Big cat sightings reported on golf course

12 February 2009
Banbury Guardian
© 2009 Johnston Publishing Limited

THE 'Beast of Banburyshire' is back, according to a group of greenkeepers who say a big cat has taken up residence at their golf course.

Danny Hastie, a greenkeeper at Cherwell Edge Golf Course near Chacombe, said: "I was out on the course and it just bundled out of a tree about three feet away. "I was there with another greenkeeper and we just stood still; we were quite shocked. "Then it just ran off and jumped over a fence. My mate thought it was a dog, but I told him no way could a dog have been that far up a tree. "It was dog-sized but it was definitely a cat.

"I never really believed all the stories you see about people spotting these things, but I do now." Mr Hastie said he saw the creature, which is sandy coloured, about two weeks ago but other colleagues have spotted it since.

Tony Hunter, a greenkeeper colleague of Mr Hastie's, went looking for it in an effort to get to the bottom of the mystery. He said: "I went looking in the woods but made a bit too much noise and it ran off a few metres from me.

"I didn't get a proper look at it, more just the shape of it really, but I can't think what else it could have been. It doesn't seem to be bothering anyone."

This is the latest in a long line of big cat sightings in the area, stretching back into the mid-1990s. Between 1997 and 2000, numerous sightings were reported in the Deddington area and a cat was prolific the following year, 2001, with sightings reported in Duns Tew, Adderbury and Steeple Aston, while horses were attacked in Deddington the same year. Further sightings were reported in Milton in 2004, then twice in Chacombe during 2006 and in January last year farmer John Taylor from Broughton believed a big cat was responsible for devouring a pregnant ewe in his flock.

Danny Bamping, spokesman for the British Big Cats Society, said sightings had been rife with the recent bad weather. "Big cats are having to take more risks to get food in weather like this, that's why people are seeing them in places like golf courses," he said. "Based on the description I would say it sounds like a puma."