Now that we have dried out I will tell the soggy tale of last Sunday. My co-hare and I got to Go Houghton (pronounced with HOE rather than HOW) on a glorious Saturday afternoon, with the intention of laying a trail, but with the forecast of a lot of rain overnight decided otherwise.

We both got up early on Sunday to see what flour would be visible. 2 hours later, and as Forking had to be absent due to the W word we both set out and did our best....but, as predicted, non stop rain persisted. For me it was a chance to visit my childhood haunts as I was born and lived not more that a mile away from the pub, so I was able to enlighten the pack (did I say pack?) on the local landmarks of my youth.

When we gathered, 8 proper Hashers arrived, armed with brollies and wellies and was I glad to see them. Setting off into a mixture of urban and rural paths we proceeded towards the new visitors centre at Houghton Park (pronounced HOE) mainly following shouted directions as little flour remained, but nevertheless Rapid, Knobber and The Count still found some back checks.

The paths through the park, once owned by the Lord Ltnt. of Bedfordshire, Col. Deltry Part, were very good, with not a trace of shaggy in sight. I can remember searching here for shrapnel in the war when a stick of bombs was dropped, bearing in mind that the main Bedford truck factory was not more than a half mile away. The village was lucky not to have any stray ones as well.

We reached Rabbit Lane, a popular route for my pals to race down on our bikes, and this led us to the village Green. Here I was able to show Catch It, Clap Trap, Double E and Lady P the restored garden of the Hall, very nice. Also on the Green was the circus, but no one ran away! I was able to show the false trail returnees the source of the River Lea which would wend it way all the way to the Thames. This was just at the side of the Cricket pavilion where I had many games, past the site of the Kennels of the Hertfordshire Hunt and onto the Green, where in the war I remember trucks and troops assembling under the large Beech trees for what we know now as 'D Day'.

Enough of that...get back to telling about the Hash!!....OK.

We went down a very disused footpath, turned right and had to traverse about 10 inches of flood water across the road and path! Rapid, Knobber and The Count took off to the pub and the soggy rest of us followed. We were made welcome, joined by Blow Felt [the ra had a damn cheek, turning up just as the rain slowed down .. ed], got warm and well fed with chips and Lady P's offerings, had no down downs or circle and went home to dry out!!.

That's all folks....Ta Ta.

Bangers

Message from Hash Flash in support of the Hare.

1443 was one of the wettest r*ns in H5 history. The rain drops on my camera lens testify to that. But inspired by the young-at-heart Hare we made it round a fine trail with very little sign of rust, quite a few chuckles and wonderful memories of another era. Well done that man.

Who can identify a – consistently, circle to circle – more rainsoaked outing? Answers in an email please

Hash Flash