| Date | Hare | Scribe |
|---|---|---|
| 26 May 2024 | Keith | Kevin |
Keith was up at 5am this morning wanting to get the trails laid for his hash today. Unfortunately the weather decided to dictate his agenda and he had to wait until 7am for the rain to clear before he could set out for the Fox and Hounds, Uffington. By 9am Keith had laid his trails and was able to get back home to Shrivenham, have breakfast and tidy himself before heading back out to Uffington for the hash.
Mr and Mrs GOM set out from Swindon at 10:20 for the F&H and at the north Shrivenham roundabout, you know the one with McDonalds nearby, took the exit to Longcot towards Uffington when then came across Keith’s car and followed him all the way into Uffington. This made us wonder if Keith had actually laid any trails today. We needn’t have had any concerns as Keith as always committed to the cause of KVH3 reassured us that he had been out earlier to lay the trails.
Including Keith and Mr and Mrs GOM, there were 16 in total who turned out for the hash today. And as we always expect, it was never going to rain on this hash, although if we stayed beyond 1:30pm we would have got soaked as the heavens opened after we departed Uffington. So with the weather set fair Keith gave his briefing. The short was about two miles (not 5 as set by Maurice at the last hash) and the long about 5 miles (8 for the last hash) although the long did turn out to be 5.5 miles. The long short divide was in a field on the outskirts of Uffington near Cowleaze Farm. Keith also mentioned that he did do some gardening on his way round when laying the trails so that he could minimize the impact of long nettles and grasses for those of us who are vertically challenged. Keith also advised that those of us doing the long trail (John, Viv, Mr and Mrs GOM) that we would be going along “Broke ankle bridleway” which is very rutted so best walk and not run along this section of the trail, also the long trail would rejoin the short trail at the long/short divide.
On! On! The short trail for the majority of today’s hashers took them around the village of Uffington on a relative flat terrain and would see them back at the F and H around midday. John, Viv, Mr and Mrs GOM got back some 1 hour later (2 hours to complete a 5.5 mile trail) after completing Keith’s long trail which was relatively flat with no hills to climb but the terrain under foot through the fields and Broke ankle bridleway was hard going as it was very rutted and undulating. This proved that distance is not the only obstacle in completing a hash in a timely manner.
Upon returning to the F&H for the après around 1:00pm half of the hashers were sitting in the F&H dining room awaiting their lunch to arrive and the other half enjoying the sunshine in the garden. GOM encouraged Keith and Kathy to leave their table as their lunch was not yet served and come out into the garden so that he could thank Keith for his efforts for laying a well marked trail although due to the earlier rain the white flour marks had become blended with the soil and looked like wholemeal flour. John who was awarded the shorts at the last hash decided to wait for the next hash to award the shorts to someone at the next hash. Kathy had the honour of awarding the horn and was about to bestow this to Greg, as he was talking non-stop about the virtues of air fryers to Kathy for the duration of the short trail, when GOM asked Kathy “haven’t you got one yet?” and so she promptly changed her mind and gave GOM the horn.
Many thanks to Keith for laying the trails around Uffington and including some different aspects not seen before on previous hashes from the F&H.
