A magic place
For fifty years
For bird dog folk
Where quail live wild
Neath every pine
And run when pointed
Before they fly Read more
Chinquapin
Category: Field Trial Recollections
The Florida Championship or How I Became the Reporter
How was I ever so lucky
As to end up the Reporter
Of the Florida Open All-Age Championship?
Me born a mountain boy sheep farmer?
Luck pure Luck
The main force in my life
And I’ll bet in yours
Some good some bad of course Read more
Chinquapin in January’s Second Week
Chinquapin
Where it all begins
As dawn emerges from dark
And quail awake
From their huddled sleeping state Read more
2007 Florida Open All-Age Championship
Funseeker's Rebel Named 2007 Champion, House’s Snake Bite, Runner-Up, Chickasaw Bud, Top Qualifier
On the sandy hills of Chinquapin
A bird dog casts into the wind
With each breath he seines for scent
Of Bobwhite quail–that southern gent Read more
25 Years of The Florida Championship, Part 2
January’s second week Brings them South to Chinquapin In dually trucks pulling gooseneck trailers Loaded with horses and bird dogs determined Determined to win On this hallowed ground Where quail aplenty are to be found Unless they decide they will not be found That is the mystery They all seek to solve How some days or hours They’re everywhere And others they vanish Into thin air or some say the Read more
25 Years of The Florida Championship, Part 1
(Starts Sunday, January 13, 2019)
This January marks
My twenty-fifth year
Reporting the Florida Championship
What fun it has been
To carouse with like-minded men
Their dogs and their horses
And the Chinquapin quail Read more
The Test
Carl Dean slept little. He was up as usual at five. He and his partner Fred Archer were living for the duration of the National Championship in a former tenant house on a farm ten miles east of the Ames Plantation. This was the trial’s last day, and Fred Archer’s sole entry, Arkansas Andy, would go down in the afternoon brace. Carl would scout. His inability to sleep last night Read more
A Rivalry
It’s the 1930s, times are desperate, the Great Depression has the world in its grip, yet for a few at the top nothing has changed. So it is for Harley Keen and Richard Bain, owners of businesses whose products are still in demand at prices producing a profit. Keen’s is tobacco, Bain’s is whiskey, legal again with Prohibition’s repeal. They are sports, and their shared passion is bird dog field Read more
Priceless Memories
Field trials have brought me priceless friendships. Among the most cherished was with Ed Mack Farrior and his lovely wife Floyd. They arose from an invitation to report and later judge the National Amateur Free-For-All Championship at Union Springs. Read more