May issue of Sporting Shooter? But I could then reply that it’s taken me this long to recover – which is something of an exaggeration, I will admit, but not especially far from the truth. Certainly, in terms of some extensive beating experience, which has found me striding, wandering, plodding or struggling across most terrains in many parts of the country over much of the past 50 years, the Cocking Shoot, part of the prestigious Cowdray Estate in Sussex on which I spent a memorable day earning ‘flaming thigh syndrome’, is unique.

To be fair, and in comparison with what many regard as the toughest task of all, I’ve not done much grouse work – only a day or two on a small Welsh shoot that showed a bird roughly every other mile, or so it seemed. Despite the minimalist approach to the sport though, the workrate involved the same tiring leg-lift over the heather for every pace forward, in exactly the same way as any Yorkshire or Highland heather moorlands will demand, though hopefully with rather more to show for the effort. So I do know the feeling well enough and yet, that short-lived experience aside, the Cocking Shoot is still entirely exceptional.