Run No. 1354               24^th October 2010

Venue:                          The Railway Tavern

Beer:                              Charlie Wells Bombardier, Eagle IPA, Youngs’ Special      

Location:                      New Barnet

Hare(s):                         T-B-T

Runners:                      19

Virgins:                          0

Visitors:                         0

Newies:                         0                             

Hounds:                        2

Après Hashers:          10

Total:                             31

Membership:               Dragged all over!

This Trail was set by T-B-T on a route thought up & shown to him by Windmill, so, would it live up to what we normally expect from one of his Trails?  We will see!

Pepé le Pew & Pebble Dash somehow managed to park up in the wrong Pub car park, they were in the one for the Railway Belle, which is situated on the opposite side of the Railway Bridge to Railway Tavern.  Once they realised that no other Hashers would be present as the time approached a quarter to the hour, they drove the short way to find that the rest were beginning to gather at the Railway Tavern.

However, there was one exception & that was Sis, who seemed to be having trouble with her Satnav, as it wanted to take her home to Royston every time she put any post code in to it!  As the time crept up to the hour it looked like there was going to be a low turnout, even the Hare wasn’t present, but fear not dear reader, for the small car park was already full with vehicles, so, many had to find alternate parking on the side streets & walk back to the Pub!

The Hare appeared outside the front of the Pub, in his distinctive day-glo yellow top he was pretty visible.  The Pack grew in size as the JM called things to order, as there was no GM again?  [Perhaps Cambridge were right to have a traffic cone as GM all those years ago? - Ed] Paxo had carried out the introductions & got the Run number correct!  It was the Hare’s turn to step forward & explain the Trail, which meant he had to draw out the symbols for the CHKs, Bar CHKs, False Trails etc.

No Eye Deer said that she never understood what the difference in the CHKs were, so Pepé le Pew tried to enlighten her that from a T (False Trail) you go back to the CHK & look for another route, while from a Bar CHK (a line of flour across the route) you do not go all the way back to the CHK but instead there will be a path off of the route from the CHK that the Trail will take to!

            With all of that palaver over, the Hare directed the Hash off down toward the railway bridge, & made sure that Mr. X & Sludge continued on beyond the footpath on the west side of the tracks.  Arrows clearly marked the way on down beyond the Railway Belle as the Trail headed eastward along to Victoria road, where the arrows directed the Keenies off to the left to run by Windmill’s (proper) Running club, Barnet & District Running club, to lead out to a CHK in the corner of Victoria park.

            Pepé le Pew took to the tarmac path running along side the fence by what was the redevelopment on what was the grounds to the gas-depot, while Mr. X looked on the Path that cuts diagonally across between the green.  No one seemed to take the path along side the brook toward the fountain beside the corner of the tennis courts.

            Calls of “On!” came from the RA as he picked up the Trail on the way down over to the far hedge, Pepé le Pew came back from where he had been searching up by the footbridge up over the gas depot grounds to the mainline to Kings Cross, but not before he had spotted a Bar CHK from the direction back down the steps.  He would let on to the RA that T-B-T had even gone to the trouble to write the words ‘Bar Check’ above the Bar!

            At the north end of the park, on the opposite side of the hedge, arrows were found pointing the Pack down to the east, on the way along the pavement of Lawton road the Pack passed by a couple of driving lessons that were underway, one of the motoring school cars was given particular attention as it happens to be the same company that Spare Rib is involved with, but after a quick glance to check it was soon established that he wasn’t the instructor!

The Trail came down to a CHK at the end of Lawton, here Sparky made his way over the Pymms Brook, on a bridge through the hedged in waterway, he called ‘On!’ as he turned to the left along Castlewood road to head toward Hadley Wood.  Meanwhile the RA had continue straight along Baring road on the ‘Pymms Brook Trail’ to Hadley wood where he intercepted Sparky’s loop around to get on this footpath running through the scrubby little bit of common land beside a local school.

The Trail followed the footpath’s new route, where it disappears beneath the new concrete bridge to allow access to the school playing fields.  A loud call of “On! On!” was in order to test the acoustics before following the Trail up from the low level of the brook & up to a kissing gate in to Hadley Wood.

It may have been a bright sunny day for this Trail, but there was a cold breeze in the air & the shelter of the woodland was most welcome, especially for the likes of Pepé le Pew & Paxo, who had wimped out of wearing shorts & had gone back to wearing Army Surplus combats.

Now, it was at this point that the FRBs found picking the Trail up a little hard, Mr. X, Sludge, Pepé le Pew & Sparky seemed to be a little confused as to which direction to take.  After one failed attempt by Mr. X, he eventually spotted a very faint arrow pointing to the small pack bridge he had just been down to look beyond.  It seems that the overnight rain had taken its toll on the exposed parts of the Trail.

Skip arrived & said the FRBs should hold the next CHK, which was fine if we had a CHK to hold!  Sludge was all for continuing with the Trail until they reached the next CHK, the rest concurred with this & continued over the pack bridge spanning the Pymms brook, near to the weir for the Beech Hill lake.

