Run No. 1329 28th March 2010
Venue: The Cross Keys
Beer: Rebellion, Timothy Taylor Landlord
Location: Harpenden
Hares: Mr. X
Runners: 16
Virgins: 0
Visitors: 0
Newies: 0
Hounds: 0
Après Hashers: 0
Total: 16
Membership: Wot No Book!
The Hare for this Trail spent his early morning setting the Trail after the harbingers of doom at the met office said that it would be showers all over the weekend, instead it was such a fine day that Mr. X didn’t mind going around the twice!
Having returned from the first lap around, so to say, the Hare caught his breath as he sat by the War Memorial on Church green & was entertained by watching Sparky execute an 8 point turn to get his car all of the 5 yards nearer to the Pub on the opposite side of the road he had originally pulled up on, which of course made the already delayed traffic wait a little longer!
The Hare crossed over to as near to the Cross Keys as he could get amongst the bustle of the crowd out enjoying the Farmer’s Market lining Bower’s Parade that runs one side of the High street. Pepé le Pew, Pebbledash, Puddles & Spillage were next to arrive, Mr. X & Pepé le Pew decided that they would investigate the bottles on the stall nearest to the where they were standing on the green verge.
The sampling of the Whitemills’ Ciders took up some time, with the ones matured in the Rum & Whiskey Barrel’s coming out as the favourites, at 7.5%! Ewok was among those who would go back there & purchase some of these highly recommended drinks! The Pack were thanked for their interest by the stall holder.
Paxo was present this week, though the GM was a little late getting to the start as he had parked along way away & had left this wallet in the car, so he had to go off & retrieve it! Skip managed to drag Psycho away from the plethora of stalls, as did Windmill with Bus Stop! Skip said that the Hare had made a right mistake choosing the Cross Keys on the Market Day, Mr. X pointed out that there was plenty of advanced warning to get there early to avoid’ the Shoppers & those attending the local Churches in the Trash & on the Email!
Some of the Pack were shocked that My Lil’ Sperm ‘ead was missing this week, his lack of presence was explained that he was away in Belgium on the first of Ketch Up’s Stag Weekends, seems that Ketch Up’s boast of doing all of the Herts Hashes before the Wedding didn’t have a lot of thought put in to it!
Anyhow, after his absence for a little while, the GM welcomed the Hash to the correct Run number (bet he had been practising?-Ed) then it was over to the day’s Hare who had little to say about the Trail. The Pack were informed that the Trail was set in Flour, there would be lots of civilian dogs out on the Trail & that there were short cuts before he directed the Pack to the Pedestrian crossing on the High street & over toward the War memorial!
The Trail came around from the High street & around by Church Green to run down Layton road, running behind the High street. A zebra crossing was used to change to the opposite side of the street from the shops, & the Dust led up through the centre of the small enclosed Layton Green to a CHK across from the Oak Tree Public House.
From here Sparky was running all over like a headless chicken, Flip Top, Windmill & Sloppy Seconds all began to look away from where the Trail was, all while Psycho & No Eye Deer discussed the local Sainsbury’s & other supermarkets! Only Ewok decided to look back down, further along Layton Road where the Dust was, but she failed to see by the Flour beneath an overhanging bush outside of the Inn on the Green Pub.
Sloppy Seconds, Pebbledash & the Horrors were soon on to the Dust, Ewok was quickly back from her excursion toward the St Albans road as the Trail progressed by the local Royal British Legion, then on behind the Sliver Cup, Shambler’s Favourite Pub to set Trails from in Harpenden from which the Hash always ran from many moons ago now.
The next CHK, found by a bin outside of the red brick entrance to Rothampstead Park. Sparky had caught up by this point & again he was running amok as he searched within the Park, but again he would find no Dust. Windmill, Sloppy Seconds & Flip Top picked up the Trail further up Leyton road.
Flip Top was now under the impression that the Trail would head southward & then out over toward the Cricket Club, so he was among those who carried on beyond the CHK by a solitary Cottage on the end of an old footpath of Coach lane, & he continued on to where the lane becomes the West Common lane.
