It was a lovely if chilly day and although there was no car park, it was surprisingly easy (for Claygate) to park in the nearby streets. It was a fair size pack and our members were swelled by the plethora of visitors, including Little White Bus.  The out-trail immediately entered Claygate Common heading south west but we were not on it for long, a hairpin bend took us east towards (predictably?) the A3.  The trail, by the way, was fairly well marked despite some evidence of sabotage.  After crossing the bridge, we veered slightly south and climbed the, aptly named, Winey Hill.  I was about half way up when I saw the front runners milling about.  I didn’t hear it called but assumed there was a check, up there. Hedging my bets, I stopped climbing. Sure enough the trail had turned right at the bottom of the hill.  Skirting Chessington World of Adventure, we entered the claggy bit, not particularly wet but sticky and because of the slope of the hill, slippery.  I was mainly trotting along with Dr Death who was walking (he has very long legs!) and he told me that, so far, this trail was a carbon copy of one he’d laid a few years ago albeit, in reverse.

  We were bordering the Sixty Acre Wood and then, the Great Oaks Wood. The sound of the A3 was gradually increasing and we came to a T junction where, a short cut was offered.  It was a few meters from the next A3 bridge and Dr D and I decided (wisely, as it turned out) to take it. I assumed, erroneously, that the full trail would carry on east and take in Limekiln Wood and Birchwood, go to the next A3 crossing, Which is a tunnel I believe, and head home from there. But, evidently, it went back into Great Oaks Wood where it caused great confusion c.f. Petal’s track! For us, it was a straight forward route home. The On-In was a long one but, I believe, in order to avoid confusion (!), the hare placed the On-In sign before it crossed the out-trail. One would then naturally assume that there would no more checks and that it would be a straight route home. This, however, didn’t stop Atalanta from coming in on the out-trail!

  I thought Dr D and I were at the tail end of the short-cutters but we were, in fact, among the first. I clocked 4.38 km (2.7 miles) and Petal 8.05 km (5 miles).
  Petal had, kindly, carted me to the run and I had to await his return to get my fleece out of the car.  When I got back, I was as warm as toast but during the next 35 minutes I began to freeze.  By the time Petal got back I was developing hypermetropia because my contact lenses were shrinking with the cold!

  In accordance with the temperature, the circle was a brief affair (thankfully, He’s still away!) with the many visitors down-downed first and then the hare. The GM reminded us that when Tiller first encountered the Surrey Hash, he thought that we ran anally. At least, I think that’s what he said!  The two sinners were joined by the GM and the RA on account of their crass humour!
It was only walking distance to the pub, the welcoming Griffin, where Knickerless and ‘King Wally (with a gift for Raffles) joined us.

  For some reason there was a superfluity of chips, seemingly endless large bowls of chips appeared.  Evidently both Tiller and the GM had ordered them separately. There was almost a bowl each, very generous!  They were, of course, all consumed. The staff at the Griffin must have noticed that their customers struggle to open condiment sachets and kindly provided scissors.  Don’t run with them!

  A pint in the Griffin was a (nowadays) reasonable £5-00, c.f. The Ship: £6-96 and the very close Old Swan: £7-20.
WH3 had their daylight winter run on Tuesday with the On-On at The Duke of Wellington and, perhaps, surprisingly, they charge only £4-10 for a pint, mind you, that was lemonade!

  Our next hare, Kelinchi, was on this run.  Let’s hope that she didn’t pick up any pointers!

  Well, it was a very enjoyable day out and we look forward to Tiller’s next effort, in, at least, a year’s time, hopefully!

  On On,
  Master Bates