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A bRief hiStoRy

It all started in 1991 when three friends and myself formed a Syndicate to shoot the Nidd Beat the Mountgarret Estate
which we still shoot today, with the lease on the Ripley Castle Shoot following three years later.

Ripley Sporting is a group of five Estates offering a variety of traditional driven pheasant and partridge shooting. Our
parkland and farmland shooting around Ripley Castle covers over 5,500 acres and includes four estates, Ripley Castle,
part of Nidd, Hob Green and Cayton Estates together with land leased from neighbouring farmers plus the Mountgarret
Estate, bordering Ripley Castle, which covers 2,000 acres, which we run as a stand alone shoot.

In 2000 I took the sporting leases on Hardcastle & Heathfield Moors and on the Eagle Hall & Ashfold Side Shoots. Sadly
these leases came to an end in January 2019 when all Ripley Sporting activities in these areas ceased.
Ripley Sporting now employs 8 full time staff ; 5 at Ripley Castle, 2 at Mountgarret and our secretary. These together with a
number of part time staff, which includes retired keepers and tradesmen who are invaluable to the Shoot, plus on each shoot
day approximately 20 beaters and pickers up, make up our team who are dedicated to making each shoot day a success.

After shooting driven game for more years than I would like to admit to, mainly in God’s own Country, our beautiful North
Yorkshire countryside. I have found that every shoot is different and have their own way of presenting a shoot day. On our
shoots, although the shooting is important, there are a number of other factors which I feel are just as important on the day.

The majority of us take a day’s shooting not only for some challenging birds but also to forget about work, enjoy the
countryside and meet old and new friends. With this in mind my fellow Shoot Hosts, Stuart Thompson, Christopher
Orme, Jonny Dimsdale, Steve Baren, Steph Bennett and my Head Keeper, David Cockshott at Ripley Castle and
Mountgarret and myself always try to create a relaxed atmosphere for everyone to enjoy their day by ensuring everything
runs smoothly with excellent hospitality together with some memorable shooting.

At a time when many shoots of our quality and size are run purely as a commercial enterprise fielding only full teams.
Ripley Sporting is quite different with approximately 80% of our days being sold by the gun per day specifically catering for
individual guns and small parties. On a scale which provides a large variety of drives together with the type and size of bag
to suit all budgets, maybe I would prefer to describe our Shoot as a large Syndicate providing something to suit everyone.

Our days are offered with bags from 200 to 400 birds, no overages are charged and we always aim to exceed the target
bag each day. Together with a few 150 bird Boundary Days at both Ripley Castle and Mountgarret. The remaining 20%
of our days are available to full teams. These are ideal for Roving Syndicates or Corporate Teams and I find many of
these days are taken up by Shoot Members to entertain their friends and business clients. This is the nearest we come to
commercial shooting.

I do stress that although we plan to field 145 days this season, it remains very much my hobby and every day is in its own
way special, no matter what the type of day or the size of bag maybe.

Today we all seem to live under quite enough pressure and stress, although the actual shooting and the sporting quality
of our birds are very important, one of my main priorities on the day is always to enjoy ourselves in the good company
of like-minded people, whilst experiencing some memorable quality shooting. I feel it is important that the guns have an
opportunity to meet each other before the shoot day starts. With this in mind, on each day we meet for breakfast before
the brief for the day. Well behaved non shooting guests and dogs are also most welcome to join us on any shoot day!

We endeavour to run our shoot days in a safe and business like manner, trying to include the good points and hopefully
avoid the bad ones we have experienced elsewhere. Walking to the pegs is kept to a minimum wherever possible and we
run our days at a leisurely pace with “no rush” being one of our priorities.

I ask that everyone reads my risk assessments detailed on our website and on pages 16 & 17 of this brochure. Shoot only
at birds you are comfortable with and please respect your neighbour’s birds.

In our brochure I have tried to describe what I hope you will experience on a shoot day with Ripley Sporting. However
our website www.ripleycstleshoot.com gives an in depth background to the Shoot and I do hope you enjoy viewing it.
If you click onto “Testimonials” you will read what other guns have experienced on our shoots.

I look forward to welcoming you to Ripley Sporting and hope you will find your day is “Just how a Proper Driven
Shoot Day should be” or should I say, this is what we always try to achieve!

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