| Date | Hare | Scribe |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Sep 2021 | Brian | Mike |
Several of our regulars were away today – which was a pity because they missed a hugely enjoyable hash. 17 of us chatted in warm sunshine outside the Red Lion in Cricklade High Street waiting for hare Brian to turn up. We got a bit anxious as 1100 approached with no sign of him – but we needn’t have worried – he appeared at 1059 and 30 seconds with a big smile on his face. He’s very laid back our Brian; he just gets on with things without fuss; he doesn’t have a car at the moment but, no worries, he just got on the bus from Swindon to plan and to lay his trail.
The briefing was short and to the point – “Long about 5 miles, short about 3. No hazards and no hills” – and we were off. Brian has been known to overestimate the length of his trails in the past and so, as there were only four runners, quite a large number of us walkers decided to do the long. The trail led through the town, out past the church and then on a long straight footpath towards the Waterpark. The trail was well marked in Brian’s distinctive style –ie every dot or circle being six times bigger and more thinly spread than the norm. He explained later why he does it that way. It is because a proper hash trail has to be laid with trail marks on the right and, as he’s left-handed, each handful of flour has to travel left to right across his body and down about three feet to the ground (he also prefers not to bend down too much).
The trail then led round one of the bigger lakes in the Waterpark through Cerney Wick and back towards Cricklade along the old canal. It took the long walkers – walking very briskly – just on two hours to get back to the pub and we thought everybody else would have gone home by then– but everyone was there in the garden and the atmosphere was lovely as we chatted and laughed and drank pints of the Red Lion’s excellent real ale (brewed on the premises) in the sunshine. GOM Kevin thanked Brian for his splendid trail and, being a very polite sort of chap – did not mention the fact that somebody’s iphone had measured the long trail at just under six miles.
PS We haven’t seen or presented the bags for ages. Do we want to lose that little bit of hashing folklore?
PPS – from GOM
I have the bags and the horn which I bring to all the hashes but haven’t handed them out as I haven’t spotted any misdemeanours. We hashers can’t all be good! An opportunity for the next hash!
The group photo only show 15 hashers as there were two latecomers, Hilary who came running down the high street as we were about to set off and Dave who ended up on the wrong side of the A419 when cycling to Cricklade and couldn’t find a route over the carriageway. Dave ended up carrying his cycle on his back and crossed the A419!