Hash 1242

Tuesday's run was from the Le de Spencer on Downley Common. Now I have had trouble finding this pub in the past, but I remembered making a mental note on a previous visit to cross the common and then just keep tuning left, so no problem tonight. The trouble was that I had left home rather late and consequently missed all of the Hare's pre-amble and only arrived  in time to tag onto the tail end of the hash.

It was not until we were a third of the way around the hash that Gerry enquired if I could remember who had set the previous week's hash. An innocent enough question you might think, but you would be wrong, anyway I said that I couldn't remember. He then paused and asked if I could remember where it was. Again I said I couldn't.

I was half expecting him to ask when it was, but he didn't. We eventually agreed that it was Kevin & Kerry's run from The Lions @ Bledlow but neither were in attendance this week. At that moment a sinking feeling came over me when I realised that I was separated from the safety of the main body of the Hash by a stile, and worse still that Gerry was immediately in front of me on the other side of the said stile. I panicked and despite trying to make myself as small and insignificant as possible, yes you guessed it, I was forcibly volunteered (Ed's aside, Thanks Ken). So here I am writing this week's Hash report.

In retrospect I realised that I should have been paying more attention to where I was going but obviously I wasn't.   

Suffice it to say that we had been running generally downhill since leaving the pub and I remembered thinking that there would eventually be a price to pay for this loss of gradient. It came sooner rather than later in the shape of West Wycombe Hill which now loomed ahead. We crossed the A 4010 (thanks for handing me the map back at the pub Maggie I could not have written this report without it) into the park and began to climb steadily.

Not to the top however, only to a point two thirds of the way up and then rather cruelly down diagonally across a field to the A4010 again. There was now much debate about which side of the road we should have been running on at this point. I crossed over to the right hand side along with several others to take advantage of the bend but Hare Simon insisted that we should be running on the left hand side, so as we approached the railway bridge I crossed back over to the left. Once under the bridge, guess what? Simon made us cross over to the right but, as he said, this time safely in single file (Bah!).

We then ran up a track into the wood (Kit's Wood according to the map) on a very pleasant meandering path (I thought). As it turned out we would not leave the woods again until we emerged back at the pub. However there were some seriously muddy tracks to negotiate en route. Not to mention the Hare losing the trail on at least one occasion, but a vote of no confidence was avoided as we got back on track for the final muddy leg and there were some very muddy legs by the time we'd finished let me tell you!

Back at the pub and we were able to sit in the garden for the first time this year and enjoy the beer and chips. Thanks Simon and Louise, a good Hash.