We gathered at Hydons Ball car park, which was a bit like a hasher who spends too long at the On Inn (rather tight).  Hydons Ball commemorates the life of Octavia Hill who founded the national trust in 1895 and she has a wonderful memorial on the summit. Why they chose this rather hidden part of Surrey for her epitaph is not known but she must have had a local connection.  [Surely Bigfoot knows??!!]  The hash was a masterful effort from Tosser and even Uncle Gerry must have been taking the happy pills as he waxed more than lyrical about the quality of the trail!  [Did he actually do it?]  He went on and on even lobbing a mild critique of other hares whose standards did not come up to Mr T.  This was how a trail should be laid, he thundered, as the circle wondered just how much had Tosser offered him for this heavy obsequiousness which is just so out of character for the usually miserably risible GM.

  Anyway to the trail, the starting odds were firmly on a trip around the Winkworth Arboretum but no, Tosser had other plans and set off to the north east at a fair lick ( for Surrey ) with a number of visitors setting the pace including Tot of RHUM who had her faithful hound Skye to tow her slight frame round the tracks and she was joined by another visitor, Satisfaction Guaranteed with another hound Stig.

  We took in Busbridge Woods and Juniper Valley with the pack getting ever more spread out although the walkers must have been given a good short cut as they appeared close to the end. After heading south the trail then turned west towards the Ball and skirted around it frustratingly before we took the prize and mounted the mount, although the view is not that rewarding compared to the other peaks of Surrey that we know so well.

  Your scribe became somewhat detached from the pack by a feat of navigation and found himself in good company with Doug the Tub, Shiva and Simple, although the checks were marked through well and we were back by 12.10 having done 4.3 miles and climbed 500 ft overall which adds up to a very good hash as Uncle G opined.

  The circle took some time to get going while Uncle G composed himself in preparation for saying something nice. The visitors were missed out from the initial greetings although they paid their dues when presented with Atalanta’s pussy pouch and Machinist has solemnly agreed to join the ranks of the paid up hash (good for him).  The amusing downs went on a bit but as your scribe was only asked to do the notes when about to drive to the pub, he had not noted down the sinners.  No doubt the offences were as least as spurious as the ones foisted on RHUM and Atty.

  So we carefully extracted our vehicles from the Hydons Ball car park and then tried to shoehorn the same cars into the Merry Harriers parking lot which was quite difficult for a few, notably Birthing Blanket who was eventually put in her place by Le Pro.

  The Merry Harriers managed to break a long standing record for waiting to be served at the bar (20 minutes) but the beer was good and the sun came out making the garden a rather pleasant place to be for near mid October although the committee was shut in the covered area for a meeting, so missed a lot of the outside entertainment but did benefit from hash chips courtesy of J Arthur. The afternoon amusement continued and two Guildford hashers turned up at 4 pm so some Surrey hashers did not leave until well after 4 which shows how quickly time passes when you are having fun.

  On On
  RHUM