Everything seemed to work out this week. Much better then the previous week, which was a bit of a dog’s breakfast.  Maybe it was the hares laying a sensible actually visible trail with great, solvable – just – checks.  Maybe it was because Bigfoot was back in action.  Double action, having to both solve the checks as FRB and mark from them as checking chicken.  So even on the odd occasion when he did find the right trail he had to go back to the check again. Ooh the frustration …

  Anticlockwise around Ranmoor Common, 3.75 miles, as advised by the hares, on the nose for everyone except Bigfoot (6 miles).  And the hares kept the pack together in style.  At the third check, Master Bates, Fanny Sniffer and Chunderos hadn’t seen anyone else for quite a while and, wondering if they ever would, after one of the many devious back checks suddenly found themselves FRBs!  Though not for long, soon the real FRBs came charging through.  And at each check the pack bunched up again and again.

  Ranmoor Common being on the plateau of the Surrey Hills, we were of course treated to a fabulous view of Dorking and Westcott village, Leith Hill and countryside to the south.  Which was the point at which those checking stopped going right and down; it was clearly an anticlockwise trail.

  Back to the north of Ranmoor Common road and we start to head for home. The dynamics now changed as Doug the Tub was in his home territory and apart from one crafty check got everything right and led the pack on trail straight home.

  Back at the car park the pack assembled their chairs and picnics. We were entertained by Bigfoot explaining how he got his name, running on a Malaysian hash in a gorilla outfit.  So he was running in the jungle and popped out along the side of a motorway, with cars whizzing past and passengers rubbernecking this strange sight.  On TV that evening, these witnesses were interviewed and their main comment was “you should’ve seen the size of his feet!”  Apparently a team of anthropologists from the University of California despatched to the area are still trying to track him down …

  However details on that may not be entirely accurate as our Grand Master Uncle Gerry abruptly called the circle. He brought in the two hares, Hornblower and Too Posh and congratulated them on three points.

1. For volunteering to set the run thereby avoiding Bonn Bugle’s press gang.
2. For finding a car park that the hash could fit into for a pleasant change, and
3. For keeping to their bargain of setting a short flat trail in exchange for others providing them with free beer and food.

  GM then asked what the pack thought of the run.  He himself didn’t have a clue, because despite wearing his elite odour resistant Crocs racing clogs, doctors’ orders prevented him from running or even walking.  The pack’s response was pretty consistent though, great run, great checks, good length (3.75 miles – future hares please note 😀).

  RA Belcher then took over and brought in 5 miscreants whom he described as the “Magnificent 7” With himself as number 6 and explaining that the last one of the 7 was missing.  They then sang a song along the lines of “Yul never wore Cologne”.

  End of circle and the pack had already finished the mini-pin of Shere Drop … delicious!

  On On,

  Fanny Sniffer