Mainly monitoring the Cheshire fox hunts as even hunt apologists have given up defending hare hunting so it is important we focus mainly on foxhunting for now. This is not a complete list for the season, several meets we attended are not recorded here.

15th March 2003 - High Peak Harriers, Royal Rock Beagles, and Forest and District Beagles
On the final day of the hunting season in the north-west the Cheshire LACS support group signed off another season in style. First off to Bakewell to monitor the High Peak Harriers and then back to Cheshire to monitor a joint meet of the hapless Royal Rock Beagles and the Forest and District Beagles.

8th March 2003 - Cheshire Foxhounds at the Mount, Broxton, Cheshire
Not a great deal to report, they disappear up the mount, and proceeded to lose riders and hunt followers all afternoon. As early as 12 o'clock riders were boxing up and heading home. Luckily monitors managed to keep with the hunt for almost all the afternoon and nothing was killed.

1st March 2003 - Royal Rock Beagles at Great Budworth, Cheshire
After searching unsuccessfully for one and a half hours for the Cheshire Forest Hunt we, admittedly by pure chance, found the Royal Rock Beagles at Great Budworth. It was quite obvious that we were more pleased to see them than they were to see us. Immediately they stopped hunting the fields and headed back in the direction of Belmont Hall and draw a small wood. The beagles chased a rabbit through the woods and into a back garden. With the master and whipper-in looking on helplessly, the entire pack rioted in the garden. Eventually the beagles came out only for the master to force them to jump through a barbed wired fence (see picture). Only the intervention of a hunt monitor forced a whipper-in to lift them over instead. Knowing it wasn't going to be their day they scurried back to Belmont Hall and packed up after little more than two hours out. Taking tips from the Cheshire Forest Hunt, the Royal Rock had a vehicle of 'security' guys follow us. News report

22nd February 2003 - Cheshire Forest Hunt at Ollerton
"Out to see some blood today are you?" was the comment of a red coat when he spotted us. Whether he meant our own blood or that of a fox is unclear. A noon start and a fairly small field today. More shortly...

15th February 2003 - Holcombe Hunt at the Boars Head, Hoghton
With almost as many hunt monitors and hunt sabs present as there were riders it was never going to be an easy day for the Holcombe. As it turned out the hunt managed to keep losing their hounds and ended up spending much of their time waiting in fields whilst the hounds were rounded up. In over three hours they covered just 2 miles and never broke into a gallop. One Cheshire League Against Cruel Sport hunt monitor commented, "I think that the Holcombe go down as probably the worst motivated and effective hunt I have seen." If ever there was a case for the Holcombe to switch over to drag hunting it was today, at least they could have had a decent ride. When we left at 5pm they were still looking for their hounds.

8th February 2003 - Cheshire Foxhounds at Yew Tree Farm, Hargrave
The Cheshire Foxhounds have recently had quite low turnouts of both riders and followers so it was no surprise to see them make a special effort today. However, the larger than normal turnout made the progress of the hunt very slow. They found one scent in woodland and chased a fox near a farm belonging to a huntsman, luckily it escaped. After failing to catch a fox they even failed to catch their own hounds and were still looking for some at 5pm when we left.

8th February 2003 - Holcombe Hunt, Hunt Ball at the Dunkenhalgh Hotel, Clayton-Le-Moors

1st Febraury 2003 - Cheshire Forest Hunt at Byley
Shortly after 3p.m. hunt monitors made an emergency call to the police to report that supporters of the Cheshire Forest Hunt had cornered the hunt sabs van down a lane and a vehicle containing four men closely associated with the hunt, who had been acting threatening all day, was heading towards them at speed. A few minutes later the hunt sabs van appeared chased by two vehicles, one of these was frantically weaving all over the road trying to get in front of the van to stop them escaping. At a busy junction it succeeding in doing so by pulling straight out onto a main road without looking and narrowly avoided an oncoming car by inches. Luckily at this point three police vehicles appeared. A check of the hunt supporters vehicle revealed four balaclava hats. The driver was seen earlier in the day handing a bottle of alcohol to a huntsman on horseback - speaks volumes. Police are investigating the incident.

25th January 2003 - Cheshire Forest Hunt at The Kennels, Peover
A quiet day all round really. Whether this was due to the trouble at the Huntsman's Ball it is hard to say but it made a nice change from the threats of recent weeks. One hunt supporter was reported to the police for swerving their 4x4 at a hunt monitor. Four men in a Renault Clio were acting very suspiciously but we managed to avoid them.

