This is Coursing

The Hares

Coursing is one of the world's oldest field sports. Since the days of the Pharoahs "gazehounds", dogs which hunt exclusively by sight, have been tested in competition. Arrian, a Roman writing in AD 116, laid down:

"The true sportsman does not take out his dogs to destroy the hares, but for the sake of the course and the contest between the dogs and the hares, and is glad if the hare escapes." His words are just as relevant today.

A11 coursing under National Coursing Club Rules takes place in open country. The wild brown hares are at liberty on their own territory and the fields are not enclosed in any way which would prevent the hares I escape. Beaters, in the same way as for game shooting, drive the hares' one by one on to the running ground.

Alternatively, as in rough shooting, the hares are put up by the company walking across the fields to be coursed over.

The hares are not released from boxes, nor are they caught up afterwards.

Game Conservancy research has shown that on estates where coursing takes place, hare numbers are increasing against the national trend. Habitat is carefully preserved, the farming regime is sympathetically modified, and there is no shooting of hares, the most significant factor in the encouragement of hare numbers.

Opponents of coursing admit that the sport ensures the preservation of the hare and that few are killed, but claim that the hares are terrified. Research carried out on behalf of the RSPCA by Dr Stoddart has shown that the flight of the hare is a natural, instinctive, and routine response to danger. Dr Stoddart concluded that the hare would have become extinct years ago if it was not capable of escape from pursuit. For the hare, it's all in a day's work.

Although by law there is no close season for hares, the National Coursing Club does not permit coursing between March 11th  and September 14th inclusive so that they are undisturbed during the breeding season. 

                             The Dogs 

Coursing remains the ultimate test of a greyhound. Although other breeds I deerhounds, salukis, afghans and lurchers can be said to "course", greyhounds remain the most important coursing dog. The name "greyhound", which certainly has nothing to do with colour, may be a corruption of "gazehound".

In the 19th century the tremendous popularity of coursing with all strata of society saw enormous investment in the perfection
breed. In 1882 the National Coursing Club created the original Greyhound Stud Book, which it has administered ever since. From that date the breed was "closed". All greyhounds running on the coursing field and later on the track had to be registered in a Stud Book.

Many of today's track stars come from very recent coursing families, thus preserving the greyhound's determination to chase even an artificial lure.

The Course

Only two dogs are slipped at a time. As the hare enters the running ground they are held by the slipper, a trained official licensed by the National Coursing Club. Only when the slipper is satisfied that the hare is in a fit condition to have a chance of escape, and only when the hare is at least 80 yards in front of him, does he release the dogs. 

The judge follows the course on horseback and awards each dog, which wears a distinguishing red or white collar, points for speed and for the ability to make the hare turn to evade its pursuers. Coursing stakes are simple knock-out competitions, and the winners progress through each round until a final of two dogs remains. Thus, to win the 64-runner Waterloo Cup, a greyhound will run six times over the three days of the meeting.

An average course lasts 35-40 seconds in which time a greyhound can cover a third of a mile. Hares have greater stamina than the greyhounds, and the dogs' initial speed advantage is soon overcome since with an 80 yard slip it will be about 300 yards before the greyhound reaches the hare. A hare weighing 10-12 lbs can turn in its own length while a greyhound weighing six or seven times as much will invariably overshoot.
 
As the dogs only chase by sight, once the hare has escaped the dogs will pull up and the course is over. Under the Rules of the National Coursing Club (N.C.C.) coursing may not take place in an artificially enclosed ground. At some grounds, like
those over which the Waterloo Cup is run, special called "soughs" are installed to aid the escape.

The object of coursing under National Coursing Rules is to test greyhounds, not to kill hares. The rules of coursing are designed specifically to assist the hares to escape. In an average season, seven out of eight hares escape.

In nearly every case of a hare being brought clown, death is instantaneous. Even so the Rules insist on "dispatchers" in a place of vantage whose function is to ensure that a hare brought down is dispatched immediately if not already dead.

The Past

Coursing as we know it today traces from the foundation of the first public coursing club at Swaffham in Norfolk in 1776. The club is still thriving.

In the mid- 1800's railway travel made it easy for allcomers to go coursing, and vast crowds attended the principal meetings at places like Altcar, Ashdown Park, and Stonehenge. Coursing has always been a sport for all.

When the Carmichael meetings were run in Lanarkshire, the Scottish coalfield was virtually idle. At big Northern meetings at places like Bothal in Northumberland, most of the runners were owned by pitmen whose dogs ran with the same chance as those of local grandees like the Duke of Leeds.

The Waterloo Cup, the classic event of coursing, has been run at Altcar near Liverpool since 1836. It was created by William Lynn, proprietor of the old Waterloo Hotel in Liverpool, who originally ran the coursing meeting in tandem with his steeplechase at nearby Aintree which the local press dubbed "'The Grand National".

In the late 1800's the Waterloo Cup was a major national event. Daily crowds of 75,000 were not uncommon, and the winners like Master M'grath and Fullerton  were national heroes. The three times winner Master M'grath was even presented by royal command to Queen Victoria. Carrier pigeons carried the results to all major cities, and in London the Stock Exchange closed early when the news of the winners arrived.

Huge crowds also attended "park" or enclosed coursing when it flourished briefly in the 1880's. Companies bought up estates like Haydock, Kempton, and Gosforth (Newcastle) Parks and ran coursing meetings as a commercial leisure venture. The results, however, were too predictable which ruined the betting market and thus the attendances, and the coursing grounds were converted to the famous racecourses we know today. Although still popular in Ireland, there has been no enclosed coursing in England since 1914, and it is prohibited by National Coursing Club Rules.

      Fulleton with owner             

The Present

The arrival of greyhound racing in 1926 saw a decline in urban interest in the Waterloo Cup although in 1939 39,000 people still attended. Crowds today are still substantial with more than 10,000 people attending the three days' coursing.

Coursing, however, is much more a participation than a spectator sport, and in the past decade there has been a major revival in interest in owning, breeding, and training coursing dogs. There are 23 greyhound coursing clubs affiliated to the National Coursing Club, and most of them have long waiting lists for running membership. Many coursing owners also have greyhounds which run on the track, but all of them admit that there is nothing like the "real thing".

Further information available from the National Coursing Club, 16 Clocktower Mews, Newmarket CB8 8LL

 TEL: 01638 667381

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