Hash 1623

It was Conehead’s birthday, oh and it was also twosday…… 22-02-2022.

He was the hare, and as is the hare’s prerogative, he pre-announced that this was going to be a silly hats run. The hounds for the most part, obliged with various attire ranging from Nora Batty’s headscarf to poor imitations of Conehead’s magnificent cone hat, which he wore throughout the entire run.

James and Nice butt turned up late. James wore his village people outfit complete with hard hat. Turned out he didn’t have time to change from work.

The turnout was similar to the previous week, only 17 hounds. Are we turning into a load of fair weather wimps? The hare told us it would be 5.3 miles for the long and 2.8 miles for the short. There were only 2 hills. It wasn’t clear whether we were just going up 2 hills, or whether the whole run consisted of going up and down the same 2 hills several times.

After what seemed like a pretty long speech, which as usual was interrupted several times, we finally got going up the first hill at around 8pm. The first thing we noticed was that all the onbacks were combinations of 2s, so 22-02-2022 meant 12 people had to go back. This didn’t pose much of an issue because, as the usual fsbs were missing today, the whole hash seemed to just trundle along en masse like a flock of sheep.

Up the hill we went to Whiteleaf Cross, with loads of 2s as onbacks, no wonder the hare ran out of flour before he finished setting it. We ended up at an impressive view point on the top of some hill, only to be told this was a falsy, so we retraced our steps back down another hill.

This run was proving a real challenge to complete in a sensible time. The terrain was conspiring against us. Normally you can make up time on the flat, but the going was so sludgy, that even this option was not possible. At 9pm we still hadn’t completed 3 miles, and at the next long/short split half the hash took the short option. Once the longs had caught up and we were heading towards 9:30, the hare made a decision to take the shortest route back to the pub. It’s a shame we didn’t do the full run, but the elements and terrain were against us.

Back in the pub, apart from the usual rebellion offering, there was an excellent pint of Old Hooky to be had. As it was mexi Des’s birthday the previous week, he brought in some cup cakes to celebrate.

Someone got a t-shirt, was it conehead himself? Can’t remember.

Happy birthday to Des and Conehead, and thanks to Conehead for the time spent on doing what turned out to be a very entertaining run.