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A Night Out In 2010


Tiercel

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Following on from Smithies memories of nights out, here is one I had in 2010 that I would rather forget.

 

Today I have been excited all day, a good wind up, if anything a bit too strong. With the local forecast giving the winds turning N Westerly and decreasing to a steady 15 to 20 mph with no rain till later in the night, I had been looking forward to getting out with the nets this evening.

So at 6.30 i set off for the 10-minute drive to the grounds to be netted. I should have guessed by the way the car was rocking while waiting at some traffic lights, that the wind was less than ideal. When I arrived where I park the car I was encouraged to see a few rabbits in the headlights (next easterly wind will see me having a go at them) When I got out of the car the wind was just right although in the wrong direction for the rabbits I had just seen. What I failed to take into account was the fact that where the car was parked was in the lee of a small hill.

As soon as breasted the hill and felt the full force of the wind, I should have turned around on the spot and headed home. But in the true long netters style of "I am here now might as well give it a go" I walked to what was going to be my first drop of the night, but turned out to be my only one.

I had not got the second peg in the ground when the problems started the wind was so strong it was pulling the net off the end pin, I normally control how the net feeds off the end pin with my thumb, but the wind was pulling the net so fiercely that I had to wrap my hand around the hank to stop it being dragged off. I should have given the wind the best and headed home but that "I am here now" mentality does not adhere to common sense. It must have taken me over half an hour to set out 100 yards of net, and the bag of the net was so taught that you could have plucked the twine and got a musical note out of it.

The net out, (eventually) and I banted the field expecting at least a couple of rabbits. How wrong was I, I returned to an empty net, now whether there were rabbits in the field or not I cannot tell you, I always tail my nets on this drop and often get a few in the corners. There are rabbits using the field so the reason for no rabbits could be many fold, I suppose I will never really know why, but, a couple more trips at different time may give me a clue.

Time now to pick up the net, and to be honest, I thought it should pick up pretty easily as the wind would be blowing the bag of the net. What I did not count on was the wind blowing the bag of the net around the head and footrope. Each time I pulled out a peg and had 5 yards of net in the air, the wind was pulling the lines through my hands. The only way I could get the net in was dropping to my knees and holding the net down as close to the ground as possible, that then had the effect that the bagging of the net was getting wrapped around the lines and making the net like a rope. So when this wind drops I have a hundred yard of net wrapped around endpins waiting to be sorted.

The joys of long netting!!! Would not have it any other way.

 

TC

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Well done,.nice tale :clapper:

 

So erudite, so truthful, a genuine recollection, mercifully free from the taint of boastful arrogance..

 

I can personally recall so many similar dark nights..

Such stories need to be jotted down,..before it is too late. :thumbs:

Edited by Phil Lloyd
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Excellent AJ, been there many times. Reminds me of a night out with mr smith (60mph gusts and a field that the farmhand forgot to put cattle away :laugh: ). We wait for the dark nights every month and when they come "you just gotta go " regardless of the outcome. ;)

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