Guns may shake hands with the keeper at the end of the day, but his efforts would be nothing without this under-acknowledged back-of-house crew, fuelled by sausage rolls and camaraderie
THE end of January marks a split in the shooting community. While many of the keenest Shots have already put away their gamebooks until autumn, thousands of others are busy checking kit with a twitchy excitement more usually associated with the start of the season. Finally, after months of chilly flag-waving and bramble-clambering, it’s time for the beaters’ day.
Despite five intense months of turning out in all weathers to trudge across the top of the Cotswolds, there wasn’t a single jaded soul in evidence among the steadily swelling crowd who gathered at the Cold Aston Shoot lodge on a mild yet blowy Gloucestershire morning. Racehorses on morning exercise from Ben Pauling’s yard next door offered an atmospheric reminder of the competing allure of Festival Trials Day just down the
