Run No. 1406               1^st August 2011

Venue:                           The Airfield

Beer:                              Woodforde’s Sundew; Fullers London Pride; St Austell Tribute

Location:                      Hatfield

Hare(s):                         Hyena

Runners:                      18

Virgins:                          0

Visitors:                         0

Newies:                         1                           

Hounds:                        0

Total:                             19

Membership:                All got back with our laces!

Confusion reigned when one of the Pack noticed that there were signs hung on various lampposts around the car park that had a line about tickets had to be bought for using the car park, a £1 for two hour seemed a bit of a con, but the £1 could be redeemed against a meal in the Table Table Airfield Restaurant, or of your tariff if you were resident in the Travel Inn! 

T-B-T decided that he wasn’t going to cough up that much dosh & moved his car out to the park on the streets.  After T-B-T had moved his motor someone eventually noticed at the bottom of the sign, unsurprisingly in small print, that paying for a parking space was only needed between 6 am to 6 pm, no doubt to prevent students from filling it up? 

This week saw Xperiment turn out for his first Herts Hash, also Smartarse (Not the F.U.K Full Moon one) & Friar Tuck were back from Cyprus for their annual Run with us.  From a distance one Herts regular saw Xperiment & said “Bloody Hell, TC’s put some weight on!!” Down to Specsavers for you then Sludge!

With no GM present, the Joint Master called the Circle together, he introduced everyone to the correct Run number & then moved on to welcome our newie from Kenya & the two regular visitors from Cyprus.  Friar Tuck was impressed as Mark E Mark arrived sporting a Cyprus InterHash T-shirt, something that surprised the RA after what had happened to him out there when he broke his neck at that event!

The Hare was called forward to explain what the Pack could expect out on his Trail, he had not been back that long from setting the Trail on this very hot & humid evening.  Hyena had little to say, except that there were no short-cuts & it wasn’t that long.  Before the Pack set off in the directions of “take a right & then a left turn!” the RA went through a brief outline of Herts Hash markings for Xperiment’s benefit!

On the way out Xperiment said that he would try & keep up with the Packwhen he was questioned by Sludge & Underlay about his fitness.  Meanwhile Smartarse said that she was thinking of going to have a walk up to the Galleria for a look around, since she didn’t think that she could keep up with the Pack & would get left behind! 

It was recommended that Smartarse didn’t walk the streets of Hatfield on her own, the RA pointed out Fartin Martin & Hyena were both present & that she wouldn’t be left behind as those with local knowledge could offer up short cuts if needed!

Sludge’s ear’s pricked up when he heard that the RA would show Smartarse any Short cuts that may arise on the Trail, Smartarse was now convinced that she wouldn’t be left behind & so joined the merry band as they walked out on to Wellfield road.

The FRBs were soon around the back of the Pub & on the edge of the roundabout on Comet Way, a few of the Pack seemed a little confused as to where to go on this precarious junction.  Eventually “On!” was called by Sludge & Underlay as they made their way over the end of the Wellfield road turn off, then down through the small remnant of the narrow old road of Wellfield View, separated by Birchwood road to the pelican crossing over A1001 Comet Way.

Once the lights had changed to red, the Keenies moved on over the road & followed the Dust on a path above the north end of the Hatfield tunnel, this cycleway/footpath headed along the edge of a fallow green area & over toward Hatfield Garden Village. 

The noise of the motorway traffic below the Pack drowned out the sound of Sludge, Underlay, Friar Tuck & Xperiment calling out “On! On!” as they were the first to follow the Trail around to the crossing by the corner of the local allotments.  It wouldn’t be a Trail in Hatfield if there wasn’t the obligatory abandoned shopping trolley & the Pack were not disappointed to see the first one on way over to the Garden Village.

            Once over the crossing the Dust led away from Manor Parade shops, heading down Green lanes where the going was slightly hampered by the fact that most of the footpath had been dug up by a utility company to lay new piping, this left the Hash to pick their way around plastic cordons & raised hard mats, so every so often the narrow remaining part of the path was left for the use of the grass verge.

ARP & Porky Pie were soon following on behind My Lil’ & Mr. X, with Porky Pie wearing his cowboy hat the locals must have thought that cowboys had invaded!  The Trail ran down Green lanes as far as the roundabout by the entrance road of Astwick avenue on to the Garden Village estate.  A few expected there to be a CHK here, but the Hare had set down an arrow instead & this would direct the hash over the roundabout & on to the farm track over the crop fields stretching out toward the A1(M) Motorway.

It was a long dusty straight track out along the conservation ‘Set-aside’ land on one side of the crop fields, as the route got fairly close to the motorway a 90˚ turn to the left began to move the Pack away from the A1(M), another long dusty, stony straight was now run as the Track headed out toward Stanborough Farm.

