16th December 2025 – Billy Birkett

I write to inform you of the passing of Billy Birkett who passed away on Sunday. Billy had been involved in hound trailing most of his life and having reached his early ninties was still very much active in this last year attending trails right up to the end when his health was failing. Through out his life Billy ran hounds, as well as train them for others and helped promote trails in the Brigham and Dean Area. He was a skilled man when it came to training hounds and had many winners over the years with One Man, Top Man, The Last Man and more recently General James who gave Billy a lot of pleasure and excitment in his later years. He also had the good fortune to share the title with his jointly owned hound Blue Striker who won the Open Restricted Points Competition this year. Blue Striker was one of the pups breed out of General James. Billy was a character on the field and wasnt frighten to speak his mind often with the good intentions of hound racing at the fore, often sharing his wisdom from the many years he had been involved in the hound racing world. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. He will be sadly missed by all.