The FRBs began to head eastward in to Hadley Wood as the faint Trail continued up toward Cockfosters end of the wood, some of the Keenies took their eye off of the Trail, which wasn’t hard to do!  Sparky was almost on to the Trail but failed to see where the Dust broke away from the main path & took to a smaller desire-line through the holly & other bushes around these parts of the wood.

Pepé le Pew, Sludge & Sparky were called back from further up the main path, they joined the RA, Skip, Paxo & Ewok as they followed the Dust between the bushes on the way down to the open area around the fishing lake.  With only one way out to go around the lake, it was a clockwise direction to take the FRBs back around to the weir near to the Pack bridge.

Ahead of them the Keenies could see 2-1-2 Maureen, Psycho, Sis, Louise, Slug & Ray had congregated on top of the bridge over the weir, & what a sight it was as the Keenies arrived!  They could see that the others were trying to avoid Lucy, for she looked like she was going to shake her soaked coat after the silly hound had decided to go in the lake, & obviously not realised how deep it was by the weir! 

Things would go from bad to worse for one of the dog handlers by the end of the Trail, but more of that later.

Avoiding Lucy, the Keenies of the Pack began searching once again.  Pepé le Pew continued northward around the edge of the lake, no doubt to the fishermen’s dislike?  Meanwhile Mr. X took the path out to the open area to the west of the lake, while Sludge searched back within Hadley Wood.  “On!” was called from both the lake side path & the path within the wood!

Pebble Dash, No Eye Deer, ARP, Paxo, Ewok & Back Pack followed on behind Pepé le Pew, while Party Animal, Slug & Starboard followed on behind Sludge.  Psycho, Sis & Louise had other worries as they tried to sort Winston & Lucy out, as for the RA, well he was still stuck between the two options, eventually Sludge’s calling ceased on the left-hand side, so Mr. X turned to the right to head toward the calls of “On!” still emanating from Pepé le Pew.

As he made his way around the bottom edge of the open common, the RA’s attention was drawn to the sight of a kestrel hovering overhead which was about to descend on its unsuspecting prey in the wispy grass below.  Then Pepé le Pew came in to sight as he led the way up toward the RA, who hadn’t seen any dust where he had come from.

The Trail had now seemed to have evaporated in to thin air, Party Animal, Slug & Starboard all emerged from the wood as Sludge gave up on what was a Falsie amongst the trees.  The others now turned direction to follow the main path through to the middle of the common of Sewits Hill, but things looked pretty sparse as they headed up toward a family out walking. 

Suddenly from out of nowhere a lanky tan coloured pup came bounding along & somehow it managed to avoid bowling anyone over!  The family asked what breed of dog it was, they assumed that it belonged to the Hash it was now running along with, quickly the RA replied that it could be theirs for £50!

A smidgen of flour was spotted in a little hollow made by a rabbit & this spurred on Sludge & the RA to run over to the western edge of the common with Hadley wood once again.  Mr. X thought that the Trail would go in to the wood at the far northwest corner, by Green Brook, & so he headed that way but to no avail, he then had to make his way back up along the inside edge of the wood after Sludge called “On!”

By the time he had made it halfway up this part of the wood, Mr. X could hear Sis & Psycho, just out on the common, & they were in hysterics about something, it turns out that Louise had been given Winston to look after & he had pulled her over & dragged her though the shiggy out on the common.  Her jogging bottoms were truly plastered in mud.

At a small clearing in the wood the Hare had set up a sweet stop, except that these had been hidden back away in his back pack by the time the RA & the JM arrived there!  Paxo soon sorted this out so that he & Back Pack could have a sweet.  No Eye Deer was impressed with the Violet sweets, she said it reminder her of her childhood!

It was here the Slug informed the RA that little Starboard was frightened by a sight as they exited the woods, it turns out that Sis had gone over there to scare the Squirrels but instead scared the Horrors!

When the search for the Trail resumed the RA would end up heading back toward the far corner where he thought the Trail would enter the wood in the first place.  He did notice that Skip, Pepé le Pew & Sparky had stumbled across the Trail further in to Hadley wood & didn’t take this loop out to the north.

Pebble Dash, ARP, No Eye Deer, Paxo & Ewok all followed the RA.  Most now had a clue as to where they should be heading, but an unexpected detour out on to Covert road was taken by those with the Hare in their company. 

There was no sign of Dust as the Hash made their way a few hundred yards up the road, but these Keenies were greeted by the sight of Sparky, Skip & Sludge emerging out of the wood ahead of them!  They soon scuttled off back in to ‘Covert wood’ nature reserve, the RA said that it was called Covert as the Dust was well hidden!

In fact the Trail was in fairly good shape at this part, it was more than a dusting of talc as the Keenies headed through the woodland & down to the bridge over the mainline to Kings Cross.  Here, as is the norm for Trails in this area, a Held CHK was found.  This led to an impromptu Sweet stop.

Again No Eye Deer reminisced about the Violet sweets, while Mr. X said that a punch on the nose & a kick in the nuts reminded him of his schooldays, to which No Eye Deer said that he must have attended a rougher school than she did?  It returns out that he went a former grammar school & it was the teachers who metered out these punishments!

