Hunting Newcomer's Week competition winners announced

The Countryside Alliance annual newcomers' week (21st-28th October) saw a huge turnout of new faces keen to give hunting a go. This year we encouraged those that attended to write about their experiences and enter our competition to win fantastic prizes kindly donated by The Old Hunting Habit and Champagne Pol Roger.

The aim of this competition was to find out more about people's own experiences and to enjoy reading about what it is that makes a day's hunting so compelling. Having received a large number of entries and thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's contributions we are thrilled to announce the winners as follows:

Hannah Knowles with her account of her day with the Holcombe Hunt, Kelly Murray (Royal Artillery), Jessica Weidmann (New Forest), Judith Greenhalgh (Wilton), Kat Brown (Hursley Hambledon) and Rowena Whitehouse (Readyfield).

Our winners will each receive a personalised hunting tie donated by The Old Hunting Habit. Owner Amy Bryan-Dowell commented: "It was great to read about the newcomers' experiences and I hope they get an opportunity to wear their prizes out on the hunting field again this season."

The Countryside Alliance's Head of Hunting Polly Portwin said: "We were delighted with the standard of the competition entries. They highlighted the different range of ages, backgrounds and level of experience of the newcomers taking the opportunity to try hunting for the first time or returning to it after a break.

"The winners all deserve recognition for actively taking part, however without the hard work behind the scenes of the Masters and hunt staff, the organisation of any day's hunting would not happen. For that reason, we want to show our appreciation to the huntsmen of the winning packs that inspired the newcomers to write in by making a presentation to them of a bottle of champagne kindly donated by Pol Roger.

"Thank you and congratulations to everybody that took part in the competition and we hope that your hunting experiences will inspire others to try a day out with hounds in the future."

To read all the winner's hunting reports please click here.