THE Meath Hunt hosted their Annual Hound and Terrier Show in glorious sunshine at Nugentstown recently, organised by Meath huntsman, Kenny Henry and his brother and former huntsman, John Henry. It is a very popular hound show, as it is ideal for getting real ring work done before judges in advance of the National Hound Show in Stradbally, which was held a couple of weeks later. Eleven packs presented hounds - Ballymacad, Kildare, Fermanagh, Westmeath, Iveagh, Kilkenny, East Galway, Galway Blazers, Golden Vale, North Galway and the Taras.

The Doghounds were judged by Paul Scallan, huntsman of the Island Hunt and John Moran, master and huntsman of the Tara Harriers. The Bitches were judged in the afternoon by Paul Scallan and Noel Mullins.

The Ballymacads had a productive day, winning the Old English Unentered Doghound and the Couple of Entered Doghounds, as well as the Unentered Bitch, the Old English Unentered, the Best Two Couple and the Reserve Bitch Champion. The Iveagh won the Best Stallion Hound, the Best Two Couple of Doghounds, the Reserve Doghound Champion, and the Champion Bitch with Grapevine. The Kilkennys won the Old English Entered Doghound, the Champion Doghound with Shamus, the Old English Entered Bitch and the Couple of Entered Bitches, while The Westmeaths won the Unentered Doghound class and the Brood Bitch class. The Kildares won the Couple of Unentered Doghounds and The Galway Blazers added the Couple of Unentered, with the Fermanaghs winning the Entered Bitch class. The Taras and North Galways were also in the ribbons.

The adjacent show-ring saw the judging of working dogs, with terriers, whippets and lurchers, organised by Alan Reilly and Sian Krysten Webb. Darren Boylan judged the lurchers, Paul McCloskey the terriers and Sian Krysten Webb the whippets. At the end of the show, the overall champion was chosen from the champion Terrier, Whippet and Lurcher, which fell to the Lurcher Seamus, owned by Jed Donagh, who campaigns his hound at many of the shows around the country.