A touch of quality
Hunting has been put through the wringer in recent years and few know better than the Grove & Rufford (G&R) what it’s like to be on the wrong side of a hunt monitor’s camera. The convictions of three of its members under the Hunting Act were overturned on appeal last year. It is a testament to the hunt’s renewed health that the 2018/19 season was as good as ever, with rising subscriptions, excellent sport and a Peterborough champion. The thousands of people who lined the streets to cheer on Boxing Day were proof that this pack, with its varied country stretching across south Yorkshire, north Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, is back to its best.
Much of this success is due to huntsman Paul Larby, in office since 2008. Growing up in a non-hunting family in Farnham, Hampshire, he saw hounds crossing a stubble field as a small boy and made his mind up that he wanted to work with them. “I sat my last O level in the morning,” he remembers, “and started work for