18th January 2003 - Cheshire Forest Hunt at Smallwood
Not a good day for the Cheshire Forest Hunt: they allowed allowed their hounds to roam down a residential street, three hounds to jump over a fence and chase two ponies on land they hadn't permission to be on. The furious owner confronted the hunt and after a strong verbal exchange the hunt rode off. Later a senior huntsman was caught red-handed blocking up the exhaust of a hunt monitor's car with a branch he had picked up from the side of the road. The hunt had two fallers today including a young girl whose horse refused to jump a fence. The hounds picked up two scents, but failed to find a fox. The hunt sabs were on hand when the second scent was picked up and managed to get the hounds called off.

14th January 2003 - The true face of the Cheshire Foxhounds
Today the Cheshire Foxhounds chased a fox into a badger sett. As they did not pull the hounds away, we went to film them from the roadside. As soon as we started filming the huntsman Guy Mather, pulled the hounds off to make a retreat. As he did he spoke to Watson Junior, who then disappeared for a short time re-appearing in disguise with a balaclava over his head, making a sudden dash for me. Just as he got within striking distance he realised my friend was videoing him, stopped and lashed out at her completely missing. He then realised I was photographing him, turned away and disappeared as quickly as he came. The whole thing was getting worse by the moment as more and more supporters started at us. Then the farmer who's land adjoins the land where the fox had gone to ground, and is none too keen on hunting, appeared in a rather timely intervention. The hunters decided at this point that things were not looking so good for them and departed with their tails between their legs.

11th January 2003 - Hunts grounded
A good day for wildlife - all hunts off due to frozen ground.

4th January 2003 - Holcombe Hunt - The Shoulder of Mutton, Holcombe Village
The Holcombe hunt, comprising of 30 dogs, 5 red coats and one child, met at the "The Shoulder of Mutton" public house. At noon, after un-boxing in the car park, they set off blocking the traffic on both sides of the B6214, Helmshore Road, thereby irritating several drivers. They then proceeded up Cross Lane onto a bridle path. Having rode for one and a half hours and finding only one scent, much credit going to the vigorous effort of the hunt sabs, the hunt finished at 1.30pm cold and disheartened.

1st January 2003 - Holcombe Hunt at The Dressers Arms, Wheelton, Near Chorley
Despite two and a half hours hunting hares the Holcombe Hunt fail to kill a single hare in what could well be their last New Year's day hunt. The only incident of note was when a Isuzu 4x4 (M6 CHL) tried to hit three hunt sabs standing by the side of the road, having failed the first time and he returned a minute later and when he missed again he then tried reversing into them. This seemed a totally needless incident and totally out of keeping with the good relations between the hunt and the sabs.

28th December 2002 - Holcombe Hunt at Wrightington Bar
Starting at Wrightington Bar on the B5250 before heading across the fields in search of hares to kill. 17 riders were out today which is a truer reflection of the Hunt's strength than the Boxing Day meet. Early on a huntsman tried jumping a fence and landed on his back with the horse still on the other side. Excellent photo taken by the Lancashire Evening Post of this. After this the Holcombe Hunt hounds chased several hares and at times the hounds were only a few feet behind, luckily all the hares escaped but it was still a sickening sight to behold.

26th December 2002 - Holcombe Hunt - Rivington Hall Barn
The Holcombe Hunt felt they had to put on a bit of a show for their supporters even though it was clear to everyone that they weren't seriously looking for any hares with the press watching. So whilst the hounds were sent 'looking' for hares the field paid little interest in them and were far most interesting in finding small walls to jump over and have a gallop. Over two and a half hours on the moors and nothing killed or even chased. The only animals in danger today seemed to be the horses of the inexperienced riders who jumped over the walls at too fast a pace for the very wet conditions.

