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The Shooting Times


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I subscribed to ST for many years, and loved the articles by Colin Willock, Geoffrey Boothroyd and the fellow who taught at Sedbergh school, whose name escapes me...Catlow? 
John Humphreys had a whimsical way with words and phrases I still miss to this day. Very few wrote better.

I once completed the crossword and sent it off, and received a bottle of Glenfarclas ( spelling ) single malt whisky as a prize! 🙂👍

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14 minutes ago, Scully said:

I subscribed to ST for many years, and loved the articles by Colin Willock, Geoffrey Boothroyd and the fellow who taught at Sedbergh school, whose name escapes me...Catlow? 
John Humphreys had a whimsical way with words and phrases I still miss to this day. Very few wrote better.

I once completed the crossword and sent it off, and received a bottle of Glenfarclas ( spelling ) single malt whisky as a prize! 🙂👍

Laurence Catlow. I once wrote to him letting him know that I appreciated his articles and he wrote back with an invitation to shoot on the shoot he ran with Sedbergh school pupils.

Edited by JDog
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5 hours ago, dipper said:

My first shooting times Was when I was at school .Cost 9p old money 1958 Worth reading then.

Way before my first ones , when I left school in 62 they were around 1/3d , Black and White photo on the front and the guns for sale on the back pages would now make your mouth water , many fine writers then such as Alan Savory and Pat Cringle , happy days.

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Around 1960 our local newsagent usually had one or two spare copies left over, and would sell the previous week's ST at half price.   I always snapped them up, and looked forward to "Tower Bird", Gough Thomas, David Imrie (Lakeland gamekeeper), letters from Sir John Craster of Craster Towers, etc, etc.   However, the number of copies I have bought during the past 20 years could be counted on the thumbs of one hand.  

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20 minutes ago, JDog said:

Laurence Catlow. I once wrote to him letting him know that I appreciated his articles and he wrote back with an invitation to shoot on the shoot he ran with Sedbergh school pupils.

That’s the man! I wonder if he ever stopped smoking? He was always trying.

Wonderful offer; did you take it up? 

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I used to enjoy reading it up untill John Humphreys passed away.

Other writers stopped like Turnstone and Lindsey Weddel. Wasn't worth buying after that.

In the 80's & 90's they had some very good how to tune your Springer weekly segments. Field craft from true experts.

Shame, but modern tech like YouTube gas become the shooting times of the past.

Edited by figgy
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9 minutes ago, figgy said:

I used to enjoy reading it up untill John Humphreys passed away.

Other writers stopped like Turnstone and Lindsey Weddel. Wasn't worth buying after that.

In the 80's & 90's they had some very good how to tune your Springer weekly segments. Field craft from true experts.

Shame, but modern tech like YouTube gas become the shooting times of the past.

Same here loved john Humphreys take on things. Was gutted reading his articles as his cancer got worse as he was looking for a home for his old 8 bore "roaring emma".....wonder where she ended up. One of my favourite books is his book/guide to pigeon shooting.

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47 minutes ago, JDog said:

No I never went, reasoning that there would be others more entitled to a day than I was.

Mind you I did have two boys at the school at the time and in one way or another I probably paid for a few pheasants.

That’s a shame, but understand your reasoning having been in a similar situation myself. 
I was in Sedbergh last Friday, catching up with a lifelong friend from whom I was gifted the Webley & Scott. 

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1 hour ago, Rob85 said:

Same here loved john Humphreys take on things. Was gutted reading his articles as his cancer got worse as he was looking for a home for his old 8 bore "roaring emma".....wonder where she ended up. One of my favourite books is his book/guide to pigeon shooting.

Think Roaring Emma was bought by a Wildfowling outfit, may have been BASC I'm not sure. So many times a year you can pay to take her out for flight.

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10 hours ago, Rob85 said:

Same here loved john Humphreys take on things. Was gutted reading his articles as his cancer got worse as he was looking for a home for his old 8 bore "roaring emma".....wonder where she ended up. One of my favourite books is his book/guide to pigeon shooting.

I was fortunate to get to know John Humphreys quite well and still keep in touch with Angela. Had an invite from John to have a few shots with Roaring Emma at clays at Sam Brice's using 8x12 adaptors that John had made, but regret never taking him up on it.

Again I was very fortunate to have John show me round 'Hunters Fen' his beloved piece of heaven in the Cambridgeshire fens. He is sadly missed.

As for Shooting Times, went downhill fast with fewer decent writers/editors and as said, far fewer pages.

OB

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Maybe it would be an idea if they wanted to resurrect the shooting times a bit if they had a new section to invite write ups from readers, kind of like our talk from the field section here. I know they have their letters to the editor on specific topics but I really think they need to expand rather than rely on their staff to put in write ups that could date back to the previous season.

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I eagerly awaited my father bringing a copy home each week and whilst at university I looked forward to buying my own copy each week. I loved the ramblings if John Humphreys, Turnstone, Colin William, Lindsay Waddell and Lawrence Catlow. John H. and Lawrence Catlow had a way to capture the countryside in words. 
 

I was once on the front cover, must have been my dashing good looks🤔🤔. And helped with an article on terriers but they did not use a picture, can’t for the life of me think whey they omitted it. Perhaps the rear end of a terrier was better looking.

Having not picked up a copy for a number of years, a friend bought me a subscription for the past year  and I am embarrassed to say I hardly read any after the first couple of months. I thought the standard of the writing was way off the mark set by those mentioned above.

 

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