Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000	More
1014	2023-07-30 11:00	Bambi & Old Faithful - Summer BBQ Chez Spiders.	Appledram Lane South - Church Farm	SU844036

T’was a humid 16°C overcast and drizzling intermittently with a light breeze – one of those days that feels cool, so you wrap yourself up, but quicky overheat as soon as you start to do something.
The group of 24 of us together with Belle, gathered in The Spiders garden.
They had most kindly offered to host the summer barbecue again and even laid on post run, badminton and croquet, for the excessively active amongst us.

Bambi welcomed us all to Hash 1014.
Splasher announced that the Isle of Wight Hash were thinking of visiting us in October and that it was his birthday.
Bambi then introduced the hares as, Old Faithful and himself.
Normal symbols and beware of roads!

The well marked route was broadly speaking 2 circles with a common north – south joining piece.
The On-Out was over The Spiders garden fence, on to the edge of farm land, then circling left and down to the Fishborne channel, a marshy coast.
A slippery but even, boardwalk took us north until a fishhook caught The Ref. MJ. Kinky, Dr. Blood, Flash and Snake Charmer.
Circling left we travelled clockwise, through a maze of boardwalks over streams, skirting the edge of Fishbourne and the, Saints Mary and Peter church, grave yard.
It was then south again until another fishhook caught Snake Charmer (who checks out all our fishhooks it appears to me – that has to be worth an award), Olive Oil, Kinky and Hornblower.
Finding the 4th way at a 3 was sign post we were on the edge of a field with a small ditch.
Cries of, “is it wet” were heard.
Well really! And from Hashers as well!

South back along our favourite slippery but flat boardwalk and then right inland lead us to Saint Mary Church and shortly after a regroup.
There was a short stretch of road signposted, “ runners in road” where Hornblower took to directing traffic like a duck to water.
There was another short stretch with a corn field before we reached the way back into The Spiders garden again.

A quick change and into the garden for the barbeque dodging the bouts of drizzle.

The trail was about 3.4 miles long completed in 1 hour 2 minutes, a shorter one to leave more time for the feast.

We thanked the Hares for a great hash with down-downs.

Down-downs were also awarded to:-

1. Flash and Slightly Dissapointing for taking a long detour rather than taking a route that was “blocked”, by a soggy bit of rope.
2. Snake Charmer for raffle prizes
3. Hornblower for organising the traffic
4. Bika for attending the eating part of the event whilst skipping the running part.
5. The Hash-it was awarded to Splasher as it was his birthday.

The barbeque was most enjoyable and we sang, “Happy Birthday” to Splasher, who regaled us with stories of how well his racing syndicate horse had performed.

The raffle was held and, it should be noted, has a significant number of unwanted but well-intentioned presents in it.
TreeFeller couldn’t make the barbeque but donate money for raffle tickets.
Mike’s raffle tickets couldn’t be readily be located, so unclaimed raffle tickets were deemed to be Mike’s and a suitable, “special” prize selected to much amusement.
Intermittent chuckling cries of, “Another present for Mike” were one of the highlights.

On-On,

Popeye – typing with one finger in a splint, having injured it climbing.
Quite the modern Pirate, with his peg finger (rather than peg leg).

PS.
We wish The Panda a really swift recovery.

Popeye's track ... AND ... photos by Bambi