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THE “KENNEL COUGH” HASH THRASH Run Number: 438 Date: Monday 17 Jul 08 Time: 1 Hour exactly Distance: About 5 miles Run Location: Bryanston The Pub: Silent Running’s Kennel Pub Links: To follow Weather: Overcast Hares, Hounds and Hash Stats THE WORDS Rumours of food and drink had seeped into the hashing community, resulting in a bumper turnout for our annual Hash Thrash, held at the summer residence of our beloved ‘On Pres. And this despite the weather, which had looked decidedly wet earlier in the day. Assembled by the cars at the back of the house, we squashed together to fit into the pre-hash photo, and we watched Strider, our live hare, head off into the woods. We very decently gave him the full five minute start, even though he really only needs about five seconds. While we waited, Silent Running welcomed us and gave a brief briefing, which mentioned sawdust, as is customary, but seemed mostly to be about the dangers of kennel cough, and the inadvisability of letting the black cat anywhere near your food. Five minutes later, and with a hint of rain in the air, the pack set off in pursuit, led by Pet Rescue. Madness was next to find the trail, and after that, who knows? With 17 in the pack, you can’t tell who’s doing what most of the time. I do know where we went though, because I was there (and I was given a map afterwards). After the first quick trot through the woods at the back of the houses, we took the track that leads down to the main drive to Bryanston School. We crossed the road and headed downhill before turning left onto a muddy track. We followed this track a bit too far and eventually had to turn back when we realised we hadn’t seen any dust for a while. Someone eventually found the trail going back uphill, which started before the last sawdust dab we’d seen, and explained why we’d ignored it at first. A bit naughty? Some time later we emerged from the woods at a bend in the road a few hundred metres below our starting point. Eventually the on was called from down in the woods on yet another little track, and we started to wiggle our way near the church and the school and eventually onto the road that leads out to Durweston. Here we experienced another overrun, before taking a rather precarious path on the edge of a slope above the river Stour. The path soon took us back onto the road, and we dodged some cars as we left the school grounds and doubled back to the left to run round the edge of a field and onto a track that led to a gate into the next field. Here we spread out looking for dust. Birdseye headed uphill to the right, but failed to see the dust on the other side of the fence. The rest of us spread out. Eventually Silent Running called us all back, and we crossed over to a path that led us round one side of Four Acre Coppice and then a bit farther, before we returned uphill to do the other side of the coppice. This brought us out at a whip-in very close to where we’d been about ten minutes before, and we realised why we had been called back. It turned out that Crazy Fool had actually got as far as the whip-in the first time round, but had kept quiet about it. I’m not sure whether this was the best thing to have done; we might almost have caught the hare. With the plaintive cries of sheep echoing our own shouts (poetic, what?), we plodded on along the top of the field. It didn’t take too long for the eagle eyes of Day Glo to spot a patch of dust beside a gate at the bottom, and soon we were charging down the hill and into the woods known as The Hanging, and up onto another muddy track leading back towards the school. It seemed unlikely that we would go all the way though, as this would cause us to meet our earlier trail. Not an impossible situation to handle, but difficult on a live run, even for someone with Strider’s speed and cunning. So it was that we turned right and took the long set of steps up out of the woods into some fields where we lost the trail for a while. Ronlet was now in familiar territory, as this was part of her regular training run, and she led us past some friendly horses onto a track and then a minor road leading downhill. For some reason Quelque Chose chose (spellchecker doesn’t like it when I do that, but I don’t care) to take to the