Hash 549 – Rose & Crown @ Ashbury

Another first today for KVH3 as your mag today is written by a chap with a dodgy knee who neither ran nor walked the trail. Not to worry however as he had lots of reports of proceedings and achievements at the après.

A lovely mild Autumn morning and 20 hashers and 4 dogs gathered in the big car park next to the Rose and Crown and there was that usual buzz of pleasure at seeing old friends and of looking forward to the run. One thing that everyone was particularly pleased about was the fact that Kevin and Julie had decided to run today for the first time – and they got a spontaneous round of applause. Viv gave a briefing about the hazards, which included herds of frisky cows and even friskier horses, causing some worried looks among the walkers, and then they were off heading upwards past the village church towards the Ridgeway.

Your scribe then set off on a short walk round the village where I met and chatted to several people who made polite enquiries about my knee. One couple I spoke to turned out to be the landlord and landlady of the Rose and Crown. They were really charming and when I had my usual gripe about all our lovely pubs being turned into restaurants with no room for hashers, they agreed completely and said that they had made special efforts themselves to cater for non-diners by leaving some spaces uncluttered by cutlery in the pub and by extending and enclosing the outside space. I was encouraged.

I was back at the pub car park before the first hasher arrived back – Gentleman James – and he and I decided to go and have a pint and to check out the aforesaid outside space. It really was spacious and all of us were able to sit together around one big table. I listened to stories about what happened on the trail and it appears that the frisky cows were no longer there – although you could see where they had been – but the frisky horses turned out to be very much there and quite dangerous as they charged about trying to attack Rocky and the runners . Nobody was hurt however except poor Rocky. Maurice picked him up to lift him over the stile at the edge of the field and he fell awkwardly and damaged his ribs.

Kevin and Julie did extremely well I heard. No gentle easing in by running the short for them – they galloped all the way round the long trail (about 5 miles today). I hope their example will encourage more of our walkers to run – we could certainly do with more runners.

GOM Keith thanked Viv and John for yet another well planned trail and they got a well deserved and warm round of applause. Maurice gave the bags to David for a reason which was very funny at the time but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was.

Thank you Viv and John for yet another well organised hash – it was lovely to be back