Funny you should mention that WM, an old boy I used to work with mentioned a syndicate round there. He bred and ran Deerhound crosses with John Nuttall of Clithero. Jimmy was a tenant on a dairy farm in Halsall, which he lost because of his coursing activity's. He always said the best of the first crosses always came out of a Deerhound dam but as you said, the 3/4 was the better on big land. He used to say that 'they' would come up to Altcar and try all sorts of crosses but none of 'em could really kill hares like their dogs. The Deerhound crosses were the only decent hare killers he'd ever se