I’m in an unfortunate club, probably one with very few members. I have cleanly missed both birds of a woodcock right-and-left in the same drive, on the same peg, in consecutive years.
My host has never let me forget it. His exasperation is unsurprising because not many people find themselves fortunate enough to be in the position to accomplish this task — and it is a difficult one. Woodcock are quicker than they appear and are incredibly agile. The agility prevents them from succumbing to avian predators among the timber, but when they clear the edge of woodland you can see their true speed.
The ghosts of failures past shadowed me north, into southwest Scotland as the guest of a client of ours at Holts Auctioneers, Graham Desmonts. Graham, bilingual in French and English, runs the sporting agency Chassescot, which, as its name suggests, caters to Gallic clients as well as domestic ones. He had put together a team
