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.
Vaughan Southgate