catherine.austen@futurenet.com
@cfaustenl23
“So you must be the new BONC,” bellowed the hunt's granny figure. Hardly the greeting the fresh-faced wannabe-Ian Farquhar was hoping to hear at the summer ball. To the uninitiated, such a term or acronym - BONC stands for Boy Of No Consequence - could inspire cliché-ridden images of young “gentlemen”, and in more recent years young ladies, conquering the Elysian Fields.
But to those who forsake a gap year trekking across the Mongolian steppe for hunting at Tarr Steps, the reality can be quite different: hard work and a sharp learning curve with boundless fun.
Their mothers might not like the title “Boy Of No Consequence” with good reason, but it is generally a term of English endearment. Even for those not looking to hunt hounds in the future, for school or college leavers seeking to broaden their skills and experience of life at the sharp end, a year as a whipper-in is cheap education. Not that their job list is limited to that of a whipper-in.
