Hash 399 – Keepers Arms @ Quenington

Once again The Boxing Day Hash was held at The Keeper’s Arms, Quenington. When I say once again, it was actually the 9^th consecutive year the KVH3 has graced (or disgraced) this pretty Cotswold village on Boxing Day by running or walking through it in various fancy dress costumes.

This year’s theme was ‘animals’. One or two of the costumes were brilliant. I don’t know who arrived first but I wonder how they felt standing there alone outside the pub as the locals passed by. Anyway, when I arrived there was Maurice, our old friend Terry, a tiger, a panda, a leopard, a penguin, a mouse and various other strange looking creatures.

After the group photos Maurice gave his pre-hash guidance. Due to the heavy and persistent rains of previous days he’d had to alter the entire trail as most of it was under water. We were therefore to keep mainly to the roads (I think all of us greeted this as good news), go through three villages and around three churches.

Off we set. The runners quickly became strung out and I was running at the back with the tiger (Navy Mike) and the penguin (The Lady Margaret). As we ran, the extent of the rains became apparent. Lakes, that were formerly fields, surrounded the villages. That, together with the rather overcast and heavy and quiet feel of the weather that day, made the run (for me anyway) a rather surreal, though peaceful, experience.

We did lose the flour at one point, probably just couldn’t see it for looking. This caused puzzlement for a few quite a few minutes (see picture). However, this allowed us all to join together again. I remember one of the churches in particular as being very fine.

Back at the pub things were a little chaotic as we all mingled with the locals on this festive lunch time. Maurice was thanked for his improvised trail which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. As we began to leave, the heavens opened up once more. The rain had, as it so often does, held off for us. After all, it never rains on a KVH3 hash.