I’ve been making the pilgrimage over to Mike Thomas’ shoot every November for the past 18 years. Mike runs a pheasant and duck shoot on his fabulous hill farm at Parc Y Rhiw in Clatter, near Caersws, in mid Wales. You would think, therefore, that most of the unusual or out of the ordinary things which might happen in a day’s shooting, would have already occurred by now, wouldn’t you? How wrong you’d be!
During those 18 years, we’ve encountered just about every possible type of weather condition you care to imagine! Hot sunshine under a cloudless blue sky, absolutely torrential rain, thick fog, snow storms and everything else in between! You name it, we’ve shot in it!
Sometimes, it’s been so wet up on the high ground that the beaters could slide all the way down to the bottom at the end of a drive, as if they were on some giant water flume! We are talking about hundreds of feet on a very steep incline! Well, this year, the sky was a beautiful powder blue. Not a cloud to be seen, anywhere. It was shirt-sleeves weather and the beaters were really going to work up a lather on the hills today!
The day went according to plan, to begin with. The first drive, out of the oaks high up on the hillside, involved some fast and furious snap-shooting as the birds suddenly appeared over the guns standing on the high-banked road. Most of the birds chose to fly over Pieter, one of the guns over from The Netherlands. He made short work of every bird which crossed his path. Lovely shooting and very pretty to watch!
The second and third drives were off the top of the hill. A few birds trickled out over the guns but, due to the weather, most of them had gone up over the hill without stopping and I really felt for the beaters as they came into the barn for lunch. They were all very red-faced with the exertion of beating across the very steep terrain on what was basically a summer’s day in November! Leggings and coats were chucked in a steaming pile in the corner of the barn!
After a quick mug of soup and some very tasty rolls, we were eager to get onto our pegs for the fourth drive. I was now down to my shirt sleeves with a light waistcoat over the top, just to hold the cartridges really! It was a truly balmy afternoon. The drive went really well, although I was out of the shooting, being pegged at number 1. The duck flew well, even in the light breeze and enough pheasants were tucked up in the reeds to make for some exciting shooting. I just enjoyed standing in that glorious sunshine, watching the proceedings as they unfolded in front of me. I was so relaxed that I almost missed the only couple of chances to come my way! Almost but, not quite! A nice quartering cock pheasant fell to my shot and a lone duck which sneaked in from behind had me stretching to the limit to swing through and get the shot off before falling over! His neck snapped back as the steel shot found its mark.
The next drive involved pushing a long, narrow spinney down the sloping field and birds flew out in a steady stream as the beaters made their way towards us. One pheasant in particular, having been missed both barrels by one gun, decided to light the afterburners and rocketed skywards, only to be taken out quite beautifully by another one of the Dutch guys. This time it was Ary pulling the trigger and he was applauded loudly by all who’d seen the shot!
Another drive and some more superb duck and a smattering of pheasants were added to the bag. Mike blew the horn to finish the drive early as he wanted us to squeeze The Turkey Wood in as a sort of grand finale! This final drive was located up by the farmhouse and guns and beaters assembled in the lane, ready to be transported by trailer, to save a long walk!
As we stood there chatting and waiting for one of the dogs to pick a runner, Ian, one of the beaters, just keeled over at the side of the road.
Almost as he hit the ground, two of the other beaters managed to grab a hold of him, breaking the worst of his fall. He was out for the count! Luckily for him, several of the lads and lasses are very competent first-aiders and they quickly established that he had passed out but was still breathing, albeit, very shallowly.
It transpired that he had disturbed a wasp’s nest at the end of the previous drive and had been stung about a dozen times around his face and neck. He’d managed to make it out of the woods and onto the road but, he’d then gone into anaphylactic shock and collapsed.
Ian came round after a minute or so and a couple of the girls propped him up between them [they could have done this to any of the assembled males and they’d all have been very happy!] and tried everything they could to keep him awake. He was slipping in and out of consciousness and was now a very bright scarlet in colour. Help was needed and quickly!
Now I know mobile phones are frowned upon at many shoots, including this one but, I have to say, thank God somebody was carrying one that day as the situation was fast becoming a very serious one!
An ambulance was called. Luckily, being a local, the driver knew our location [we were in the middle of nowhere after all!] but it still took him 20 minutes to get to us. Ian was taken aboard and was given a shot of adrenaline and hooked up to all sorts of gadgets and monitors. After about 10 minutes, he was given the all clear but, as a precaution, he was taken to Shrewsbury hospital for observation. Some hours later, as we were tucking into a fabulous dinner back at the farmhouse, Ian rang us to let us know that all was well.
Needless to say, our last drive never got done! Not that anybody minded in the slightest. The most important thing was that Ian was alright. The next day, the wasp’s nest received a dose of diesel and a match to boot! It goes to show that, even in November, when you think you’ve seen the last of the wasps for another season, you still have to be aware of the potential dangers, especially in unseasonably warm weather.
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