THE “SPETISBURY SHIVERING” HASH
Run Number: 352
Date: 12 Mar 06
Time: 50 minutes
Distance: 3.5 miles
Run Location: Spetisbury
The Pub: The Drax Arms
Pub Website: www.thedraxarms.co.uk
Weather: Clear and cold
Unfortunately, there was no photograph on this occasion.
HARE: Entente
HOUNDS- Tim (Silent Running) Bryning
- Ed (Birdseye) Sadd
- Sylvie (Ça Va) Lechanoine
- Martin (Madness) Lawson
Social Hounds/Hash Puppies:Real Hounds:
THE WORDS
The view from my bedroom window at seven in the morning (impressed, or what?) was entirely white, with snow still gently falling. “What larks, Pip old chap”, I thought to myself. “I wonder if Entente will decide to re-lay the course on top of the snow?” We later learnt that he had been thinking the same thing (but in French, naturellement). Fortunately for all, the snow had melted by the time Madness joined Entente and Ça Va in the warmth of Silent Running’s car in the Drax car park. While we waited to see who else might turn up, ‘On Pres presented Ça Va with a splendidly engraved quaich in recognition of her participation in 25 hashes (and no photograph to mark the occasion! [‘On-Line]).
Alamein was beginning to show signs of impatience, and the rest of us were steeling ourselves to brave the cold, when Birdseye hove into view, only a few minutes late, as is customary. Our hare was displaying an elegant pair of legs and Birdseye, having canvassed the opinion of a warmly dressed fellow hound, and having been assured that it wasn’t really cold at all, decided to go one better and stripped down to shorts and T-shirt. Ha, he won’t be listening to me again in a hurry!
A quick briefing told us to expect a few smiley faces and warned us of two whip-ins of a special nature where we would need to stick together. And then it was “three blobs and you’re on” and we were off (I mean on).
Alamein started as he meant to go on by tangling his lead round Silent Running even before we left the car park. Silent Running and Madness zoomed off left along the road despite being convinced they were going the wrong way (but somebody has to do it, don’t they?), while Birdseye set off at a tremendous pace in the right direction, turned left onto the old railway line and disappeared into the distance. The pack followed his faint cries of “On On” and eventually trundled down the steps onto a lane, in time to see him zoom up the hill in pursuit of the trail. This took us across some fields to a place where a rather sophisticated saboteur had moved some of the dust to create a new, false trail. This makes a change from the cruder sort of erasure we sometimes encounter, but should probably still not be thought of as a good thing.
By now, as pack leaders, Birdseye and Silent Running had each been inconvenienced by a smiley face, which allowed Ça Va and Madness to catch up in time for a quick sprint along the railway line again. We emerged onto the charmingly named Louse Lane where we gathered for the first special whip-in, which was a safety measure to get us across the road in one piece. The hounds picked up the trail on the other side where our real hound almost managed to snare a car on Crawford Bridge by stretching his lead across the road right in front of it. Some swift hauling on the line by Silent Running solved the problem and after a few explorations of false trails by Madness and Silent Running, the pack again found themselves chasing Birdseye. At this juncture Alamein managed to dislodge his running partner by the clever use of a barbed wire fence and proceeded to haul Ça Va up a muddy field at great speed in order to wallow in a deep puddle by the road at the top.
There followed a pleasant jog past the old Tarrant Abbey ruins to a check at the little church (the Hare explained that it looked a lot better before they erected scaffolding over it) and back down to the lane past the snowdrops and daffodils, with Madness in the lead for the first time. Crossing the road and running beside the river brought us to Keynston Mill and another special whip-in before we stepped daintily through its pretty garden (as recommended to the Hare by Ça Va) to the sound of excited dogs. The trail then led the pack across slightly muddy fields and a series of strange-looking narrow little bridges (some of which can be pretty scary at night on a bicycle after four pints, but that’s another story) leading eventually to the main road and the On In.
We didn’t waste much time in the car park getting changed (BrEW and Ronlet were on holiday skiing) and were soon in the warmth of the Drax, where Birdseye’s face changed from blue back to a more normal colour. This process was aided by BEER, which is one of mankind’s greatest inventions, although the liver and bacon were pretty good too.
MUG & T-SHIRT RATINGS
(??*) - Denotes attendance by those not Mug Rated (social hounds).
GOLD T-SHIRT AWARD (50 AND OVER)
Andy (Warthog) Goodman (162); Bronwen (Ronlet) Jones (114); Terry (Buggalugs) Canham (108); Brian (BrEW) Errington-Weddle (84); Ed (Birdseye) Sadd (79); Tim (Classic) King (69); Terry (Walt) Disney (68); Mark (Jibber) Humphries (56); Tim (Silent Running) Bryning (52)
MUG AWARD AND CAN WEAR BLUE T-SHIRT (25 - 49)
Duncan (Day Glo) Ray (48 + 1*); John (Semaphore) Carr (42); J-F (Entente) Lechanoine (41); Frances (Stop Watch) Canham (34*); Ruth (Typhoon) Canham (34*); Sylvie (Ça Va) Lechanoine (27); Helen (Elle) Goodman (26*)
NEED MORE HASHES OR POSTING ORDER (10 - 24)
Jim (Forget Me Not) Forrest (23 + 5*); Steve (Bob the Builder) Pritchard (20); Nick (Tri Harder) Bateson (20); Gordon (F Med) Rafferty (18); Tom (Two Shoes) Gillard (15); John (Strider) Bryning (16); Martin (Madness) Lawson (14); Ian (Abdul) Condie (11 + 1*); Lesley (Tinkerbell) Bryning (10*).
NEED MORE HASHES (5 - 9)
Rowland (Pet Rescue) Stibbards (9); Gail Sadd (8 + 3*); J-C (Moose Milk) Boisvert (7 + 1*); Sarah Bryning (1+6*); Ben Sadd (6); John Harry (Hot Dog) Ross (5); Emma Sadd (5); John (Nokia) Noraika (5); Nick (The Gnome) Laffan (5); Jayne (Blackberry) Boisvert (5*).
KEEP HASHING (1 - 4)
Clare Sadd (4); Heather Terrington (2 + 1*); Ombeline Lechanoine (3*); Rod (Dyno) Thomas (2); Martin Hughes (1); Colin (tbc) McGrory (1); Kate Forrest (1*); Julie Carr (1); James Carr (1); William Carr (1); Robert Carr (1*); Sandie Disney (1*).
Price: Entente # 073 |
