Unequalled and undaunted

Di Grissell, who is stepping down from the East Sussex and Romney Marsh after 30 years, is a "Manchester United of lady masters"

- Rob Williams

IF H Rider Haggard and Walt Disney had worked together, they would certainly have created Diana Grissell MFH, the gamine and indestructible master of the East Sussex and Romney Marsh (ESRM), who has stepped down this season.

Universally known as “Di”, her racing and hunting story belongs on the big screen. In a world where the average length of a mastership is three – or even two – years, Di has lasted for 30. Those 30 seasons have been old-fashioned ones – seasons with barely a hunting day missed, seasons of field mastering every week and clearing the country in between, seasons of riding two lots before the hunting day and finishing up a yard of racehorses afterwards.

As her friend Rory Knight Bruce commented, with his eyes on the middle distance: "In the league table of lady masters, Di is a Manchester United." Of course, above all it is the resilience of sporting greats that sets them apart.

The standards they set for themselves and Churchillian ability to "force on regardless" whatever is thrown at them.

That resilience comes from a deep, atavistic passion for de well hunting in Di. It has made her undoubtedly the dominant figure of the ESRM, literally spanning two thirds of its post-amalgamation existence.

Of course she has seen hunting change utterly over that period and says: "The biggest change is the obvious one [the Hunting Act]. Hunting was completely accepted for most of my life.

Everyone supported it, we advertised meets in the local papers, you hacked home to people asking if it had been a good day. Now, one has to operate quite differently. It’s still huge fun, of course.”