Run No. 1409              22nd August 2011

Venue:                          The Orange Tree

Beer:                             Buntingford Highwayman;

Location:                     Baldock

Hare(s):                        My Lil’ Sperm ‘ead

Runners:                      19

Virgins:                           0

Visitors:                          0

Après                               1

Newies:                           0                           

Hounds:                         1

Total:                             21

Membership:               Run around Bagdad!

            Another fairly low turnout to start with this week, seems the summer holidays take there toll on the Hash at this time of year!  Ewok told Slug, Port & Starboard that Backpack had just been picked up from his Grans & hadn’t had time to unwrap his Birthday present from them!

Slowly but surely the Pack did grow in size before the GM finally called the Circle together, as Fliptop did so Ketchup arrived & there was more moving of vehicles & of the Pack to avoid said vehicles before things got down to business!

            As if to reiterate that it was time to Circle up, the clock of St Mary’s began to chime the hour, My Lil’ said that Ketchup would be ‘early’ if he had everything sorted before the ‘final Dong’!  The RA said that he was grateful that Pebbledash wasn’t present to witness the Dong!  Ketchup had the wheels on Jaron’s buggy quicker than a Formula One pit crew & so was ready in time!

The GM admitted that he had taken a peek at the Run number just before calling for the Pack to Circle up!  So, he inevitably got the Run number correct!  The Hare was called forward & the usual groans weren’t as loud as is expected, these turned to cheers as the words ‘Short cuts’ were mentioned along with the fact that the Trail would be set in chalk arrows & flour.

            Without further ado, the Pack were sent off over the Norton road to take to Brewery street, one of the back streets that now house the new builds of the micro estates, this was once home to the Steeds Brewery off of Church street, one of three Breweries that used to be in Baldock but it closed in 1969, just after Simpsons Brewery a year earlier.  The other being the Baldock Brewing Company which was taken over by Wells & Wynch of Biggleswade in 1904!

            The arrows led through the maze of interconnected cul-de-sacs & narrow old lanes the new homes reside upon, soon the Trail was heading up Church street & out toward the corner of St Mary’s Churchyard, ARP was up with Sludge as they were the Keenies on this first part of the Trail.  They followed the Trail in to the walled Churchyard, they obeyed the arrows that led around the outside of the Church.

Fliptop on the other hand had other ideas & he was looking at cutting the corner off & pick up the Trail as it emerged from the other end of the Holy building, a sharp “Oi! Follow the Trail!” from the Hare & the fact that the RA was right beside him, made Fliptop think again & so he joined the RA in running around the Church to then meet up with Paxo, Skip, Slug with Port & Starboard as they missed out the loop!  Some of the SCBs were a bit cocky when the RA questioned them on the legitimacy of their shortcut, but they were buoyed up as the Hare had already marked it as a SC!

The arrows took the Pack through the churchyard & down to the entrance on the Norton road, here the Pack crossed over the road & the On Inn was clearly visible only a few hundred yards away, Paxo & Skip were heard to quote the Hare with a “If you can see the Pub then the Trail should finish!” which was a statement of his from many moons ago!  They continued with the Trail as it headed up to the end of West avenue, where a CHK was found.

Sludge had taken to a Falsie off down Coachman’s lane to the right, ARP was found at the CHK & looked as if she was in a quandary as to where to search, the obvious answer was to take to the white footbridge over the A1(M).  Once it was established the other options were False, this was the only option left.  Once the civilians had left the ramp up to the footbridge, the Keenies led the way over the motorway below.

 Arrows directed the Hash over the fallow land toward the industrial area but they wouldn’t go far as the Hare had put in another loop, this time it would use two of the three paths that make up a triangular route off of the fallow land & on to the footpath leading inside the tree-line along the edge of the A1(M). This led along by a small bit of woodland on one side & on the left the Motorway which rose up on a fly-over to the hillside to the south.

The Dust led along Hadrian’s walk & then passed beneath the concrete edifice of the fly-over, to emerge out on to Norton road, here Fliptop admitted to the RA that he was once nearly knocked over here as he crossed the single lane to the carriage way with traffic from both ways, as he said “It seems that you’re on a dual carriage way where traffic normally comes in one direction only!”

The Trail now led on to the footpath running below the embankment for the A1(M) & beside the fenced off playing fields to the left, the Pack were now beginning to become stretch out but by the end of the footpath things would change.  The RA & GM arrived at the CHK where the footpath joins the one running from east to west, leading from Baldock to run beneath the A1(M) to the fields northeast of Letchworth, here they witnessed Ewok coming back from under the motorway to mark the CHK!

Mr. X & Fliptop followed Ewok back beneath the motorway to find ARP coming back from the farm track beside the A1(M), meanwhile Skip & Sludge were looking down the other part of the Track that heads all the way over to the Electricity sub-station near to Letchworth Rugby Club.  The RA wasn’t convinced that the Trail would continue on the west side of the motorway, as he had stated earlier to the GM that the Hare can easily run the Pack ragged around outskirts Baldock without ever leaving the ancient town.

Sure enough the Trail was called back on the other side of the motorway, so most of the Keenies made their way back to follow on behind Psycho, Party Animal & Custard down the ‘Back lane’ path, but it seems that Skip & Sludge failed to hear any calls of “On!” from the east side of the A1, perhaps it was the noise of the passing traffic that drowned out the calls! 

The CHK Ewok had ‘broken’ in the wrong direction had now been repaired by the Hare & it had now been marked in the direction along the bottom, southern edge of the playing field & the top edge of the Knight’s Templar School’s nature reserve.

