Journey Back to the Countryside: Friendship, Dogs, and Shooting

Growing up in the Countryside

I grew up in the countryside, around Cheshire and Leicestershire. There was nothing better than leaving my primary school in the heart of rural Leicestershire, walking through fields and farms and spending time with people who lived and worked within the countryside; the reality of country living was never far away. Growing up with a single mother, money wasn't necessarily something we had a huge amount of, but there was a massive amount of community. We grew up on nettle soup, homemade bread and the occasional gift of a pheasant.

Down the line I remember "the ban" as a pivotal feeling within the countryside, we went to watch the streets boiling as the horses filled the villages on their way to what was thought to be the last day out, hearing the hounds and the horns across the fields. For me "the hunt" wasn't about the chase, it was about that noise and the villages coming together, something I still love on a cold winter morning as the beaters come together in a far corner of a field, thermos in hand, planning the day's work whilst the dogs start the rituals of creating as much havoc as possible before snapping into working. 

Once I'd started secondary school we moved to Cheshire, which is where I met one of the most pivotal and important people in my life. At age 13, we were doing some light trespassing on a farm that had a really good wooded hillside, perfect for building bike jumps, and needed an extra pair of hands, and from that day a friendship was made that has endured some wild times, some pointless arguments, my foray into drinking and partying too much, and finally, thanks to a break up and a working cocker spaniel, after a long gap between seeing each other, 20 years later we are back doing what we did all those years ago.

Rob and his family are the British countryside, they represent everything that is amazing about the countryside. His dad had the most spectacularly trained dogs - two rough coated lurchers - who have set a life-long standard of what a dog should be able to do. There was always a garage full of drying sticks, nets were hung up to dry and there was always some game to eat, which his mum would make for us after school. We went to separate schools but you really wouldn't know; we spent as much time as possible at the other person's school, or at neither.

Returning to the Countryside

I could write a book about what happened in the time between leaving school and returning to a field in Cheshire with my best mate, but I will briefly sum it up. I left Cheshire to live in Staffordshire, I fell in with a rough crowd, the moved to Birmingham for a while, and unsurprisingly, the crowd stayed fairly rough. Then back to Staffordshire and the crowd got slightly rougher, as did the nights out, and days out, and weeks out.

Then I got a job in a quarry and discovered a weird thing called CrossFit. I started training and coaching, discovered a love for coaching, and quit everything to pursue this. I moved to Sheffield and ended up coaching Olympic Weightlifting. From there I started coaching strongman, and over a period of 5-6 years I became the only coach to coach someone to 3 World's Strongest Man titles, as well as multiple national and international titles at all levels of the sport.

I made some poor life and business decisions, and ended up breaking up with my girlfriend of 5 years, and moving to North Wales (if you're going to be sad, be sad somewhere excellent). During this time I got a message from Rob. It had been way too long but basically "you have a Working Cocker Spaniel, we have a syndicate, lets go and hang out and let the dogs work" and just like that, we're stood in a field in Cheshire, with a few dogs and a brew. 

I remember standing in that field on a fairly chilly but nice day, and Rob carefully explaining gun safety and how to properly work a dog to be useful to a walked up shoot as well as to the rough shooting we would inevitably be doing. There was a moment when the first cartridge was fired and the sweet, sulphurous smoke raised and without missing a beat I heard "Oh, you're f*cked mate", I didn't really understand what he meant but now I do.

That was the start of the end, a day that I knew everything would change and a day that I knew the countryside was a totally different shape to how I viewed it whilst hiking or climbing in the quarries and mountains of the Peak District and Wales. I still adore climbing, but it's a selfish and personal pursuit for me, where as working the dog means I get to spend time with my two best mates and fill the pot whilst we're at it.

Finding my space 

I am incredibly fortunate that thanks to being reasonably well known because of strongman, I have received a huge amount of help and support from a few people within fieldsports of all kinds. I am incredibly grateful to the people who have helped me out with information, advice and their time.

The thing I personally find exciting is the ability to fill the pot whilst doing something useful, and because of this the conversations I've had with Wayne Martin (cattyshack) have been incredibly helpful, from advice about moving into the fieldsports industry, to advice about tying bands on a catapult, it absolutely hasn't been overlooked.

I am also very appreciative of "The Eds" I was fortunate enough to get into a cancellation with Ed Solomons at Grimsthorpe Shooting Ground, as this has ignited something that I didn't think I really cared about, for me learning to shoot better would be purely practical however after a morning learning more about the sport of clay shooting I have realised that I want to compete in clay shooting, disappointingly for Ed, probably with a side by side. Ed Lyons has also been absolutely invaluable when it comes to learning more about how eyes work and exploring ways we could potentially blend our worlds and benefit strength athletes. 

I have a deep love for the countryside and the people that live and work within it, and aside from slightly selfish aspirations for a full freezer and some shiny things for shooting strange orange discs out the sky, I would like to benefit the lifestyle I love in some way. The easiest and most obvious thing to do is to talk about it, and document my journey into this world more and more, but also I want to discuss Fitness For Fieldsports, as well as discussing the benefits of wild meat for strength sports, as we encourage people to eat huge amounts of protein and it should come in a way that supports the countryside and British Farming. I'm really enjoying working with Steve at Cheshire Wild Venison and getting this amazing meat to some of my strongman clients as well as the wider world of strength training. 


In summary, if you've made it this far, thank you, I'm not sure what I'm going to do but it will be something