ON Saturday I attended my first hound racing meeting, in the Cockermouth area, in around eight years. I was convinced it was a uniquely Cumbrian sport but apparently there is a strong interest in other parts of the north of England and Ireland and there was even a group from the island of Ireland at the meeting.

Apparently they were looking to buy hounds which probably made the event the dog equivalent of Appleby Horse Fair. I spoke to them at the start of one of the races and it was good craic.

READ MORE: Marli takes honours in first major trail of the season

For a bit of background when I first started as a press photographer at the North West Evening Mail, in Barrow in Furness in July 1992, I was soon introduced to the sport that is hound trailing.

Within a few weeks I was sent to cover Ambleside Sports which featured the dog based race as well as other Cumbrian pursuits, such as Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling complete with their elaborately embroidered outfits, which made for some decent shots.

Having said that my baptism of fire was the hound trailing which, if I am being honest, I was not quite prepared for the speed of the release of the hounds and only managed to get a couple of frames with the help of a motor drive.

I covered a few other events which featured hound trailing races before I left the paper in 1996 but when I was back at the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald I did visit a meeting in 2017 but I did not pursue it any further.

In recent years it has tried to rebrand itself as hound racing when former fox hunts tried to claim they were hound trailing meetings and the Hound Trailing Association tried to distance itself from hunting.

According to the association the sport dates back to the 18th Century and it is one of Cumbria’s oldest and most popular pastimes with meetings taking place up and down the Lakeland countryside.

It’s origins can be traced to disputes between local farmers claiming to have the fastest pack of hounds and in turn drag hunting was formed allowing farmers to race their hounds over designated trails in order to discover who had the fastest packs.

Over the years hound trailing gained popularity within the local Lakeland communities and in 1906, the governing body, the Hound Trailing Association was formed under the direction of Robert Jefferson from Whitehaven. Since then the sport has grown under the association’s guidance and at present it has more than 500 members.

The hounds follow a trail of a mixture of paraffin and aniseed, which is laid by the trailers, and there were a number of classes including: seniors, senior maidens, pups, puppy maidens, open restricted and veterans.

According to the organisers last year there were 225 adult attendees, children are free so not accounted for, and 265 hounds were entered to race, spread over the six races.

On the whole I was made very welcome on the day and everyone was happy to answer my questions. I was still quite impressed with the speed of the hounds, who are descendants of the original foxhounds and bred for speed, as well as the way the owners noisily call to encourage their dogs on their approach towards the finish line – having said that I did feel sorry for the hound who stopped just short of the finish only to be overtaken by several other competitors and I am reliably informed this was because it was probably tired.

Hopefully, over this and the next season, I will revisit a number of meetings and it will form a long-term project which will provide an insight into the world of hound trailing. Having said that I did catch the sun, so turned a bit what we in the UK call “gammon” and also I had to dodge the torrential rainfall.

Having said that, because I was using the high continuous shooting setting on the cameras, I had to edit almost 1000 shots down to 169 which was easy because a lot of the photos were similar.

According to the organisers last year’s International Hound Trails attendance was 225 adults, children are free so not accounted for and 265 hounds were entered to race and they were spread over the six races.

And the results this year were:

Hounds: 1: Kinniside Bobby; 2: Baroness Ava; 3: Mel; 4: Countess Ava; 5: Busy Again; 6: Thornton; 7: Silver Dream; 10 ran and the time was 30:33;

Senior Maidens: 1: Croft Lass; 2: Ruby; 3. Foxparke Whoosh; 4: Foxparke Dealer; 5: Miterdale Green Queen; 6: Twlight Mist; 7: Sam Cro; 15 ran and the time was 29.40;

Open Pups: 1: Delta Fortune; 2: Tucker; 3: Huntsman’s Unite; 4: Busy Rascal; 5: Let It Be 6: Foxparke Oink Oink; 7: Nellie’s Joy; 11 ran and the time was 18.36;

Puppy Maiden: 1: Jenny’s Chance; 2: I Am It; 3: Affirmation; 4: Nellie’s Pride; 5: Minnie; 6: Denton Phantom; 7: Silver Star; 16 ran and the time was 22.04;

Open Restricted: 1: Malia; 2: Foxparke Fair Lady; 3: Foxparke Side Kick; 4: Miterdale Dusk; 5: Malfunction; 6: Duchess Ava; 7: Denton Shamrock; 30 ran and the time was 17.37;

Veterans: 1: Zola; 2: Black Edition; 3: Miterdale Duchess; 4: Eagle Star; 5: Foxparke Bugga Boo; 6: Eleanor’s Lass; 7: Young Harry; 12 ran and the time was 20.02.

I have to admit that when I was proofing pages at the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald, which carried the hound trailing reports, I used to giggle at the hound names and it was good to see that Busy Rascal, obviously a nod to Dizzee Rascal, managed to get fourth place in the Open Pups race.