Lesley Miles : four years in hound trailing. She was introduced to the sport by her husband Steve who she met through dog showing.
Mountain Spring , a hound that went from strength to strength and won the International puppy maiden trail. She is also training Arizona and Sugar Ray in 2015 and is having a lot of success.
In the short time she has been trailing the hound that has impressed her most has been Jenny’s Rascal.
Her favourite venue is Bridekirk
Her most memorable victory was at Sewingshields with Mountain spring.
Fireman Sam is a hound she would love to train and her favourite character in trailing is Susan Glaister ( at the time of print)
Steven Miles:
He stared trailing when he was twelve and was taken to the trails by Geoff Irving and his son Michael , Geoff later became vice chair of the association.
Huntsman’s Hero was his favourite hound and Fallen Spring the best he has trained but like his wife he is enjoying considerable success with Arizona.
His favourite hound is Buacail and his favourite venue is Bridekirk.
His most memourable victories have been with Glen Mist and Mountain Spring both International winners.
Jenny;s Rascal is a hound he would like to train and his favourite character was Susan’s Dad Jimmy Glaister
George Birkett
George was born in Coniston in 1930 and in his 86th year has finally retired from training hounds.
He started running trails in his 10th year but his father wouldn’t let him have hound as it would lead to gambling but at the age of 30 he acquired his first hound from Fred Barrow, it was called Wily. Living first at Wilson Place then settling at Birk Howe in the valley of Langdale. George went on to train many winners including Champions Warrior, Rose and Crown and Cragsman.
He can tell many a tale Including Somebody from Kendal flogging a shepherds meet trail at Coniston, running a trail for the government. He also maintains that he has never cheated in his life. is very generous and supports all sports and show trails.
On trailing he says that the young farmers aren’t as keen as there forebears and there are too many ‘racecourses’.
He told me he was related to Victor Brownlee although he doubted Victor knew that.
On his hounds he rates Cragsman and in the past thought that Court Dale was underrated and was better than Court Link.
And the hounds that he trained he remembered around 20, including Doubler, Countess, Chimer, Steamer. Morning Cloud, Langdale Pride, Langdale Ranger, although on reflection he has probably trained more than 50 hounds throughout his trailing career.
At the time of writing George wasn’t enjoying the best of health. We wish him well.