Hash 393 – Who’d a Thought It @ Lockeridge

What a memorable Hash!!
On the positive side – it didn’t rain and not everyone got lost.

The run took us out of the village rising up into the hills, past the last of this year’s sunflowers, with wonderful views over the Kennet valley, winding into the muddy footpaths of West Woods, across the Wansdyke and then returning back through the woods finally to Lockeridge.

A small group of the slower runners went straight on in one section. On reaching a gate found they were in front of the fastest lead group, resulting in cries of ‘cheat – you cut off a large circuit’.

Lockeridge is an interesting village as there is evidence of Stone and Bronze Age activity and the field enclosures indicate Roman occupation. Also the village is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086.

West Woods consists almost completely of beech trees and becomes very popular in the late spring due to the fantastic displays of bluebells which carpet the forest floor. But on the last day of September the leaves were just starting to acquire their autumn colours.

When I arrived back at the pub there were so many runners with blood streaming down their legs and comparing their wounds, having forced their way through the brambles, I thought I had inadvertently walked into a MASH forward clearing station for the walking wounded. Fortunately once the wounds had been cleaned they were found to be only light scratches with no permanent damage.

The other hot topic of conversation was ‘where did you get lost?’, ‘where have you been?’ and ‘which route did you take?’.

Then after two hours had passed we suddenly realised that we had not seen the return of the walker’s group. Maurice decided finally he had better see if he could locate them, and fortunately spotted them not far along the road making their way slowly back to the pub. Following investigation it was discovered they had not got lost but just been chatting and proceeding at an extraordinarily slow pace.

The three visitors Annie, Nea and David jogged/walked around with Viv on the long route, spurred on by encouraging flour messages left by the hare. As soon as the pub was in sight, Annie showed a fine turn of speed, even managing to overtake Viv.

GOM welcomed two potential new members Phil and Janet, and hoped they would return again.

It remains unclear the present location of the blue shorts and the hunting horn, but we await news with great anticipation.

Many thanks to Maurice for a fine memorable Hash.