Hash 415 – Calley Arms @ Hodson

Our 415th hash was unusual; in fact I might go as far as to say it was different from any of the previous 414. “Any particular reason for this?” you ask – well, if I said that our hare for today was Doctor David – I imagine you might be nodding wisely. Word must have got around that David was laying the trail as we had the biggest turnout of runners and walkers we’ve had for ages, filling the pub car park, so there was a bit of a delay to the start as we moved our cars around to leave room for all the other pub customers.

David’s brief was brief. He said that he’d only put one ‘T’ on the entire trail to save flour as he wasn’t fussed about the front runners running fruitlessly on for miles looking for the on-on – and that there were no hazards; and that was it . So off we all piled up a short stretch of road in warm sunshine and then across three or four fields. I was running at the back with a new hasher called Jim and could see the whole (or most of) the hash in bright red T shirts strung out in front of me. A stirring sight. Soon we were left behind as I am running very badly at the moment and when we came to the Long/Short divide Jim went off on the Long (he turned out to be a brilliant runner and was only running with me as he didn’t know anybody else) and I took the short. I joined GOM Brian there, which was fortunate as it needed two of us at least to find the trail from then on and we only just managed to keep ahead of the walkers. David had put down some very good arrows – “ David – your arrows I like” – but he must have run out of flour for other things like dots.

It worked though and we enjoyed the challenge as the trail led into Chiseldon where we were joined by the longs who had been on an extra loop. Good hashing country from then on in that area of hilly woodland that lies between the motorway and Hodson –up and down hills and steep gulleys until we climbed up a steep stony path which emerged right into the pub car park. Runners were back quite a bit before the walkers but eventually we were all together sitting outside at the front of the pub. Brian thanked David for his unusually good trail and he got an enthusiastic round of applause and then presented the bags to Sam as it was nearly her birthday. David had the hash horn (Ed: or “hooter” as he called it) and he presented it, rather boisterously I thought, to Kathy but she took it all in good part. I quite like hashes that are different – but as I have said on many occasions before, the great beauty of hashing is that every trail is unique. Thank you David for another unique trail.