AS we ended the season in splendid sunshine, it is easy to forget about the weather woes which threatened to wipe-out a large part of the season not that long ago. It is a testament to the dedication of the hunt volunteers and land owners that 98 fixtures even managed to take place this season, as they battled to save their fixtures from the most challenging of conditions.

As a result of their work, the staging of 98 meetings represents just a decline of nine fixtures on the previous season, a drop not as drastic as what it could well have been when we remember back to the almost weekly updates detailing fixture cancellations or abandonments at the height of the weather disruptions. We lost five meetings from the autumn fixture list, in addition to a further 13 cancellations during the spring.