I had been quite surprised when Knobber asked to hare with me again, had he not learnt from the Cycle Treasure Hunt that everything has to be planned to minute detail?!

Being a fan of haring from a new venue I was pleased to find a nice pub in lovely countryside on the outskirts of Bedford not yet hashed from by H5. Most years a "new" venue is a rarity but in the year of The Booze Hound there have been several.

Being known for carrying out lots of recce's surprisingly the route was sorted after only 1.5 checks, albeit it finalised three months ago, and then shown to co-hare Knobber who said it was "perfecto". A minor panic ensued in early March as Bell End Too announced his run to be from neighbouring Wootton, but fortunately he agreed to "stay off our turf".

It was a good turn out on the day considering a number of regulars are away. It was nice to see Tim now on his fourth hash with us and newbie James who we hope will run with us again.

The hares started by saying they had a nice run for everyone with fields, wood, a stream and bluebells. Now I'm sure we've all received a phone call about being missold PPI, well the hares currently await a call from Count Roadkill who claims he was "missold bluebells".

In the opening circle the hares advised there was a new marking this week which involved the letter E with an arrow to the back. What could E possibly mean? After most guesses involved Europe / Euro it was revealed that it stood for "Exemption": that's right those with exemptions to go to the back!

The direction of the On Out was given and I was a very happy hare as hashers went in all directions in "Buttons Ramsey" each time meeting a bar. They went back and forth saying "I've been down there" until they asked Subby who was catching up with the pack whether there had been a path closer to the entrance. Finally the pack were on trail.

After weaving through the network of paths it was on to a large field. Here I cheered after Count, having stood at a 4 to the back and not going himself, carried on a few feet further to reach the E and off he set to the rear of the pack. Ha Ha.

Will other hares deploy this tactic in future? Lady P abstained on the basis that despite having qualified quite some time ago she has yet to be presented with her exemption card.

At the held check hares offered jellybaby "chicks", it will be Easter next weekend after all. Depth Charge stood in for Capt F on the bad joke front as when I said I had three packets he asked if they were going "cheap (cheep)". Thanks go to Bangers for the chocolate easter egg nest cakes at the end which went down a treat.

The rest of the hash went well, well for those who went with hare DE. Those who went with co-hare Knobber seemed to go a little off trail, apparently with him believing they were going the right way despite Goodhead saying "are you sure as there is no flour?" Flour is of course the main clue!

Knobber then recalled I had tried to give him focus points along the way to help him remember the route so muttered something about a graveyard to which Bell End Too said well that's over there! And they were back en route again.

Funnily enough when asked how the runners loop went Knobber chose not to disclose this faux pas to me, it was secret RA Goodhead that dobbed him in at the closing circle.

Down downs were awarded to:

– Tim for giving the game away about how many to go to the back and causing other hashers to deliberately slow down as a result

– Bangers for letting Millyspeed get in Crypto's way….poor Milly is still recovering

– Subby for being lazy and not bringing Oscar along as she couldn't be doing with him sitting down and refusing to move and

– Bell End Too for leaving an unwelcome package on Subby's car

Edwina was accused of talking a lot at the checks but got away without a down down.

Thanks to Princess Theakstons for the 10p tip, perhaps it was because she enjoyed the hash or perhaps it's to keep Hash Banker on his toes.

Finally with the ever increasing focus on recycling it's good to know my route will be re-used by the MK hash on Monday evening.

Thanks to all hashers who attended run 1470 including Cyclopath, Lost Cause and Goneril who I didn't manage to mention above.

On On to The Wheatsheaf in Gamlingay - remember it's on Bank Holiday Monday at 4pm!

Double Entry (and Knobber?)