Hash 525 – Village Inn @ Liddington

On a warm, grey October morning hashers and dogs gathered at the Village Inn, Liddington whilst Viv explained the route. She had concerns about dogs mixing with cows so decided to set an extra 1.5 mile route for hashers with dogs.

Viv set off with her bottle of flour to lay the new route, closely followed by the walkers and runners, unaware of the challenges that lay ahead, runners’ route 5.6 miles and walkers’ route 2.5 miles.

We walked down a pretty, leafy lane over a bridge to our first challenge! How to climb over a rickety, wonky, unstable fence? Adam and Phil held the fence stable and being gentlemen, helped the ladies over.

Then after climbing a steep hill, we were amazed to find ourselves on safari in Wiltshire, looking across the fields there appeared to be an elephant in somebody’s garden and on closer inspection it was!

Ahead lay the cows and our second challenge. How to navigate through an extremely slippery, muddy, cow churned up gate. The cows then thought it would be fun to join us on the hash and accompanied us through.

Onto our final challenge, how to squeeze through a very narrow gap in a fence with pointy bits? Brian found this quite demanding and was caught unawares! Phil trying not to do the same.

The final stage was a more gentle stroll down into Liddington when Cathy struck up an interesting conversation about the film Victoria and Abdul which those of us who had seen it thoroughly enjoyed.

Back at the Village Inn, the short route walkers arrived first, followed by the runners and finally the long route walkers. We enjoyed a cosy drink and chat. It was lovely to see John and Margaret with Margaret looking so well.

Many thanks to John and Viv for setting a fun and enjoyable route through the beautiful countryside of Liddington.

An addendum from GOM

We assembled on a day that promised strong wind and heavy rain, the tail end of a hurricane that had ravaged the Caribbean recently and was now mostly spent. We stood under leaden skies, and, given the threat, there was a good turnout of around a dozen, including children and several canine friends.

One factor that may have impacted on attendance today was the decision to relocate the hash from The Woodman, Fernham, due to a clash with North Wilts. Hopefully everyone received and read the email informing of this change.

Viv informed us that our long trail was to be 5.6 miles, with hazards arising from cows . Whilst we stood in rapt attention, it became clear that as runners we were scarce, being just three in number ( Jeremy, Sue and I).

But every cloud has a silver lining and all that, so I was assured of third place and a bronze medal. Happy days.

We set off up the hill and quickly cut back the other side of the pub, before heading down and into fields that took us along a valley by the elephant statue in the late Lord Joffe’s garden, and then uphill steadily, finally descending to arrive by The Burj at Foxhill. Uphill again then onto the Ridgeway before descending through the lovely area of the Coombes into Hinton Parva. We then headed home through Wanborough. As I arrived back at the pub, John and Margaret turned up – great to see Margaret in such good spirits again.

Some of the walkers decided to walk the long, and this took them around two hours. We all sat together in the pub, where thanks were duly given to our hares both for being willing to move the venue at short notice and giving us a enjoyable trail. And all the while the wind and rain held off.

Thanks Viv and John