catherine.austen@futurenet.com
@cfausten123
COLOURED pennants fly above white tents at the Duke of Beaufort’s recent point-to-point at Didmarton. Rugged-up horses parade in the brisk March air in a landscape of pastured green fields and small stone walls, unchanged in a century.
At the Knight Frank sponsor’s tent, warming bullshots are being dispensed and the Duke of Beaufort is standing by the painted rails of the saddling enclosure of this immaculately produced course. But someone is missing.
For 34 years as joint-master, Captain Ian Farquhar was always on hand to welcome friends and strangers alike, to wish them well in their gambles and merriment. Three days before this fixture, he died, aged 78, in the hunting country he made his own - for friendship, sportsmanship and fun.
It was an eerie feeling that pervaded the day. When, before the members’ race, a minute’s silence was called for in his memory, not a dog barked nor a child spoke.