If the Hare had any intentions of going across that part of the common then his plans were thwarted by the continuing arrival of the Fair there, it seems that the Fair turns up as well when this Hare sets a Trail from Harpenden.
“On!” was called up the footpath of Coach lane beside the solitary cottage, this led on by the tennis courts, hidden behind the tree line to the right, & a small industrial unit to the left. On the way up the shiggy covered path, Ewok suddenly announced that she had left her Hash shoes back in the car, oops! & all in front of the RA!
The Trial came out on to the edge of Rothampstead park, Sparky & Windmill were quick to find one of the two long Falsies the Hare had set for the FRBs to stretch their legs on. The first was on a bridleway out toward the centre of Rothampstead Experimental Station, the other was up between the avenue of Trees on the drive toward Hatching Green.
As the two FRBs set off on the long Falsie toward the latter of the two choices, they managed to drag the rest of the Pack up with them, except for Ewok. She had noticed that the Hare had marked the CHK in a direction across the Park, in a direction running along the west edge at the end of the crop fields. On the trot down in to the dip, Ewok shouted out “On! On!” as she was happy to be leading the way as the Trail followed the contour of the Park’s edge.
Having turned a few degrees to the west, & passed by a concrete object that was either a sluice or sheep-dip, the Trail followed by a line of beech trees behind the football pitches to a Held CHK in the far corner.
The FRB passed by Ewok & Mr. X to reach a CHK in the far corner of the park, there Windmill, Flip Top, Pepé le Pew & Sparky waited for the rest to catch up. To while away the time, Sparky decided that he would pick up an abandoned, full looking dog poop bag from the top of the large tree stump & wave it about, the Hare thought it would be better that this lot moved on!
Pepé le Pew was quickly off around the perimeter of the crop field, there he found Dust nestling in between the clumps of daffodils behind the hedges of the homes to the north. The Trail followed the footpath as it left the first field & ran on behind the hedged off back gardens & then out to the corner of another crop field, this one having a large area of tall straw in it. Perhaps this for the benefit of the local wildlife, or it could be a reminder of what this area was once famous for with production of straw.
The Trail turned left & headed along the hedgerow, westward to a CHK on the crossroads with a farm track down to Rothampstead Experimental farm, the Keenies soon picked up on the next stage of the Trail as it continued along the hedgerow of another field. For Windmill there were plenty of chaffinches, greenfinches & tits flitting about amongst the hedgerow lining either side of the former Railway.
While the FRBs were heading out toward Redbourn Golf Club in the west, the Hare took Ewok, Pebbledash, Spillage, Puddles & Party Animal on a short cut. Along the slightly convoluted route, Mr. X got to hear from Party Animal that she was out the night before, partying in her ‘Party Animal’ top, & that she sings Karaoke! Which is one up from Hyena, who can only do the actions on stage to ABBA’s Supertrooper!
No Eye Deer, Bus Stop & Psycho were up for the long Trail, so they followed on with the Keenies to where the path joins the Nicky way near to the small wood in one corner of Rebourn Golf club. From the CHK there it was really just a simple case of following the Nicky way to a CHK at the crossroads with the footpath from Rothampstead farm.
The SCBs arrived at the next CHK just as Paxo got there from the long Trail, he was behind Windmill, Pepé le Pew, Sparky, Sloppy Seconds & Flip Top who were a lot further down the Nicky way back toward Harpenden. As the Pack left the CHK they could hear a lot of grunting & it wasn’t from the RA, it was from a couple of large pigs in their triangular sties in the corner of the field on the opposite side of the hedgerow.
A steady trot along the level of the Nicky way, the former Railway line from Hemel Hempstead through Harpenden & on to Luton, that was built to deliver straw for the millinery business there, though passangers were taken as well, it fell in to decline & by the 50’s it was used to move rubbish.
As the former line came back in to the edge of town, Back Pack & a few other Trainspotters could now admire the tall semaphore signal in ‘On’ or ‘Danger’ position, near to the remaining platform for the former railway.
