A Sportsman at Large 185 



When another hiatus in the continuity of my coursing 

 occurred I sold Handy Cat to Squire Alexander, and it was 

 whilst representing him in the Eversleigh Cup that she met 

 with a tragic but painless end. I was not present, but Alf 

 Reynolds gave me the details. It seems that the little red 

 bitch had won her first two courses in her own inimitable style, 

 and in the semi-finals had monopolized the hare until puss got 

 on to, and ran up, a rough cart track intersected by deep ruts. 

 Handy Cat made a determined stroke to kill, and in so doing 

 her jaws caught in one of these ruts. The impetus and impact 

 being so dynamic that she turned head over heels and lay dead 

 with a broken neck ! A strange and most unfortunate ac- 

 cident.* She was to have filled her owner's nomination in The 

 Waterloo Cup, where, had she had the luck to escape the 

 " swallow catchers " in the early rounds, she might well have 

 triumphed, as have Coomassie and other little ones of her 

 calibre ; but it was not to be. Blue Ribbon apart, her value 

 as a brood bitch would assuredly have been inestimable. 



It was some time later, when after an interval I had returned 

 to the sport, that Sam Deacon told me of some very useful 

 greyhounds in Lincolnshire, bred by one Tom Creasey. It was 

 near the time for the Newmarket Champion Puppy Stakes, 

 and I had a mind to cut in and chance my luck ; so trusting to 

 big Sam's acumen, I told him to come to Creasey's terms and 

 to leave the puppies in that worthy's hands to be prepared, as 

 I was assured that his training methods had always met with 

 extraordinary success. 



For some reason or other, I was unable to be present on the 

 first day ; but on arriving at the " Rutland Arms " in the 

 evening I was met by Sam with the encouraging news that 

 each of my puppies had won their respective spins and that 

 True Token had been equally successful in the All Aged Stakes. 

 I was curious to see my new purchases, both w. and bd. b's., 

 who were by Corby Castle (a local celebrity) ex Climbing Nell, 

 who came of a hardy Lincolnshire strain. 



My eyes rested on two very fine specimens, possessed of 

 size, bone and substance, and showing really remarkable 



* Recently Sir George Noble, in writing to me, mentioned a similar fatal 

 accident to a valuable greyhound of his. 



