| Date | Hare | Scribe |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug 2026 | Helen & Hilary | Kevin |
After the many heatwaves we’ve had a week of cooling weather. Rain was forecast for this hash from The Kingsdown, but thankfully it held off and the sun shone to make it a perfect day.
Helen and Hilary were our hares today and they were as surprised as I was at a great turnout – 26 in total including Kiri. Amongst our fellow hashers it was great to see Sue return after a long absence and she brought along Pete for his first hash. We hope to see them both for many hashes to come!
After the group photo in the car park across the road from The Kingsdown, Helen and Hilary gave their briefing which included references to Stratton Wood and Stanton Park, so we kind of knew in which direction we were going. If you wanted to take the short trail then you would avoid the loop around Stanton Lake and if you wanted a long trail then you wouldn’t.
Unsurprisingly, the long/short divide was just before the lake about a mile into the trail.
Hilary and Helen didn’t quite know the length of either trail but they did inform us that it took about 2½ hours to lay them.
The On! On! was up Kingsdown Road towards the bridge over the A419 and then into Stratton Wood Car Park.
Stratton Wood and Stanton Park are quite familiar to us hashers as we have hashed there many a time. However, credit to Helen and Hilary for laying a couple of good trails traversing the many paths in these locations and they worked out routes where those of us doing the long trail would meet up with those doing the short trail but you had to keep alert to find the flour marks as you could quite easily have missed them and get lost following many a wrong path – just like Henry did only to be found by those walking the long trail. There were 3 runners and 6 walkers who completed the long trail which took about 1½ hours to walk and exactly 59 minutes to run.
All hashers were back at The Kingsdown by 12:45pm to enjoy the apres in the garden followed by 18 of them having lunch in the dining room. GOM and their fellow hashers thanked Helen and Hilary for laying two great trails, Keith handed the bags to Phil and Mike still safeguarding the horn at home. Lastly David, who was hobbling more than usual, is going in for a service for some new parts and we wish him a good recovery and look forward to seeing him at a hash soon!