The Trail turned tack by leaving the footpath & made it’s was through the edge of the ‘Nature reserve’, as the path made its way along through the trees it a soon became clear that the nature that lives in these parts seems to feed solely on crisps & chocolate by the many discarded packets littering the route. 

Paxo & Slugs’ journey through this ‘wild area’ was fraught with danger as they kept coming under attack from ambushes by Port, Starboard & Backpack.  You’d have thought that Paxo wouldn’t have come under attack so often, but after this display you wouldn’t want him on point!

Anyhow, everyone emerged unscathed from the Reserve, though Skip seemed to be almost tripping over the pack of four Bulldogs out being walked along the way to the alleyway, this led out on to St Mary’s way.  It was here, as he came up to the Hare that Sludge had a few choice words after he roamed too far off Trail, the Hare was cock-a-hoop [Steady on there Pebbledash! – Ed] to hear that Sludge had been caught out!

It was a case of following the Dust along Weston way, passing by the teacher’s car park for the local School, a CHK was found on the junction by the ‘Spinney’ where Willain way joins the main road.

Ewok & ARP found nothing up Willian way, while Fliptop & Paxo fared no better further along Weston way.  Spotted Dick & T-B-T noticed that Sludge & Skip were a long way down the ‘Crabtree lane’ path, but he couldn’t be heard calling, perhaps this was due to him not hearing any calling when he was on the other side of the A1(M)?

The Hare soon marked the Trail down the alleyway, along the way Spotted Dick had problems with Tyler, who wanted to stop at every trees, shrub & lamppost along the way [the dog & not Spotted Dick! -  Ed] to mark his territory.  Up in the far off distance Sludge & Skip were almost out of sight, which made those behind them laugh when the Hare abruptly stopped & put down an arrow before nipping off on a path beside a set of garages to come out on Elm wood

The RA, ARP & Ewok all found this highly amusing, as did Spotted Dick & T-B-T who also managed not to get dragged to the far end of the alleyway on a long trot to a Bar CHK!  Sludge & Skip would have to do some serious running to catch back up, when he did finally get along side the other Keenies up with the Hare on Mons avenue, there was the expected tirade of mock abuse, but this was water off of this Hare’s back

The Dust led the FRBs around to a CHK by an alleyway heading back westward, here the RA followed on behind Ewok & ARP through an alley top the small green space enclosed by houses on all four sides.  At T was found at the opposite alleyway & so these three turned back, Fliptop asked why the RA had been so stupid as to go that way?  To which the RA replied to keep an eye on the Harriettes!  Having Hashed with the Perth Harriette’s Hash, he used to being a ‘slave’ & chaperoning girls who want to check out more remote area etc.

Ewok was again surprised how the Hare looked as if he was going on the falsie with those who had been caught out, only to suddenly disappear from sight like an illusionist!  Mr. X now presumed correctly that the Trail would head out of Templar’s ave toward the London road, there the Trail used the crossing down from the George IV to pass by the local corner shop.  Now the Pack were led up Woodland way & then on through the open gate on the grassy track from between two homes & up to the steep slope up in to the wooded start of the Weston hills.

By the time the RA had made his way up to the bench, & the CHK, part way up the steep slope, he had been made very aware of the fact that Sludge had gone off on the lower path & wasn’t coming back!  Meanwhile, away from the short cutting exploits of Sludge, ARP & Ewok were at the forefront of FRBing again as they searched two of the three options, Mr. X took the third one, & all of these involved climbing further up out of the large hollow!

While the Hare was left to explain to the local kids, who messing about in the woods, what the Dust was for, the Trail was found up on the level of the open fields to the rolling away to the east of Baldock, this ran along the path running south to north just within the wood, along this there were a couple of CHKs put into throw the unsuspecting off of the scent, but the RA didn’t fall for the off-shoot paths out in to the farmland to the east, nor the myriad of paths down through the wood to the west!

A bit further along, he did look out in to the field couple of times, safe in the knowledge that the Short Cutting Sludge would call “On!” from down on the enclosed common area to the west if he had found the Trail.  Eventually Sludge made his way up to the path the RA was on, who’s calling alerting Sludge to the Trail.  The two met up as the Dust did run out along the Edge of the crop fields & on to a CHK in a corner, right before the main path moves away down from the hillside the Baldock by-pass tunnel is burrowed through.

Mr. X & Sludge agreed that the Trail would head back through the last section of path in the hedgerow, this down to the Lime Kiln way running beside the edge of the caravan park, this is where the Trail did indeed go, but for some reason known only un to himself, Sludge disappeared off in to the feral scrubland on top of the hill before rejoining the RA on his trot down Lime Kiln way.

The Dust led on to South road road, there double arrows ensured that the Pack would cross over to take to an alleyway to Pinnock’s lane, there a the Trail led on to the north & the FRBs led away from the direction of home by an arrow pointing down Pembroke road.  Mr. X would follow Sludge off Trail & over the sports field in an attempt to guess the Hare’s intended route, but it didn’t really work as they came back around by White Horse Street & back via St Mary’s.

Sludge & Mr. X were soon ensconced within the Pub, Skip was the first of the rest of the Pack back, on a Run which took an hour & ten.  Zing-a-long-a-max now made his appearance after his late start, slowly the rest came back, Tyler soon lapped up the water put down in the Public Bar for visiting hounds & a refill was needed.  The same could be said for the excellent Ales on offer being supped by the pack at this hostelry.

Sis joined the Hash as the last ones came in, it was fairly humid in the Bar &b this led to the Pack decamping outside in the garden where the Horror’s could run riot on the play equipment!

The RA didn’t hang around too long & so the Down-Downs were awarded by the GM, all ion all it was a very good Trail of just over an hour by the Hare!