2004
December
A regional hit was called on the High Peak Hunt after a female sab had been hospitalised 2 weeks earlier. Other groups present were Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, and Northampton. No hunting was done (nuff said)!
November
The Grove and Rufford Hunt was paid a visit with Nottingham in tow on the 6th where we met up with Sheffield (eventually!). Due to the large number of sabs the hunt stayed in the open all day and hence no damage was done to local wildlife.
The next week we joined the High Peak Hunt at Sheldon. A good day was had where many hares were saved. Sabs did such a good job at interception and rating at one point that Nigel Cox, the huntsman seemed to go mental and tried riding sabs down on the road! (See the NWHSA website for video footage.)
The Hunting Bill was passed by Parliament during the next week and unless an injunction is successfully raised by the Countryside Alliance this will become effective from the 18th of February.
October
The first Saturday in October we again joined up with Nottingham to sab the Grove and Rufford which hunt in North Nottinghamshire. The meet was in Egmanton and a good day was had when two foxes were directly saved by sabs using an extravagant amount of citronella! One of the foxes headed directly into a nature reserve - one has to wonder what the hunt would have done if sabs hadn't been present...
The next week we joined up with Nottingham at the Belvoir Hunt in Lincolnshire and accidentally bumped into Northants who just happened to be at the same hunt! All these sabs meant a kill-free day!
A return to an old favourite was in order the next week and we joined the High Peak Hunt with Nottingham at Peak Forest in Derbyshire. A fairly uneventful day with no kills but the High Peak members definitely didn't show their typical friendliness of other years.
The month was rounded off with another kill-free day at the quite respectable Quorn Hunt (compared to other hunts in the region recently).
September
Due to a bad harvest the cubbing season started later than normal on the 18th when we joined up with Nottingham and Northampton to sab the cubbing efforts of the Quorn, who were hunting around Ragdale Hall in Leicestershire. Not a single covert was penetrated by the hunt and hence it was a kill-free day.
A rag-tag bunch of sabs the next week decided to pick on the Meynell who to be honest have had it easy over the last year. The meet was near Kirk Langley and allegedly the whipper-in Paul Larby welcomed the Derby vehicle by instantly attacking it. The South Derbyshire cops on the day were predictably dodgy and refused to record it as a crime, so the Derby driver took them for a ride around (the cops dutifully following) while the other sabs got on with the job! A bolted fox was saved by sabs under the nose of the huntsman who was expecting an easy kill. The fuming terrier-man Mousley allegedly said "If you f***ing go in those woods again I'll f***ing 'ave ya - we've nothing to lose now". He was, of course referring to the imminent hunt ban. While this was going on police reinforcements arrived and the South Derbys wildlife officer lived up to his name by driving like a pre-pubescent boy-racer across the fields after sabs in his Landrover. The only wildlife he saw were those he was running over! He even committed a motoring offence by driving down a footpath to warn a sab not to stray off of it!
It was only a matter of time before the police nicked the sabs on trumped-up charges and due to a lack of numbers we all had to return to Derby. We returned later on and found that the hunt were still out with some extra hunt support - two police officers. A civil action will be brought against the police for wrongful arrests. While the Derby driver was in the police station waiting for his colleagues he made a complaint about the earlier attack and damage. This was committed in the area policed by Ashbourne Division. Paul Larby, whipper-in for the Meynell Hunt was arrested on suspicion of Criminal Damage, one week later and is currently on bail awaiting trial.
Summer Days drifting away...
As usual this is a less active time for us with the odd AR demo. Stalls have been few and far between due to the horrendous weather but support from the general public is on average up in Derby and surprisingly when we gatecrashed Nottingham a couple of weeks we didn't really do much better there (even though it's twice the size of Derby)! It may have been the 'Derby Hunt Saboteurs' posters which didn't go down very well!
DEFRA came up to kill some badgers on the Staffordshire Moors (around Leek) in July and some members were again making daily trips to the area to help the much persecuted species.
August saw the traditional grouse shoot sab where a number of northerly groups and some dedicated ones from down south descend on an unsuspecting commercial grouse shoot somewhere in the North of England. This time one was located near 'Last of the Summer Wine' Holmfirth very early in the morning. All the sab groups had arrived at the shooting butts before the stockbrokers and footballers had even got out of their company 4WD's. A stand-off ensued between sabs and the hired security from 'Country Watch UK'. Well, they stood and we lounged around in the summer sun - top sabbing! A couple of local police turned up and although clearly overwhelmed were friendly enough.
