Charity Shoot
Saturday, January 14th 2012
Paul Walsh and Charlie Porter recently came up with the brilliant idea of having
a Charity Shoot on their respective farms to raise funds for St John’s
Hospice and the Friends of Cople Church.
Sixteen ‘local guns’ assembled in the kitchen at Oak Farm at 9am on a cold and
frosty Saturday morning and were greeted with a really welcome and warming glass
or two of mulled wine. Maybe every winter day should start that way! Guns were
divided into two groups, alternately beating and shooting.
The landscape was breathtakingly beautiful, with not a cloud in the sky and a
spectacular hoar frost. Hares were boxing, lapwings and field fares were in
abundance and everybody felt it was a privilege to be out on such a splendid
day.
After four drives on Oak farm and the ‘bagging’ of pheasants and partridge,
lunch was taken on straw bales in one of Paul’s barns. and we were all fortified
with sloe gin. The afternoon was spent on Charlie and Carolyn’s farm at Wood End
where four more drives took place before we adjourned to the Five Bells. Eamonn
and Julie served a delicious supper. Thanks to their generosity in keeping
charges to a minimum as their contribution to the good causes, a splendid sum of
£500 was raised, to be shared equally between the two charities.
Thanks go to the Walsh and Porter families for hosting a memorable and
successful day.
Click for photos
Vaughan Southgate
