While at the Game Fair, visitors will be able to simultaneously celebrate another great event, “National Countryside Week” (July 14-20), started by the Prince’s Countryside Fund in 2010. Already it has raised nearly £4 million for rural-based enterprises and causes. If only more politicians would take the interests of the countryside as seriously as the Prince of Wales. Attendees will be able to “Walk a Country Mile” — any distance they like, in fact — to make a contribution to the Fund. More details on page 18 of Weekend, and in the special Countryside Week edition of Life tomorrow. There will be a celebrity walk too, with Alan Titchmarsh, England rugby captain Phil Vickery and J B Gill from boy-band JLS. Sorry, I can tell you nothing about JLS as I am stuck in the time-warp of The Wurzels – and proud of it.
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The recently published impartiality review produced for the BBC Trust describes in a very restrained way how disgracefully the BBC regards the Game Fair and the Countryside Alliance. It points out that there will be about the same number of people attending the Game Fair as attend Glastonbury– the difference, of course, is that Glastonbury streams constantly through all the BBC’s main outlets for more than the festival’s three days, whereas when the Game Fair is in full swing, how many minutes will be broadcast by Countryfile, The One Show, the Today programme, Farming Today and so on “live from the Game Fair”? Let’s wait and see.
Yet, as the report says, millions are involved with country sports. There are 500,000 game shooters alone and two million hectares (nearly five million acres) actively managed for conservation because of shooting. Then there are the people the report does not mention – the beaters, the gamekeepers, the gunmakers, the butchers and the people like me who do not shoot but enjoy eating roast pheasant.
The report also mentions the “fraught” relationship between the Countryside Alliance and the BBC – and, of course, it is only “fraught” because so many BBC programme makers do not understand the countryside and have prejudiced, “townie” views concerning country sports.
In evidence submitted to the report, Steve Peacock, former editor of Farming Today and agricultural adviser to The Archers, sums it up best: “The BBC has got better about nations and regions, about ethnic minorities but not about including the rural dimension.” So much for the BBC’s take on the modern-day obsession with “equality and diversity”.
It still grates with me that both David Bellamy and I were erased from the BBC because of our support for the Countryside Marches organised by the Countryside Alliance (and our views of the EU). The irony is that neither of us hunts, shoots or fishes.
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The Game Fairjust oozes the “real” countryside. There are so many brilliant artists and sculptors whose work can be seen there – Rodger McPhail, Ashley Boon, Simon Gudgeon and many more. Yet they too are often ignored by chunks of the mainstream non-sporting media who should be interested in their outstanding talent. Oh, I almost forgot the wonderful Tania Still, who painted the fantastic fox hound Corset, which I walked when she was a puppy. The incredible Corset, now 14 years old, is still alive and well and enjoying her retirement living with my sister Rachael. What a dog – sorry, hound. I deliberately leave my chequebook and credit cards at home when visiting the Game Fair so that I don’t act too impulsively when I see a picture I like.
Fly casting in the lakes and the activities in the main ring inevitably attract me. I love the parade of hounds, as well; the relationship between the huntsman and his pack is astonishing, as is the bond between man and dog. To me, as a non-hunter, the “hunting ban” remains an illiberal act of undiluted prejudice and shame. And now manufactured pressure is building up on shooting, too.
Then there are the terrier races, falconry displays and so much more. The Game Fair shows that, despite the urbanisation of Britain, and the BBC’s coverage of the countryside, the heart of the “real” countryside still beats strong.
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Now I have a confession to make. In addition to the Game Fair, visiting Blenheim is almost like a pilgrimage for me. It is the original home of one of my favourite apples, the Blenheim Orange. The apple was found by a tailor named George Kempster, at Blenheim, in about 1740. He then grew it on from pips and, because of its outstanding taste, it quickly spread across Europe and America. When horticulturist and brewer Richard Cox later crossed it with a Ribston Pippin, it became the unbeatable Cox’s Orange Pippin – and our next crop looks promising in the garden, gales permitting.
To view the origional article & numerous others about the countryside by Robin CLICK HERE
For more information on the CLA Game Fair:
Web Site: gamefair.co.uk Twitter: @thegamefair Facebook: Facebook.com/clagamefair
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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