24th December 2002 - Cheshire Forest Hunt Threaten Hunt Monitors
Attended the anti-hunt protest opposite the Goshawk public house, Mouldsworth, Cheshire. Two hunt monitors then found the Cheshire Forest Hunt near Manly Old Halland and proceeded to try and watch them from the roadside. At this point approximately 8 men from the Cheshire Hunt confronted them. They proceeded to verbally abuse the monitors and the ringleader, a huntsman with a conviction for violence, on a young woman, threatened both monitors causing a police officer to intervene. With more hunt supporters becoming abusive it was decided to move the hunt monitors car for safety reasons, however they were followed by the mob who started to become even more aggressive, including threatening to turn over the car and one man started pushing one of the monitors. The police officer had to escort both monitors to the car, meanwhile the man had who seconds ago had being pushing one of the monitors had changed his clothes so that he couldn't be picked out. The police officer then had to tell a driver to move his car, which he was using to block in the hunt monitors car. Which begs the question, what do the Cheshire Forest Hunt not want us to see? Foxes in bags? They certainly didn't want the monitors to see something.

21st December 2002 - Royal Rock Beagles - Great Budworth
Started off monitoring the Cheshire Foresest Hunt at Withington Hall, just off the A535 Holmes Chapel Road, South of A537, but soon got a call from another hunt monitor that the Royal Rock Beagles had been sighted at Belmont Hall, Great Budworth, near Northwich, Cheshire. By the time we got there hunted had almost finished because the sabs had found the hunt and a stand-off followed for over half an hour with bemused police looking on. Finally the hunt set off again followed across the fields by the sabs who in turn were followed by six police officers wearing fluorescent yellow jackets. It soon became obvious to everyone that hunting was finished for the day when the hunt master, Peter Jones, asked the police to arrest the sabs this despite them not breaking any law. Mr Jones stormed off home muttering about bringing in his own 'security' in future.

14th December 2002 - Cheshire Forest Hunt - Grimsditch Mill pub
With the hunt sabs elsewhere the Cheshire Forest Hunt were able to be far more patient in their search for an animal to kill. Starting off at the Grimsditch Mill pub, Grimsditch Lane (a mile south of Junction 10 M56 intersection with the A49), they initially headed north before returning to Grimsditch Lane and hunted Whitley Brookin a couple of times, then down to Dutton. The only damage to report was to a hunt monitor's car caused by huntswomen kicking the parked car as she rode passed.

7th December 2002 - Cheshire Forest Hunt - Toft Hall
Starting off at Toft Hall the Cheshire Forest Hunt lined up their horses alongside the busy A50 causing disruption to traffic. A horse was injured turning on the narrow footpath and had to be removed from the hunt. Several times senior huntsmen raced up and down the road holding up traffic in the process. At no time did the police intervene to stop this. Shortly after 12pm the hounds chased a young fox straight into the hunters path, luckily it appeared to escape as the hunters crossed over the A50 onto Seven Sisters Lane a short time later.

At 2pm a hound was injured from what we believe was a kick to the head from a hunters horse. The hound was clearly unable to walk but the hunt still attempted to drag the poor animal until the intervention of League Against Cruel Sports hunt monitors ensured it was carried to a vehicle. The hunt refused to say whether the hound would received proper treatment from a vet. We will be looking to see if the hound is there next week or if they hunt simply killed it.

30th November 2002 - Hunting Monitoring the Cheshire Forest Hunt
Huntsmen charging down a busy road causing big tailbacks, the hunt worrying sheep, hounds crossing a busy junction totally out of control, huntsmen blocking traffic and riding up both sides of a road without the slightest care for public safety. A typical day for the Cheshire Forest Hunt then. Hunt monitoring called off when five vehicles belonging to 'supporters' of the Cheshire Hunt turned up and made it clear they weren't there to watch the hunt.

23rd November 2002 - Holcombe Hunt at Love Clough, Rossendale
Our first visit to the Holcombe Hunt this season. An uneventful day for the Holcombe Hunt, they hunted on the moors at Love Cough for over three hours without hunting any animal.

16th November 2002 - Hunt Monitoring the Cheshire Forest Hunt
The hunt was moving from location to location so quickly in order to keep ahead of the hunt sabs that they had little time for actual hunting. The frustration of the hunt supporters was clearly evident when they stole property from one of the hunt sabs vans.

9th November 2002 - Hunt Monitoring in Cheshire Forest Hunt
The hunt was in disarray at times and had a very unevenful day due to the presence of the hunt sabs who were always one step ahead. At one point a clearly embarrassed senior huntsman could be observed riding up the main road asking hunt supporters where the hunt was, not that they knew either. Several other huntsmen gave up very early and returned home.