This week the Hound Racing Association has again been mourning the death of another stalwart of the sport.
Following the passing of Joe Mather and Barry Laidler, life member Billy Birkett has died at the age of 92.
Billy, of Great Broughton, was mine host of the Appletree in Brigham for 18 years.
He was born in Bigrigg and although nobody in the family was particularly keen on hounds, Billy became attached to them and was given his first hound by a maestro of training George Nicholson, who had three-time champion Whitbarrow Lad.
The bitch he was given was no Whitbarrow Lad. She earned one ticket – fourth in a maiden – during the three years that Billy ran her.
But that didn’t put him off and he has never been without a hound since then. Even when he moved to live and work in Liverpool for a short time he used to travel up once in mid-week and on a Saturday for the trails in south Lakeland.
He was speaking after his favourite hound General James had won the 2022 Veterans Championship.
General James had a very productive debut season as a pup. He contested 67 trails, winning 19 of then and only failing to ticket in one of them.
Unfortunately he had an accident the following year which held him back a lot although he continued to pop up with some outstanding performances in the years that followed.
Indeed in International trails he had a very good record of one win, three seconds and a third.
When he won the Veterans’ title, there were six wins on his record while he also won an open trail at Helton.
Billy ranked General James alongside his grandsire Some Man as the best dogs he has had in a career in hound trailing which started 78 years ago when he was 12.
“Some Man wasn’t the best running hound but he was an excellent stud dog and he produced seven champions – five in the HTA and two in the Border Association. He did win himself at big trails, a couple of occasions at the May Day Trails.
“General James ran really well as a pup and it was a great shame he suffered a bad injury or he might have gone on from there,” he recalled three years ago.
He was bred out of Wendy Dawson’s bitch Beyonce, who was a daughter of Some Man and Quenton. Jonty Moore’s Try Again was the sire of General James.
Since then Billy has been heavily involved with the ‘Blue Team’ of Brian and Erin Rowlandson and had part ownership in their hound Blue Striker.
Blue Striker ticketed consistently as a pup in the 2024 season, picking up 35 cards with three of them being wins.
This year Blue Striker went one better and won the 2025 Open Restricted Championship and ticketed 24 times much to Billy’s delight.
Billy often got a lift to watch the hounds with Les Reid and would always make sure he would talk to as many people as he could. He was the heart and soul of hound racing and always enjoyed a bet and a crack with everyone.
He will be dearly missed by the whole association and anyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.