Along the way the Hash could see the strips of ‘set-aside’ land, on one side it was behind the hedgerow but on the east side it was a strip of wild oats left after the crop behind them had been harvested. 

The Keenies would have a bit of a wait before the Hare would make it to the Held CHK on the drive to Stanborough Farm & Stables, but they were kept on their toes by moving out of the way of a steady stream of cars leaving the stables at the farm.

During the lull in the Trail, Sludge & Underlay chatted to Xperiment about there times Hashing out in Zimbabwe, Zambia & surrounding area.  Friar Tuck passed on his condolences about Windmill’s passing, saying how shocked he was by it all.

Meanwhile T-B-T gave up too much information to those around him, who didn’t really want to know, that he had a very sore backside due to his partaking in the London to Cambridge Bike ride.  ARP was very sympathetic as she had a few aches & strains, but nothing as bad as T-B-T’s after she had completed the charity ride as well.

As the back markers came in to sight it was clear to see that Ketchup had arrived after making one of his usual late appearances, he was with Daddies Sauce & Jaron.  The latter of the two was running along by his buggy for a bit, but by the time they arrived at the Held CHK he had opted for being pushed in the buggy.

Smartarse was still with the Pack & like the rest of the Back Markers she was well ahead of the Hare, it seems that Hyena was lacking in stamina after going around twice on this hot day, but it was going to be hard work for anyone.  Eventually the FRBs were allowed to search once again.

Friar Tuck took to the dirt track around part of the paddock as it heads out to the end of the brick wall, this took him on to the dead end of a short part of the old Great North Road, there was no Trail down there, but he managed to get around to the Great North Road & heard My Lil, Sludge, Underlay & T-B-T call the Trail as “On!” properly from the obvious blob of Dust on the side of the fence post to the stile at the opposite end of a small enclosed paddock.

Friar Tuck joined the other Keenies as they emerged from the footpath on to the short spur of the Great North road & down to Stanborough road, but he ran on by the RA & Xperiment as the two of them emerged from the footpath linking the enclosure to the dead end road.

Those with local knowledge were soon aware that the Trail should really only go one way & that was under the A1(M), sure enough Dust was found on the path on the opposite side from the East (Formally the Bull Pub).  On the second of the twin roundabouts either side of the A1(M) the Trail crossed end of the A6129 slip road back up to ‘Jack ‘Oldings Roundabout’

The next CHK was found on the corner of the roundabout & Stanborough road.  My Lil’ began the slow but steady climb up southward toward Tesco’s, on the edge of Jack Oldings Roundabout, while Sludge, T-B-T, Underlay, Friar Tuck all spread out through the car park for the boating lake of Stanborough park, they would find Dust at the other side of the car park.

The Trail crossed the small access bridge, over the river Lea, to the boating centre & restaurant at the north end of the South lake.  The Trail then turned southward to take to the path between the River Lea, & away from the kids playing with their pit-bull in the shallows of the river by the Stanborough road bridge.

As Mr. X made his way along  to the next footbridge over the Lea from the car park, he was not surprised to see My Lil’ cut across in front of him after he had taken a short cut across the parking bays!  The Trail would now lead all the way down to the end of the south ‘sailing’ lake, both the banks of the lake & the river had fisher folk trying to land a catch or two, interestingly there are more women out fishing these days than there were a few years ago.

Anyhow, it was all very pleasant with a good view of the park through the trees & reeds lining the way on the route to the end of the lake & the marshy nature reserve beyond, the Trail didn’t venture around the ‘nature trail’ but stuck with the main lake side path on the area which once supplied the bricks to build a lot of the homes in Welwyn Garden City, all before it was changed in 1969s with the use of the natural Lemsford springs to create the lakes.

The Dust now peeled off from the lake to run across the open green & over toward the railway embankment carrying the main East coast line to Kings Cross, the Trail passed through what is locally known as ‘Tramps bridge’ to find a Held CHK on the edge of the farm land to the east.  The Keenies held the CHK until the Hare arrived.

Xperiment enquired why a large part of the corner of the crop field was full of thistles, & weren’t these the emblem of Scotland?  The reason the field had ‘gone to seed’ was the fact that the broad beans that were planted in it had failed to grow to a decent height to be picked due to the lack of rain, as for the thistles, yes they are indeed the ‘Flower of Scotland’

It was here that Xperiment discovered that Mr. X one of the Herts Away Team who was also on the Great Train Rumble, from Singapore, through Malaysia & up to the top of Thailand for InterHash in Chang Mai.  Mr. X also said he had met TF (Tender Foot) who is TC’s ‘stunt double’ & who was asked many times in Chang Mai if he was TC!

