East Lincolnshire basset hound trial March 2025

Saturday 22 March saw an innovative new hound-based event take place in Lincolnshire. Matthew Bowring, master and huntsman of the East Lincs Basset Hounds, who coordinated proceedings where hounds from different packs competed against each other for the honours was behind the initiative. 

Nine couple of hounds from three basset hounds’ packs - the East Lincs, the Woolaston and Leadon Vale, and the Westerby bassets – were put through their paces to assess their overall performance as a working hound rather than how they would be judged in a regular hound showing class.  

The hounds had to hunt a trail as part of their trial, with William Deague – whipper-in from the Percy Hunt – selected to hunt the hounds because it was important that the person carrying the horn didn’t have any affiliation to any of the competing packs. The basset hounds were judged by Wayne Keeble, master and huntsman of the Four Shires Basset Hounds and retired East Lincs Basset Hounds huntsman, Dr Mark Guy.  

The hounds were judged on their voice, as well as their drive, depth of nose (which is the ability to recognise and discriminate the targeted scent/line that’s had time to settle and age), pace and control - the five fundamentals of a working hound. Individual hounds were each given a score out of 10 for the five categories, with the combined score from both judges being added together to give an overall mark out of a possible 100. Any of the bassets which had previously won at the Festival of Hounds were marked with an asterix next to their name.

When the judging concluded, it was announced that East Lincs’ Guinness had won the award for the best dog hound, scoring 71 out of 100, while East Lincs’ Garter took the honours for the best bitch, with a total of 78 out of 100. 

Organiser, Matthew Bowring MH commented: “People are keen to see different ways of showcasing our hounds. There's technically no reason why beagles, foxhounds, draghounds and any other variant of hound can't do these trials. It's just about having the vision. Many packs came to watch, and the event was a great fundraiser as well.”  

He continued: “All the spectators from other packs were impressed, the format to do this sort of thing is very simple. The art of it is not over-complicating. It was a good get together - we had people from all over the country come and the money raised went to the Masters of Basset Hounds Association.” 

Polly Portwin, Director of the Campaign for Hunting at the Countryside Alliance praised all those involved: “It’s fantastic that there continues to be enthusiasm to find new ways to celebrate our wonderful hounds and no doubt a similar format will be repeated elsewhere across the country. This event clearly provided a welcome opportunity for those passionate about hounds to come together and to celebrate their finest qualities, as well as being a great fundraiser and an enjoyable social occasion.” 

Photo credit: Bryan Pye