RAC Charlton '08
By Robin Leach - Former Master of the Dummer Beagles
I first saw Charlton when I judged the RAC puppy show in 2008 with William Deakin, the Warwickshire huntsman. On that occasion we placed him second. He has since developed into a first rate doghound being well balanced and with a good shoulder. Consequently he is a lovely mover and literally ‘floated’ over the ring at Peterborough. He also looks a proper doghound and with his attractive orange-white colour really fills the eye.
Above all both his master Olly Beckerlegge and kennel hand David Simms, rate him highly in his work (he narrowly missed the best working hound prize for last season).
Peterborough Doghound Champion, RAC Charlton '08
The Dummer and RAC hunt adjacent countries and the association between the two hunts runs very deep. Both kennels are full of each other’s blood and Geoffrey Craghill who was master of the Dummer for 28 seasons was a senior lecturer at the RAC. Consequently Charlton’s pedigree reflects this close association. His sire Chaucer 02 and dam Plover 05, were both bred at the Dummer kennels. Both have lines back to the influential RAC Warrior 77 and there is also a strong infusion of Newcastle blood through Wildboy 92 (Chaucer’s maternal grandsire) and also Dipper 78 the sire of Dummer Dorcas 87, one of the best bitches ever bred at the Dummer and for many years the matriarch of the kennel (she lived until she was eighteen!).
Chaucer 02 (Charlton’s sire) was drafted to the Park Beagles as a whelp and is a first class dog in his work. He is also wearing extremely well as his appearance in the veteran class at Peterborough vividly illustrated. The late Martin Hutchinson kindly let us have him back for half a season to use and to hunt. He never missed a day and was always in the ‘thick of it’. He has bred us some very good bitches.
Plover 05 (Charlton’s dam) is by Stowe Ploughman 99 out of Dummer Bargain 02 who was a Peterborough champion. We drafted Plover to the RAC as an unentered bitch as she was a bit big for us. We still have her sister Plenty who has bred some very nice bitches for us including Pepper who won the reserve championship at Honiton this year as an unentered bitch.
There is a dearth of good beagle doghounds at the moment partly I suspect because of the 2004 Act when fewer hounds were bred. Charlton is typical of the hounds we need to breed to address this problem and to maintain and indeed improve the modern hunting beagle.
Robin Leach