Hash 547 – Potting Shed @ Crudwell

Date	Hare	Scribe
2 Sep 2018	Margaret & John	Nicki

What a lovely day for a Hash – not too hot, not too cold and definitely not too wet!

An intrepid band of 17, including 4 runners, 2 dogs and our youngest participant at 2 years old, set off from The Potting Shed with very detailed instructions from John ringing in our ears. Given apparent problems on a previous Hash from this venue we all listened attentively to the instruction that ALL markers would be on the right-hand side, that there was a field with cows which could be bypassed by following an alternative route around lots of ducks and then through a gate with blue twine, and that the walkers doing the short route would not need to make this cow/duck diversion.

On On we thought, no problem. Within a minute of setting off someone had to ring John to say they thought they were on the wrong route (at this stage the start point was still in sight) and the other walkers were confused when the first arrow was on the left-hand side and we all ended up in someone’s private front garden. However, we soon found the correct path and set off through a very picturesque church and cemetery (noting the abundant apples ready to be picked on our return).

Our route took us through fields and wooded areas, beside a pond, over stiles and Cotswold stone walls and down narrow pathways which fortunately had recently been cleared of nettles and brambles – I’m sure a lot of us sampled the blackberries along the way.

Some “interesting” conversations took place amongst the ladies of the benefits of underwired bras and matching underwear (don’t ask) and Kathy, slightly overcome by the warm day and thinking we had inadvertently strayed on to the Long Route, did a mini striptease when she realised that she was getting a little overheated in her rather smart summer dress.

There was slight confusion amongst the walking group when we came across the cow/duck diversion – having been told this was not on the Short Route. Deciding to go around the ducks rather than the cows we re-entered the field to find the cows had in fact moved location and we now had to walk through their field; but luckily they completely ignored our merry band. It turns out John had slightly obfuscated on this point as he believed that some of the walkers didn’t like cows so hadn’t told us they would be on our route!

Somewhere around this point we were overtaken by the runners and on our return route indulged in a spot of scrumping in the cemetery with bags being filled with delicious apples.

All in all a very interesting Hash, well done John and Margaret for laying an only slightly confusing route and well done everyone for not really getting lost.

In the pub garden the winners of Kathy’s fiendish competition were announced – big thanks to Kathy for organising this and well done to all those who took part. (Ed: I understand that Simon and Ainslie won the Belgian chocalates, but that they were then also awarded the horn for being too darned clever for the rest of us.)

Keith also updated us on Mike’s recovery from his first knee op (good to hear you are back home and on the mend Mike) and also Maurice’s heroic attempt in his Jordan Marathon.