Run 863

The Strathmore Arms, St Pauls Walden

Sunday, 2 March 2008

Hares: Private Parts & ScoobyDoobyDoobyDo

HASHERS: 22  NEWEE: 1  APRES: 1

Another bright sunny day for the hash - despite earlier predictions to the contrary! Both hares arrived just a few minutes before the circle having laid the on-inn and the beer check - and run a mile and a half in the process. Our illustrious GM, Donut, called the circle on time and introduced newie Poppy to the hash - before calling on the hares, who had by now recovered enough to introduce the trail.

The pack managed to squeeze through gap in the hedge onto the road, from where they headed up the hill towards the church. The pack rapidly found that the correct trail led past the church, continuing on up the road. A few of the FRBs took the falsie that continued straight on - but the true trail led off to the left into the woods and the Geocache Check. This was located quickly - the pack having memorised a photo of the relevant tree during the circle. With Geocaches it is usually the rule that you only take something if you leave something in return. Unfortunately we could not get Munchkin to fit - so we took nothing before returning the "treasure" to its hidey hole and continuing along the trail.

A back-check or two along the path meant that Lady P and Gorjoyce were leading the way as we approached the held check at the edge of the woods - where we stopped for another photo opportunity. Fortunately our hash has not followed the WI all the way - we kept our clothes on for this! We then continued on our way towards Whitwell, although Smiffo, Cap't F, The Count, Airscrew and others fell foul of the numbered check and had to double back. Risky Xposure managed to avoid this partly by realising that it was 7 (not 17) to the back, but mainly by starting to remove items of clothing to distract the hares.

On arrival in Whitwell the entire pack fell for the falsie along the side of the river. The extreme knitting circle (Pongo, White Rabbit and Donut) managed to avoid this, and so got a head start on the real trail. Donut led by example, following the trail next to the bridge and through the water to the far side. Pongo claimed that his athletes-foot might be a danger to wildlife; a VERY poor excuse Pongo - the rest of the hash will have caused a far greater environmental catastrophe with their feet! One other hasher who tried to avoid getting her feet wet had this corrected a few minutes later - Smiffo introducing Screamer to the large puddle at the bottom of the hill. Scooby also got slightly wetter than intended - jumping into the river and discovering it to be at least a foot deeper than he thought, and going in up to his knees. (That said, he still has some way to go to match PP's neck-deep effort from a few months ago).

The hill was nasty - especially for those who got caught by the inevitable numbers on the way up. Airscrew was the last of these - much to the relief of Scrummy Dumps who would have been next. The hares rewarded everyone who made it to the top of the hill with a beer-check, which Cap't F and Monster Munch knew to be "just around the next corner". General verdict was that Scooby's ginger beer was best, the raspberry beer was good, and only a few wanted cider. Finally, with the time approaching noon most of the pack decided to take the shorter route home. Indeed, much of the pack continued on up the road having not seen the held check. The official trail went round the back of the houses - and it was Forking Dickchair and Cap't F who first saw the On Inn.

There was good selection of down-downs from Monster Munch - who was acting as secret RA: PP for looking too cool (first time for everything), Smiffo for (future) wife-wetting and Scooby had a custard malfunction for encouraging strip-hashing...

On On
PP