It all turned a bit nasty when a small group of sabs peeled off from the main group and headed up the hill. Security followed and calls came in asking for help as the sabs were being assaulted but we didn't know where they had gone! A Derby sab went scouting trying to find them and found the security who shouted "Your mates are lying in the ditch at the bottom of there covered in blood - ha, ha!". He then found 4 sabs nursing cuts and bruises but 3 others were unaccounted for. Reporting back to the police a helicopter was called to the scene to supposedly look for them but ended up hovering over the main group giving everyone a No. 1 cut. The group of 3 were eventually contacted and were safe and well. Mid-afternoon the police reinforcements started rumbling in but we had done the job by then so everyone decided to leave. Loads of grouse were saved, so apart from the 4 injured sabs it could be considered a very good day.
March
The Meynell must have been feeling neglected by now and so we decided to join them in Coton-in-the-Clay, bringing with us a few friends from Nottingham and Northants. No hunting was done thanks to some top sabbing and the day finished uneventfully with no kills.
A small contingent joined the Sheffield and Northants group the week after at the Barlow near Chesterfield. As soon as sabs arrived, hunt support blocked the road and waded in. Two sabs were hospitalised, one of which was in full view of a Chesterfield copper who did nothing! The same officer ok'd this violence to the media saying they were only mildly hurt. I wouldn't say 9 stitches in the head is mild - would anyone? The opposite side - to even things out - claimed 3 hunt people were hurt but nobody knows who they were and there were no other hospital visits than those from the sabs. The Chesterfield area stinks of corruption...
February
We returned to the Cottesmore with Leicester the first Saturday of the month. Getting to the meet early we did some extensive pre-beating which was very effective. One fox was saved directly early in the day by rating the hounds in cry. The hunt weren't too pleased! Early afternoon the hunt managed to put up a Muntjac deer but failed to pick up the scent fortunately. The hunt's ability to control their hounds was noticeably lacking when the pack rioted in field of pregnant ewes, scared some horses and ran amok on the A47. No stewards, no trouble and no kills.
The next week we joined up with Nottingham and Leicester to invade a Pytchley meet in Northamptonshire. Not long after we got there the stewards turned up, greeting us in their traditionally friendly way of attempting to run us off the road! This was immediately followed by a number of vehicles trying to block us in but thankfully our driver could run rings around those slack-jawed morons and easily avoided it. The police witnessed their antics and pulled everyone. It was road sabbing after this as more and more stewards turned up. We also experienced our first dodgy Northants copper who turned a blind eye to the typical quarter of hunt vehicles which are blatantly illegal, nodding to the huntsman as he went passed and then spent hours of video tape trying to find something illegal in our vehicle! We had a difficult day but the Northants group were just down the road and they were having a brilliant day with little steward intervention!
During February some members had time between sabs to protest outside The (not so) Great British Circus which had camped out in Stapleford, on the edge of Nottingham. This circus has expanded it's collection of exotic performing animals since last year.
After a single weekend off a small contigency of Derby sabs returned to the Pytchley. Strangely the hunt never turned up which confused us but confused the hunt support even more! We joined the Northants group as backup vehicle and scout at the Woodland Pytchley. The gizmo worked a treat initially and we easily took control of the pack. The whipper-in threatened to smash every window in the Landy after that nice bit of sabbing. A few of the hunt support were up-for-it but there weren't as many stewards as previous weeks. No kills.
January
One of the more dedicated local sabs joined the Northants group at a meet of the Whaddon and Bicester at Wappenham on the 10th. This is one of the most violent hunts in the country employing up to 30 hunt heavies. One of the Northants police officers present made the interesting comment "If we weren't here you'd be in a shallow grave by now". The hunt were kept on the run most of the day so little hunting was done. A local villager said "Thank God you are here to do something about these people. They terrorise everyone in the village and folk are scared to say anything. You are welcome to our house for refreshments anytime." Not exactly wholehearted rural support!
We joined Nottingham and Leicester at the Cottesmore the following week just south of Rutland Water. The Cottesmore are fairly respectable by Midlands standards and it was fairly textbook uneventful sabbing until mid-afternoon when the Northants stewards turned up. A number of sabs were apprehensive about getting their heads kicked in (perhaps understandably) and decided to quit. Due to reduced numbers it was no longer safe for anyone at the hunt and we called it a day.
The next week we joined Wolves for the Albrighton which met at Wheaton Aston in Staffs. We were also honoured by the presence of Northants. A fairly uneventful day with little hassle, lots of textbook sabbing and no kills.
The last Saturday in January we went down to join Leicester and Northants at the Oakley in Northamptonshire. This was one of the easiest hunts to take control of and sabs instantly took the pack off the huntsman as soon as we got there. It wasn't long before the stewards turned up, trying to instigate trouble. Fortunately the police we were there and prevented anything serious. At one point a Leicester sab took control of the pack with some good horn blowing but in her words it was 'like Zulu Dawn' as more and more stewards came running over the top of the hill toward her! They couldn't do anything as the police were observing. No kills.