Flip Top, Windmill, Sparky & Sloppy Seconds all stopped up on the raised footpath crossing, but Pepé le Pew was keen to get on with things & he continued searching north-eastward along the Nicky way, on what was the final long falsie of the Run!
If the others thought that they would hold the CHK to allow the back markers to catch up then they were mistaken, for the Hare had set the Trail in order for the Hash to all get around in an hour! So, when they did start in joining Pepé le Pew in the search for the Trail, they all took the wrong option, except for Sloppy Seconds.
Sloppy wasn’t spared from the Hare’s cunning, for as he picked up the Trail on a short turn around the bend of the dead end spur of Moreton End lane to a CHK were it joins the main residential road when he took a left to head down in to central Harpenden where there was no Dust.
The Hare had ran to get ahead of the FRBs now, & he was caught by Windmill as he wandered around the bend in alders End lane, in the direction away from the town centre, Windmill said that Mr. X was doing a My Lil’ Sperm ‘ead in order to get back to the Pub, but Mr. X was up front to see who would obey the Check Back 5 that he had placed on the crossroads in the residential vale.
On the descent down Sloppy Seconds, Flip Top, Sparky & Pepé le Pew didn’t know what they were letting them selves in for. A now red faced & flustered looking Pepé was unlucky after making up all of the lost ground as he came down to CHK just before Party Animal! Fortunately they didn’t have too far to go back up the Hill to find the rear of the Pack!
Now, No Eye Deer, Ewok, Pebbledash, Puddles & Spillage took up the mantle of leading the Pack as they followed the Trail up on to the junction with Townsend lane. Again the Hare was ahead of the Pack, as he wanted to make sure that no one thought that the half full pint of lager & the packet of 20 with 10 cigarettes left & with a lighter inside, on the empty pavement were anything to do with him.
The miser in Mr Hash Cash came out as Skip said the Party Animal should pick up the ciggies, everyone else discouraged her from this in case they had been tampered with, who knows that drink cold have been spiked! Let alone have been peed on by dogs!
There were plenty of laughs as the Pack passed by these abandoned items, some wondered if Junior had been the late night boozer with his infamous ‘Stacking’ but he doesn’t smoke & if it were him there would no doubt be a tale-tale pool of vomit there!
Bus Stop was first to the CHK at the crossroads with Salisbury Avenue, it took her a while as she started to look in the wrong direction before realising that the Inn Trail would be up Salisbury Avenue after Windmill & Flip Top took up the initiative to find the Dust there.
The Pack were now only minutes away from the On Inn, but the Hare had the last laugh on the FRBs, & boy did he laugh loudly when he saw them run on by the footpath home & up to a Bar CHK at the end of the road, how cruel was that?
The Trail followed the secluded footpath down the alleyway between the properties & then beside the churchyard before coming back out to the High Street, Sparky reached the ‘On Inn’ where the path comes out behind a local garage & asked the Hare “Where the hell are we?” The Hare showed him out to the High Street, where he was only 50 yards from the Sparky mobile.
The Curate took control of the Circle after the GM had toasted the Hash, the Hare was rewarded with a Hit for a Trail that took Windmill 59 minutes to Run, & just over the hour for the SCBs! But his Down-Down was from out of the spout of his (back-dated) 800 Run teapot, decorated by Pepé le Pew, with the Hash Hart & a fezzed up rugby ball on the other side.
The RA was not the only member of the Hierarchy to receive a back-dated award, the GM himself was out for his 500th Run highly decorated walking stick, even though he looks like he needs a zimmer-frame! The Hashit was awarded to Sparky for his 8 point turn & dog poop exploits, his receiving of the Hashit prompted Pebbledash to say that he only got it so his naked torso could be seen, the RA said that it seems she has talked her self in to next week’s Hashit as she’d look better stripping off to put the Hashit on! Also No Eye Deer’s “I’ve never had the Hashit!” surfaced once again!
The main talk of the après Circle was the Hash Habererdasher’s new range of gear, & the work he has put in. The 25th Anniversary Jackets seemed to be popular, especially the girls’ one, the RA was among those who had a feel of the quality of the one Pebbledash was wearing!