There was a little bit of a wait for the FRBs before they could get on with the Trail, it was when Paxo received a phone call that we knew that some of the SCBs were now lost!  As T-B-T gave out directions as to where the regroup was, he decided that the rest should resume the search for the Trail.  Now, Skip had an advantage over the rest to find the Trail, as he had already seen part of it when he went off to scare the squirrels in Hadley wood.

As most of the Pack made their way around the loop out through the wood & then across Bakers Hill lane to find the Trail coming down the side of the little Golf course, Sludge & Mr. X had gone off down the footpath beside the Railway line.  They went far enough down this route to intercept the Trail as it came off of the Golf course, as Sludge said to the RA “There wasn’t a T to stop us!”

The Trail followed the footpath as it left East Barnet golf course behind & ran between the high railway embankment & the wooden fences of the back gardens of the properties on Galdana Avenue.  Here the Hare had set a loop around the small estate & then down Cromer road to get back to the footpath again. 

The Trail continued southward until it reached a CHK by the steps leading halfway up the embankment & then in to the tunnel through to the gas depot, but having heard about the Bar CHK with Bar Check written above it, Mr. X knew that they Trail would continue on to the end of the footpath where it joins East Barnet road, beside the Railway bridge.

The Trail did emerge back by the bridge, the On Inn was found just before this, then it was short walk around to the Railway Tavern.

T-B-T arrived back to find the two rascals sitting at the Bar quaffing away at pints of Bombardier, he accused Sludge & Mr. X of short cutting, he said that they didn’t do the loop or the Bar CHK up through the tunnel & on the steps coming down in to Victoria Park.  But his opinion was soon changed when both bullshitted him by saying that they had sent he Bar CHK with Bar Check written above it, thanks to Pepé le Pew’s information earlier in the Trail.

The Circle took place out on the deck, the Hare was rewarded for a god Trail that was thought up by Windmill & set by T-B-T.  Louise was out for Lucy going in to the lake, then she returned to the Circle as she called out for being pulled over by Winston & covered in Shiggy!

Sis was out not for not for having much luck with her Satnav, bit for scaring Starboard instead of the squirrels when she stopped for a ‘Paula Radcliffe’!  Sis was allowed to take the Circle after this as she wanted to award the RA a Hit for not cutting & pasting the venue in the Trash properly, where it said that last week’s Trail was at Nuthampstead again when it was clearly in Hitchin!  It had been a hard week for the RA, what with college & sorting out the buffet but who cares!  Any one else care for a go???

It a surprise that Sis hasn’t noticed that there is usually a mistake in the header of the Trash, if there’s Greene King as one of the Ales the last ‘e’ is missing so it spells Green King!  This is a deliberate act to occupy Zing-a-long-a-max as he would pick up on these & point them out week in & week out, something that he seems to have grown out of or got fed up with!

After the RA had downed his it was back to normality & Skip was called forward to receive the Hashit as he normally wastes Ale when he receives a Down-Down, as Skip downed his award a lot of the Circle cowered behind others as the expected the inevitable flourish at the end with the remains of the Pint being thrown over his shoulder!

Finally T-B-T was called back, to join the RA & Sludge, in the Circle for him being gullible to believe those two & they got theirs for bullshitting T-B-T in the first place!

With these proceedings over, the RA then announced that Bus Stop had been in touch with him a few minutes earlier & had said that Windmill had a bad night & probably wasn’t up to making the Buffet that was organised in his honour!  The atmosphere was now a little sad as the Pack moved back in to find a splendid spread of food, thanks went to the landlord & Staff for setting this up at such short notice.

A couple from Windmill’s (Proper) Running Club joined the Hash, as did Spare Rib, who was the first of the few making their way back from the Full Moon/Cross CHHHannel weekend down in Deal, later My Lil’ Sperm ‘ead, Ketch Up, Zing-a-long-a-max, Mark E Mark & Lobby Lobster would all make it!

It was like Wembley Market in the front Bar, Pepé le Pew was flogging Herts Hash Beenie hats, while T-B-T produced his order of the exceedingly bright torches, like a Del Trotter!  He managed to flog a few of these.  The RA was happy with his & turned it on to shine it through Sludge’s ear & was convinced that a beam of bright light came out the other ear!

As the great Buffet was coming to an end, there was sudden surprising shock for the Hash as Windmill appeared outside of the Pub.  Bus Stop had managed to get him down to see us all, the RA noticed that Windmill was wearing his running shoes on, as well as his Herts cap.  Most thought that he would make an appearance & his dogged determination shone through as he made it for a beer.

There was aloud cheer when Windmill entered the Bar, loud enough to disturb the raucous football fans. Everyone had a good chat with Windmill for an hour before he found it too tiring to carry on.  Bus Stop said later on that Windmill really enjoyed seeing everyone, he was extremely pleased it was a good turn out & that the Buffet was in his honour for the work he has put in over the years.

After Windmill had gone home, Zing-a-long-a-max set off to run around the Trail, which he did in the time that Mr. X reckoned he would get around it, he managed to get back to the On Inn just as a shower passed over.