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All ChAnge At Ripley SpoRting

Nothing ever stands still, particularly on our Shoot. The following details the recent changes which have taken place.

hARdCAStle & heAthfield MooRS And eAgle hAll & AShfold

Side ShootS
After 18 wonderful years my sporting leases on the whole of this area ended on 31 January 2019 when all Ripley
st
Sporting activities in this area ceased. In June 2018 Hardcastle Moor was sold to a new owner who lives in the area.
The new owner of Hardcastle Moor has also taken the sporting lease on Heathfield Moor together with the pheasant and
partridge shooting on Ashfold Side. I understand he proposes shooting both Moors with his friends and am unsure if
there will be any let days available.

On the majority of the Eagle Hall Shoot area the new owner proposes leaving this quiet and not shot with a view to
introducing Grey Partridge in the future.

However the good news is that Martin and Tom Wood, who many of you already know, have taken the sporting lease on
the area nearest to Pateley Bridge which is known as Eagle Hall.

The even better news is that George Reap will be Keeping the area for Martin and Tom. I appreciate many of you, as am
I, are very disappointed that the Eagle Hall Shoot, as we all know it will not continue. Sadly all good things come to an
end sometime.

Ripley CAStle, hob gReen, CAyton And nidd ShootS
Everything continues as before except we propose building on the success of our excellent partridge with a slight increase
in numbers and with pheasant releases remaining the same.

Our main change is that we are not having a laying field this season. We caught up as many pheasants as we could for
other Shoots and hatcheries, with a view to leaving the ground as free form old birds as possible before we release our
poults for the new season. Unfortunately due to the very mild conditions in late January and early February we left far
more on the ground than I would have liked.

During the last week of our new season in January 2020 you will note we are fielding a number of clear up days. There
will be no limit on the bag size each day. So we will hopefully clear up more than last season. I do recommend you
consider these days.

For our new season we are buying eggs from France and hatching partridge at Mountgarret and pheasant at Ripley Castle.
Our pheasant strains for the new season will be Manchurian, Hungarian, American Cross and Melanistic. So you should
experience some challenging birds!

MountgARRet Shoot
At the end of January 2019 Martin Nesham left the Mountgarret Shoot, with David Cockshott taking over as Head Keeper
on Mountgarret as well as his present position of Head Keeper at Ripley Castle. Callum McIntosh who was a Keeper at
Eagle Hall and has been responsible for the excellent partridge in the Quarry at Greenhow, has moved to Mountgarret.

It is now three seasons’ since I took the sporting lease at Mountgarret. Over this period and particularly last season we
have found the partridge on many drives to be exceptional. I propose building on this with our releases in the new season
made up of 60% partridge and 40% pheasant. I am confident we can look forward to some very testing birds in the new
season.

new SeASon 2019-2020
I am very confident that with the changes we have made. With David taking over as Head Keeper for both our Shoots
backed up by Matthew, Robert, Dan and our new apprentice, Josh at Ripley Castle and Callum and Liam at Mountgarret,
you will experience some challenging shooting in our new season.

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