The Runday Shag

Issue 2536

Date:        25 August 2024

Hare:        Mother Brown & Pink Pussy

Venue:     Ave de Cagny, Pirbright

On On:     The Cricketers on the Green

MOTHER BROWN GETS HIS KNEES UP

  Many hares have set trails from the Avenue de Cagny, so you all know the terrain; yet Mother Brown managed to find paths that were variants on those we knew, teasing us with a sense of half-familiarity, so this was a distinct success. We were joined by six or so runners from North Hants, fitter and faster than we, yet towards the end those from Surrey no longer that quick did come upon a check which had yet to be solved (it was, like a fair few today, a back-check). So indeed was the last check, near the church of Pirbright, stuck in a field with what looked like a solution (in the wrong direction, Belcher and I followed it…) but was in fact just random blobs of flour which had fallen there.  I am not sure what became of Pink Pussy, today’s co-hare; she was not at the Circle for stand-ins as GM and RA to thank her. (J. Arthur and Uncle Gerry, since you ask).  So the hare had a double drink, which proved too much for him, a sight seldom seen at our Circles, where the drinks awarded to hares and sinners are parsimonious by historical standards.  But Mother Brown did do a high-stepping little dance.

  Plenty of sunshine, and good scenery: largely woodland, which is fine for Surrey.  Yes, occasionally on tarmac, but that must be unavoidable on a Pirbright trail.  I suspect we shall be seen here again.  Surrey are acquiring a new member, named Helen; no one has yet given her a handle, so until she acquires an official moniker, I propose “Ships”. You will all recognise the quotation from Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, which goes on “Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss”. Shakespeare had contemporaries as playwrights who in his absence would be much better known today.

  Unable to match the pace of real front runners, I am at least in a position to pay tribute to hashers who keep up well; today I select for mention First On, CL, and Mrs Robinson.  I thought myself successful if I could keep them in view and occasionally get near them.  A fast walk is quite enough when the checks are difficult enough to slow the speed merchants.  Not that we had that many of those today; I have not seen Kelinchi for weeks, nor Popeye for months.  Come back, all is forgiven! 

  Some of you may have watched the recent TV programme about corporal punishment, and will have reflected on your own experience.  I assume most of us were struck in our childhoods, at home or in school; and given our age, most will have smacked our own children.  My own mother abandoned any attempt to smack me when I was sent to a Jesuit school: they use a leather strap (a ferula) with a whalebone core to strengthen it. Punishments, on the hands, were a minimum of six, a maximum (very rarely used) of twice twelve.  The bruises lasted several days, while the pain at the time was intense.  I do not consider I was damaged by the ferula, but other boys may well have been.  Assumably the priests using it were warned of the dangers of sadism, but in secular schools there must have been sadistic teachers.  The campaign against corporal punishment found accusations of pleasure in punishment especially effective.  The problem of how to discipline children is of course still unresolved.  Exclusions are increasing: what solution are they for troubled teenagers?  Perhaps schools need a fundamental re-think.  Subjects which youngsters find genuinely relevant?

  On On, FRB

Editorial

We’d like to draw two things to your attention (they are also on the homepage noticeboard).

  1. We are planning to order new SH3 T-shirts and Long-sleeve Polo shirts.  Stop press!  We have switched supplier and are adding a rugby shirt too.

     

    You can get an idea of what is available on the following page:

    Hash Merchandise

  2. Chunderos is calling for expressions of interest in the Surrey Hashical Mystery Tour:

Tour info

The stand in RA/Spare everything informed us that the GM was bonking her way across America (lucky her) so it fell upon J Arthur to seize the reins once more.

Trail 2536. 

Good use of territory with plenty of checking at the apexes.

Red-Eye, Lo Profile & Lord Raleigh.

Thanks to Lord Raleigh for this trip down memory lane, not so long ago – 2001 (!) when two of these geezers were JMs, but which two?  

And some old comments on Lord Raleigh that he didn’t know I have…

Quote from rs1401 (17 Feb 2002, trail set by Doug the Tub & Mrs Robinson in Ranmore):

Lord Raleigh is running faster and faster (good FRB material for the youth development squad).

And from rs1474:

Full marks to Lord Raleigh for solving the only hard check; the trail had gone through the one wet patch left in Surrey after our heat wave, and we could solve it neither forward nor to the right nor back (and some of us tried all three).  You  will see that we did not try  to the left; this because there was no path to the left, but Lord R found it anyhow.

Pictures – Click for larger copies of these & many many more in this week’s album. (MANY MORE!!)

Trivia

Jesus loves you?

Scroll to Top