By the time Lobby Lobster, Mark E Mark & Smartarse had made it to the CHK even Paxo was eager to get on with things, but unfortunately the Joint Master hadn’t been there when Mr. X said that from recent dog walking experiences he knew that one of the options was now a dead end, all after the famer had fenced it off to stop access to the next railway bridge further down the line where the river Lea passes below the railway.

Underlay & Sludge headed away down below the mainline embankment to the north, those with local knowledge hedged their bets that Hyena wouldn’t have gone to all of the trouble to take the FRBs around the crop field on a course that would head toward My Lil’s & Georgina’s respective homes!  No time for a cuppa around at these two’s homes as “On!” was soon called.

Those with local knowledge fancied the track up from the bridge to join the hard covered drive from Woodhall farm & out to the A1000.  The Trail did indeed go that way & the false calls of “On!” from the other two were ignored, the calls of “On!” from up toward Woodhall farm also brought Paxo back from his lonely trot down a path that is now a dead end.

The Pack made their way up toward the drive, on the way Mr. X encouraged Porky Pie with a “Come on Clint Eastwood!” in reference to the cowboy like hat he was wearing.  The Trail followed the drive & it crossed over a small pack-bridge over the Creswick steam that feeds in to the river Lea, then the drive came out to a Held CHK by the two cottages on the small remnant of the original Mill Green lane hidden from the A1000 behind the tall hedgerow.

 Many of the Keenies decided to take the weight of their feet & sit down on the green grass bank of the lawn in front of the cottages.  T-B-T & ARP were still reminiscing of their experiences on the London to Cambridge charity bike ride, T-B-T said that they deserved a medal for what they had accomplished!  Is he not satisfied with his OBE?

When it came time to move on once again, only a couple we caught out searching on the small green on the other side of the hedge, they soon caught up with the likes of Mr. X, My Lil’, Farts & Georgina as the small bit of lane joins the busy Chequers A1000 to head back toward Hatfield, passing by the house hidden behind high fences & surrounded with security camera, the one that was once wrongly rumoured to be home to Dale Winton!

The Pack passed by Bush Hall entrance, then they negotiated the lights at the junction leading down to the A414, the Trail crossed the bridge over the A414 to another slip road to the dual carriageway below.  The Trail now ran along the edge of the green open space on the end of the ‘Ryde’ area of Hatfield .

Once over the green the Trail took to Mount Pleasant lane running around by the Dell & off along by the newer homes on its parallel route to the A414, the trot through the village like area of Hatfield saw a few slow up as there was a slight incline up to where the lane leaves the homes behind & merges on to the edge of the A414 at the Mountpleasant area, right by what was a Local Council depot.

Tesco was looming large in the not so far off distance as the trail crossed over the railway bridge for the mainline to Kings Cross, the Dust had the Pack running over & around the front of the superstore on the Jack Oldings roundabout to the footpath running along the A1001 Comet way, on a parallel course to the A1(M).

There was a short cut for a few with the old Local Knowledge, this was on a currently closed footpath leading from the end of the Beirut Birchwood estate playing fields, the few who followed this route saw more shopping trolleys, as well as a very strange looking Comedy cartoon cock graffiti on the slabs that have been laid after work has been done to improve the hedgerow where the path passes between the edge of the football fields & the back of the now defunct Habitat & then the local Weighbridge.

The SCBs managed to emerge out on to the main road as Xperiment made his way down this final stretch of road, it was to follow the path southward along by the green strip of land behind the homes of the Beirut Birchwood Estate & the A1(M).  Everyone made it back up to the Airfield, but with only feet to spare before reaching the sanctuary of the Bar, T-B-T took a tumble & ended up on his backside, all in front of the RA!

Paxo collected the Subs, plus he checked up on the up coming Run numbers that receive an award, those at one table also got to hear from Georgina about Fartin Martin almost pooping himself on the ‘scary’ white knuckle rides for the Kids on a day out to Sarfend!

The Down-Downs saw the Hare rewarded for a good Trail, which Friar Tuck enjoyed as it was relatively flat compared to Cyprus!  Jaron had reached 50 Runs & is awaiting his 50 run bag, he nominated his Dad to drink his Down-Down!  Porky Pie was in the Circle for looking like Clint Eastwood, [Has any one else noticed that he keeps answering you with “Roger that!”? Well it’s lucky that Pebbledash wasn’t about!!! – Ed] 

Xperiment was in the Circle & despatched his Down-Down for completing his First Herts Hash, on which he managed to keep up & surpass most of the regulars.  The Hashit almost went to Ketchup, as Jaron was previously running around like a Looney & wanted to wave the dirty old shirt around as he did so!  But it had to go to T-B-T for his fall in front of the RA at the very end of the Trail, just a few feet from the Bar!