Hashes

It was a dry, bright and fairly warm night as we all met at "The Old Oak" in Holmer Green for lucy's first time as Hash Hare, they start them young these days you know!
Left out of the pub and off at break-neck speed, you can tell who's daughter she is at the pace she has us all running. Obvs, as ever I didn't set my watch to start until about a mile into the run, by this time I was doing an on-back along with a few other FRB's on the way out of Holmer Green.

Fact 1, "Holmer Green" is named after the Manor of Holmer from the middle ages, the site of the original medieval house still remains obscure although historians suggest its location is in a moated area in the nearby Colemans Wood.

We finally we get to a check and can all take a breath, actually we couldn't find the right path to follow but a quick breather was welcomed by the large spread out pack. A well walked footpath took us to a small hamlet called Beamond End.

Fact 2,  "Beamond" is derived from the French "Beau mont" meaning "beautiful hill"

Shame it was dark coz there might have been a beautiful view from the beautiful hill, no idea?

It was however not too dark at this point for me "The scribe" to see Gerry take a moose right in front of me, that's just got me wondering if he did it on purpose just to make it into the write up? We then entered the woods for about a mile and popped out by the Squirrel in Penn Street (very popular hash venue too). (Ed's aside: Gerry's moose was into a gloriously thick pool of squishy mud, fortunately the big sharp stone burried just where his knee hit the ground absorbed most of the force and saved him from getting too muddy. Typically, Gerry's newley blood-soaked leg hadn't recovered from his moose two weeks ago - but fortunately he now only needs one recovery period for two injuries!)

Fact 3, Penn and Penn Street are named again from a Family and house, the Penn family was originally granted large parts of land from King Henry VIII and Edward VI.

A loop around the back of the Squirrel pub lead us across a claggy, cloggy, muddy, recently ploughed field to an entrance to a small thicket and a check point. After a few minutes of not finding the correct way Lucy's mum pointed out a random route back across the field we had just trudged over and Helen set off to find the flour. Eventually we poedp back out on the Penn Street Road and crosed over to the Holy Trinity Church. Back through the woods and onto Mop End.

Fact 4, In former times, Mop End was the location of an ancient Inn called The Griffin where its said Dick Turpin often visited. (Ed's asside, if Dick Turpin was a visitor to all of the pubs that claim him he would never have been even close to sober.)

Another speedy mile and we hit the on-inn sign, as ever I had no clue where we were in relation to the pub but we run to the end of the path and it is right there, I love it when that happens!

Chip butties, cakes and flapjacks balanced the few calories burnt and the beer probably took us into the red but hey I'm sure none of us are doing it for the fitness or a weight loss program.

Many thanks Lucy for a great run and thanks for letting your folks take some of the credit!