How lucky are SH3 that we have amazing visitors willing to lay trails for us? Our charming hare Machinist even managed, earlier in the week, to lure F Sniffer and MoLE (yet more visitors) to co-hare, and they acted as our checking chickens to enable the hare to set up his sip stop.

The GM called a pre-run spiel which caused Spud to howl with boredom and in anticipation of the On Off. Machinist promised us a gentle 7.5 km trail with no back checks, no roads, no cars, a short cut and a sip stop – all sounded great.

And it was a great trail – varied terrain, which Uncle Gerry celebrated in the circle, decent amounts of flour, a well-marked short cut, distant sounds of gunfire, no rain, no shiggy, generous amounts of Pimms at the sip stop and a trumping Tesla; so possibly no reason to complain? But it wouldn’t be a hash if we didn’t have something to moan about! There were a few too many roads than promised, but worse …the hare raiser had politely requested some time back, that the hare made sure that he set difficult checks to keep the long-legged Big Foot with the pack, but the defiant Machinist set simple and short checks (no back checks) that allowed our RA to expeditiously solve them with ease. Having said that, particularly in the early part of the trail, the lionesses (Ms Bean, Lady Chatterley, Chastity Belt and Veggie Queen) were doing a pretty good job at the front.

Nevertheless, Big Foot was back after 54 minutes (and that included time spent at the sip stop), with other front runners arriving within the hour as well. Of note – KFC refused the Pimms sip in case it affected her running, yet was shortly after witnessed as a tumbling tosser.

In the circle GM Uncle Gerry called in our visitors-Bruce and Sheila (from Oz), otherwise known as Geoff and Anna Amblin who regularly hashed with Surrey in the 80’s and 90’s, as well as Shut That Door and KFC, plus returning visitor Pole Shagger.

Our RA was initially admonishing himself for not setting a hash from this location, so close to his own home and with an appropriately named hash pub – he nevertheless marked the location attempting to explain how Donkey Town had got its name back in 1815 due to residents being unable to afford horses so owned donkeys instead, only to be interrupted by our most scholarly hasher FRB who disparaged this notion (though Google has provided me with no evidence that supports him! Let’s see what proof FRB can provide next week).

Big Foot did get his next fact right though – July 31st being our founder Alberto Gispert “G”’s 122nd birthday celebration. Were it not for him, we would perhaps never have been brought together and able to have enjoyed each other’s pleasant company…!!🥰

The day of our hash – 25th July was National Sleepy Head Day – supposedly whoever slept late that day would be lazy and unproductive for the rest of the year, so a good thing that Atalanta arrived early and avoided that curse though still ended up with a down down, as did our late arrivals from Sidney, plus Shut that Door and KFC.

Given it was also Bagpipe Appreciation Day the RA took great delight in calling in Dormouse for his windy dog Bugsy, Machinist for his trumping car, Lord Raleigh – blower of the mouth organ, Teq and Master Bates for their horns and saxophones and Belcher who needs no explanation.

Lastly M.I.A. was punished for delighting in teasing Spud who thought she was eating a delicious, tasty treat, when she was just enhancing her appearance with lipstick; F Sniffer and MoLE for showing off their personalised hashy car registrations.

We then all (except for Wally who refused to come to the pub as he is in dispute with Badger Brewery, which means we also missed out on sharing a drink with Brenda (the co-sip stop hostess)) crossed the road to the On Inn where the most hospitable landlady welcomed us all and provided a suitably large area for us outside. Many enjoyed the generous portions of their Sunday Roasts.

Thank you Machinist, F Sniffer and MoLE! Looking forward to a more testing hash on the 7th September!

  On On,

Atalanta