adjacent field at this point, but he managed to vault a gate to rejoin the pack. We could now see the lower part of Bryanston on the other side of the valley and knew, or at least hoped, that it couldn’t be far now. Ronlet was still in front as we reached the farm and led us through the little iron gate on the corner into the woods behind the hare’s house. But the cunningly laid blob of dust at the gate had fooled us, and we had to return to the road and run up past the clubhouse before continuing uphill across the last field. Here we met some ponies, the smallest of which was seen scrubbing away at the dust with its front hoof. Too late for sabotage now though, as with some relief we came to the On In and the back garden and BEER. By now the weather had improved, and there was plenty of blue sky to be seen. In the garage there were lots of bare bottoms to be seen too. More beer was consumed, and banter exchanged, and we were all truly impressed by Alamein’s coughing. Now it was time for the presentations. ‘On Pres was photographed handing over 25-run tankards to Pet Rescue and Hidden Depths. Then came the big one, for this had been Ronlet’s 200th. Not just a photo, but kisses and flowers. How envious some of the chaps were. Ronlet was given a signed document to remind her of some of her better-known sayings, which were duly read out, and she retaliated by reading a poem she’d written for the occasion, which was actually rather good, and which is given in full below. There was champagne, and a bottle of something with a dodgy cork that tasted of sherry, and more beer. And then it was time for the food, of which there was plenty, and jolly good it was too. Thanks are due to all who were involved in its preparation, and to our hosts too, who were left with the clearing up after everyone had drifted away home into the night. HARES, HOUNDS AND HASH STATS Hare(s): Hares: Silent Running and Strider Hounds: Birdseye, BrEW, Crazy Fool, Day Glo, Hidden Depths, House Hunter, Jibber, Kinky Bugger, Madness, Muddy, Orson, Pet Rescue, Quelque Chose, Ronlet, Two Shoes, Walt Social Hounds/Puppy Hashers: Tinkerbell, Sarah Bryning, Manuela Leroy, Wendy Stibbards, Olivia and Gilles (c/o LeRoys) Real ‘coughing’ Hounds: Alamein and Riley Back to The Words MUG & T-SHIRT RATINGS (??*) - Denotes attendance by those not Mug Rated (social hounds). RED T-SHIRT AWARD (100 AND OVER) ….And we’ve got them – for £10! Andy (Warthog) Goodman (226); Bronwen (Ronlet) Jones (200); Brian (BrEW) Errington-Weddle (160 + 4*); Terry (Walt) Disney (141); Ed (Birdseye) Sadd (141); Tim (Silent Running) Bryning (137 + 1*); Mark (Jibber) Humphries (136); Jason (Kinky Bugger) Wareham (109) GOLD T-SHIRT AWARD (50 AND OVER) Martin (Madness) Lawson (95 + 6*); Duncan (Day Glo) Ray (71+ 2*); Tim (Classic) King (69) MUG AWARD AND CAN WEAR BLUE T-SHIRT (25 - 49) John (Strider) Bryning (38); Tom (Two Shoes) Gillard (35); Helen (Elle) Goodman (30*); Gail (Tour Guide) Sadd (8 + 20*); Rowland (Pet Rescue) Stibbards (27); Mark (Shady) Vincent (27); Graham (Hidden Depths) Plaice (26) NEED MORE HASHES OR POSTING ORDER (10 - 24) Peter (Emptier) Fuller (19); Pierre (Quelque Chose) Leroy (19); Lesley (Tinkerbell) Bryning (17*); Ben (The Slobby Uno ♂) Sadd (13); Edward (The Wanderer) Vincent (12); Sarah (..) Bryning (1 + 10*); Patrick (Sloe) Ginn (11); Alan (Orson) Kerridge (10+1*); Paul (Crazy Fool) Kadoch (10); Emma (…) Sadd (8 + 2*) NEED MORE HASHES (5 - 9) Wendy (…) Stibbards (9*); Jenny (…)Fuller (3 + 4*); James (i-Plod) Vincent (7); Craig (Drama Queen)White (7); Manuela (…)Leroy (6*); Clare (The Slobby Uno ♀) Sadd (4 + 2*); Andy (Muddy) Cheney (5) KEEP HASHING (1 - 4) Nikki (Xtra Miles) Brooks (4); Hilary Naylor (4); Steve Thornton (4); Pierre Leroy Jnr (3); Rebecca Leroy (3*); Mike (…) Lock (3); Fiona (…) Ray (1+2*); Ian (House Hunter) Seraph (3); Paul Allen (2); David Orriss (2); Elsie May Ray (2*); Alf Sadd (2*); Janice Vincent (2*); Chantelle Wareham (2); Jane Allen (1); Sandie Disney (1*); Laurence Fowkes (1); Renee Ginn (1*); Ben King (1+1*); Alice King (1*); George King (1*); Sarah King (1); Colin McGrory (1); Emma Rae (1); Jon (Circus Boy) Smallwood (1); Fiona Vincent (1*) Back to The Words
Return to the Words Price: Strider & SR # 438 |
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