On the 24th they had another good day. Finding a fox in White Syke Whin they ran him by Hutton Thorns, Rufforth and Rufforth Whin, and a ring round by the Harrogate railway, nearly to Hutton Thorns again, and up to Rufforth Village, where they checked. Hitting off the line they hunted on over the Boroughbridge road and into Red House Wood, where they marked their fox to ground.
They had another good Friday on December 8th, when they met at Wighill Village. Curiously enough, like the Hutton Hall day, it was a day of outlying foxes. A fox was viewed as hounds were moving off to try Shire Oaks, and for an hour hounds ran him very cheerily by Duce Wood, New Buildings and Wighill Avenue, over the Thorp Arch road, and on to the Carrs, below Esedike. Thence they ran a very similar ring by Shire Oaks and back by Wighill Avenue and Village, to the banks of the Wharfe, where they marked him to ground. Then came a fine burst of twenty minutes from Shire Oaks, by Tadcaster and Catterton Spring to Healaugh Church, near which the fox got to ground just in front of hounds. The day was brought to a conclusion by a gallop with another outlying fox, who jumped up in front of hounds at Angram, and they hunted him cheerily by Askham Whin, Collier Hagg, Healaugh and Normans to Askham Whin, where he beat them.
The Sinnington had a capital day from Habton Village on December 7th. They found their first fox in Skelton Whin, and had a good hour’s run with him by Riseborough and back through Skelton Whin up to Little Barugh, whence they ran a ring back to the whin and killed. They had barely eaten their fox when another went away, and they ran him at a good pace by Riseborough Hill and Normanby, and past Hobground House to Brawby Bridge, where a check took place. The fox was thought to have gone to ground, but he had gone through, and it was probably him that they killed when they went back to Riseborough.
Wales seems to be popular ground for the decision of spaniel trials, for since the Sporting Spaniel Society instituted working tests for “the handy man” of the varieties of dogs which are used in field sports in the autumn of 1898 the Principality has been visited some four or five times. In 1904 Sir Watkin Wynn’s unrivalled coverts in Wynnstay Park were placed at the service of the Club, and a very successful meeting was the result, but for the gathering which was held early in December the Vale of Neath was revisited, Mr. A. T. Williams, the President of the promoting Society, having invited the Committee to decide the competitions on his shooting at Gilfach, only a little over a mile from the flourishing town of Neath. It was to be regretted that the entry was so meagre, only half-a-dozen owners supporting the stakes; for not since the trials were started in Mr. Arkwright’s park near Chesterfield had better ground been visited, although no fault could be found with that at Ynisy Gerwn, on the other side of the valley, when the Welsh spaniels of Mr. A. T. Williams, Mr. W. H. David, and other local breeders, made so bold a show at one of the largest supported meetings of the series. The poor entry, by the way, was not caused by lack of interest in the work of the Club, but, for one reason and another, such men as Mr. Winton Smith, Mr. J. Alexander, Mr. Charles Watts, and Mr. J. P. Gardiner, whose spaniels had gained high honours at other trials, were prevented from sending dogs which had been broken and thoroughly trained with a view to competing. Then Mrs. H. D. Greene, the wife of the member for Shrewsbury, who is a great admirer of the Welsh spaniel, had to withdraw her entries because one of her brace was shot only the day before the trials when being put through her final facings. That was a great disappointment to the Shropshire lady, who had hoped to do well with the representatives of the Longmynd kennel. The conditions of the competitions were the same as usual, the spaniels being shot over in the customary sporting manner, while the principal points which were considered by the judges were scenting power, keenness, perseverance, obedience, freedom from chase, dropping to shot, style, method of beating and working to the gun, whether in covert, hedgerow, or in the open. In the single stakes the spaniels were also expected to retrieve at command, tenderly, quickly, and right up to the hand. Additional points, of course, were given for dropping to hand and shot, standing to game and flushing it at command.