Taieri pig hunting competition

Another competition for the Ridgeline judging team was held on the 19/8/2012.

The minimum weight was 80 pounds and they had 74 entries. This competition was run by the Taieri pig hunting club which is good to see as I would rather see pig hunting clubs running their competitions rather than the local hotel that are doing it to make money for themselves. The big advantages for a club is they can use a competition for advertising their club so they may get new members join up and I know that the Taieri club did get extra members out of their hunt. Also it is a chance to raise some extra funds for your club and it was good to see some club members going around selling raffle tickets. The other big advantage of competitions is it can be a good social event for those hunters wanting to catch up and talk about the sport that they love. The draw back with running a pig hunting competition is getting people to organise every aspect of making that competition successful. I used to be a member of the Taieri pig hunting club twelve years ago before moving. Back then the club would run an open competition each year up until the time when there was just not the people willing to do all of the organising and the competitions stopped. That was until this year and what has made the difference is new members joining their club. This has brought new enthusiasm into their club. All clubs in all sports and interest should be looking to try and gain new members and make them feel welcome because

A good line up of boars at the Taieri pig hunting competition.

new members can revitalise any club to make a weak club strong.

The Ridgelingteam became involved in this competition through one of their clubs newer members, Doug McCorkindale. It is always good to see new member step up and help their club out with some of the bigger jobs, as running any competition is a big job. However while enthusiasm helps it is also good to have those older hands on board who have got a lot of that knowledge as they have been there before. The three older hands that where helping out where Daryl Waby who has had a lot of experience in running comps in the past. Kim Hiko who is a well known and respected pig hunter from the Otago area and Robin Perry who has been in the pig hunting club for many years.

On the day of the weigh in there where 29 boars weighed up with the heaviest boar having a very impressive set of tusks. This boar was caught by two club members Brian Flett and Kevin Meehen. It was good to see that when Brian came up to receive his prize for this boar he took the time to address the crowd and explain how Kevin and him had been chasing this boar for quite

Prize giving, left to right Daryl Waby, Robin Perry and Bill Westwood.

some time with the boar giving them the slip every time up until this weekend. So it was with great satisfaction to catch up with this boar at the time that they did.

It would be good to see more hunters who have claimed a major prize to actually take the time to say something to the spectators as this can make for far more entertainment for the crowd and turn an ordinary prize giving into a memorable occasion.

The Ridgeline team also got to present two club members their own Ridgeline Two ton tops. Sam Turner and Jason Hall for a 201 pound boar that they had caught recently