Muddy News

Top 5 requirements for dating a horse lover?

Do you love horses, or have you dated someone who does?  What do you think are the five most important attributes you should have if you want to date a horse lover?

Horse & Hound are doing a feature on equestrian partners and wanted to know your thoughts on the matter.  They are looking for short, humorous answers/anecdotes from those at the front of the horsey dating game.

Send your aswers to Lucy by clicking here and she will pick the best 5 to get published -  those who send the best entries will also receive a month's free subscription to Muddy Matches.

Deadline: Tuesday 24th March.

Muddy Matches Fishing Week

For those of you who haven't been with us from the very beginning, here's a quick Muddy Matches history lesson:

We came up with the idea for the site in the pub back in May 2006 and in December 2006 we launched to our friends and friends of friends (and friends of our friends’ friends!).  The plan was to test the site out and try and get some friendly faces on before the full site went live on March 1st 2007.  As an incentive to get people to join before the official launch date, we set up a free prize draw to win a week’s salmon-fishing holiday in the Scottish Highlands and anyone who completed a profile and uploaded a photo was automatically entered. 

The winner was the lovely Flick from Buckinghamshire, who has just got back from said fishing holiday after setting off up north with nine of her friends.  Here's a picture of her and the gang:

From left to right: Flick, Alix, Piers, Serena, Josh, Ben, Elsa (gorgeous black lab), Salmaan, Kara and Sam.  (Unfortunately, Pete is missing from the group photo as he had to leave early.)

A highly entertaining bunch, with - they won't deny - not much fishing experience between them, they got really involved and caught 19 for the week!  Congratulations to Piers, Pete, Sam, Serena, Josh and Ben who all caught their first fish! 

There was also a bit of stalking available and Piers, Pete and Salmaan all shot their first stag.  Serena loved the stalking so much that she had to pull straws with Sam to see who got to go out on the hill with Salmaan (with foot and mouth meaning that only three people were allowed out at a time).  Unfortunately for Serena she lost...so she resorted to getting Sam steaming drunk the night before  and sneaking out the house early the next day - we we were impressed by both her commitment and tactics!

Now, amongst all these 'firsts', you don't see us mention much about Flick or Kara.  Yes, ladies, it's time to name and shame: neither of them made it on the hill or the river!!  That's a lie - they did pop down to the river once to put on the smartest fishing lunch we've ever seen:

No ham sandwich and a packet of crisps for these ladies!  Despite the lack of interest in the fishing, they both seemed to have  a brilliant time and were always on excellent form...the dogs were also walked to within an inch of their lives!

Now - let's get down to gossip.  There was some love in the air over the week.   As the Muddy Matches Fishing Week, we'd like to take some credit, but it actually happened all by itself...over a game of strip poker!

Sam and Alix: the happy couple.

Finally, a big thanks to Angus, the week's resident ghillie and sous chef.  To quote him, "I genuinely enjoyed teaching the duffers how to fish/catching a few of them their first salmon".

Emma (not just a Muddy Matcher, but also a bit of a chef) and Angus.

For more singles holidays and countryside social events, visit www.muddymatches.co.uk/events.

Calling All Rugby and Fishing Fans

One of our sponsors, the fabulous Sportfish, is running a competition that should appeal to all rugby and fishing fanatics.  It's simple: follow the link and click on the shirt of the team you think is likely to win.  Anyone who picks the winning team will then automatically be entered into a prize draw to win a Sage fly rod.  Bargain!

Rugby World Cup "Tackle" Prize Draw

Best Rural Retailer

Support the countryside community by nominating your favourite rural retailer in this Countryside Alliance competition.   

You can nominate in one or more of four categories:

1. Best Local Food Retailer
2. Best Village Shop/ Post Office
3. Best Diversification
4. Daily Telegraph Best Traditional Business

The competition was launched in 2005 with 600 nominations.  Last year 2000 nominations were made!  If you would like to get involved and make this the best year yet, you can NOMINATE HERE.  Closing date for nominations: 6th October.  Click on the following links to see two of last year's winners:

• 2006 Best Local Food Retailer
• 2006 Daily Telegraph Best Traditional Business

Motor Home Madness

This week we have mostly been thinking about motor homes.  We wake up thinking of motor homes, we go to sleep thinking of motor homes, we dream of motor homes.  It's sad. We know.

For those of you who haven't heard, the reason behind this motor home frenzy is that we're off on tour around Great Britain in one in a little less than two months - you can read all about our Muddy Marathon here.   

We picked him/her/it* up a while back and over the next few weeks he/she/it is going to be transformed from this:

to this:

(Give or take a few bricks and a bit of thatch)

*what sex is a motor home?!  Also, we'll need your help to choose a name soon.

Beans, Glorious Beans

It might be raining cats and dogs outside but it has been raining Jelly Belly beans in the Muddy Matches office this afternoon.

Jelly Belly UK, one of our sponsors, has just sent over a big box of sample packets and, in an attempt not to munch them all ourselves, we'll post a few packets to the first person to write to us at info@muddymatches.co.uk saying "I want some Jelly Belly beans".  Remember to include your name and address!

First things first

Anyone remember our fishing competition?  If you've joined the website after March 1st you might just be wondering what the devil we're talking about but if you do remember - yes, there were some winners - it just takes a little longer than you might think to launch a news page!

So after painstakingly writing down every valid entry on to a little piece of paper, screwing them up, blindfolding Emma and making her pick one, it was [drum roll please] a lovely lady called Flick from Buckinghamshire who won our first prize: a week's fishing holiday in the Scottish Highlands.  Unsurprisingly, she had no trouble finding nine people to go with her and they're all planning to travel to Inverness Agatha Christie-style on the sleeper train at the end of September.  Apparently Flick had never won anything before so this is quite a good start!

Our second prize, as you may remember, was a year's supply of Jelly Belly beans and a retro jelly  bean machine.  This was won by a lucky man called David from Cirencester - so ladies, if you'll excuse the pun, you know who to sweet talk!

Finally, the first two people to fully complete a profile and add a photo were Charlotte from Lincolnshire and Martin from North Yorkshire so they got to choose a fun Splash shirt.

Charlotte, who was facing the prospect of a grim Monday back at work after skiing in the Alps for a week, was very pleased to find a cheerful email in her inbox informing her that she had won and chose a shirt with "Fair Game" written on the back - we like it!

Now Martin (wise man) very kindly offered his prize to his wife Rachel who, seven months pregnant at the time, opted for a hoodie with "Nag Nag Nag" written on the back.  Rachel is due in May and we imagine it is a long time since she has seen her feet, so we wish them all the very best of luck with the future addition to their family.