Countryside Alliance - love the countryside

As reported in Horse & Hound (H&H) on Thursday 2nd July 2009, the Countryside Alliance is currently running a series of media training sessions for huntsmen in preparation for repeal of the Hunting Act. The latest session, which took part in London on 23rd June, saw Gerald Sumner of the Vale of Aylesbury with Garth and South Berks and Michael Scott of the Old Berks put through a series of mocked up interviews, including a radio interview and a round-table debate.

Fishing for Schools is a Countryside Alliance Foundation initiative. The mission is simple – to educate and enhance young lives. Fishing for Schools aims to get fly-fishing on to the curriculum. The programme specifically offers a short course for children between the ages of 14 and 16 with special educational needs, and can also be adapted for other groups. These children find academic work particularly difficult but respond well to alternative learning. Click here to download the Fishing for Schools leaflet . For more information contact course co-ordinator Charles Jardine at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Countryside Alliance’s Game-to-Eat campaign has teamed up with TV Chef Mark Hix to produce a booklet containing seasonal game cooking recipe ideas.  The booklet contains a step by step guide showing how to produce dishes such as roast partridge with mushrooms and autumn greens or braised venison with carrots, all taken from Mark Hix’s new book – the appropriately named “Seasonal Food”.

Simon Hart reports back from an encouraging AGM for the Masters of Foxhounds Association: This week I was a guest at the Masters of Foxhounds Association AGM held on Tuesday in the City of London. The main speaker was William Hague MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary whose speech, it is fair to say, gave the 400 assembled masters and chairmen everything they wanted to hear and more. He repeated the Conservative commitment to give Parliament the opportunity to repeal the Hunting Act by way of a Government Bill in Government time on a free vote. More than that he gave everyone in the room absolute confidence that the commitment would be speedily delivered.