The last Sunday of October saw a goodly sized band of hashers descend upon the well to do area of Rowlands Castle. It was good to see Veronica back with the pack as this gives a spur to those dedicated runners who try and keep up with her. As everybody was on time (even Mussolini) there was a short introduction to newcomers and we were let loose to find the trail.
As we all knew where we were, the Can man and I set off for Stansted forest as we were sure that was where the trail would be. Hairbrush, Pancsi and a few other crafty souls set off in the direction of Havant thicket as they were sure that was where the trail would be.
Alas a cry was heard from one of the aforementioned newcomers who had found the trail going up towards a quiet little dead end. It must be said that when the hares are a couple and trails lead up quiet little dead ends and hideaways my suspicions are roused regarding their hobbies and pastimes......
So we were led around the back of houses and through some nice deep shiggy until we came to a road where we were led across and down to a field which appeared to have no paths or exits but after some meaningless ambling the true trail was found past some bedraggled ponies and into housing estate land.
After what seemed an age we were led into the familiar areas of the country park where we were much more confident. I dont know why we where confident as we all got lost but finally Miriam spotted some flour (the first of the day, or so it seemed) and we followed like little lambs.
It seemed more than coincidence that we kept going around and around the Staunton Arms. This was after we had a short speech at the start from Hash Flash doing a good advertising job for that noble hostelry.
Was he on commission we asked?
Cutting through alleyways we came upon an estate of modern pseudo executive houses which all look exactly the same and therefore give no clue to poor little lost hashers as to their whereabouts.
Mussolini finally shouted On, On and we were led from the wilderness to a road that we KNEW led back to the chariots. Trotting off down the road we found an alleyway which led around the houses before going to the green at Rowlands Castle so we knew that the hares had put this in as one last tricky check rather than let us take the obvious On Inn.
However the hares were (and are) trickier than we thought and we soon found to our dismay that this was a double bluff and the obvious trail was the true On Inn.
So one final effort and we were back to base where after a short break for cleaning off the mud Linda was awarded the hashit for telling the truth or some such heinous crime.
We then departed for the closest pub which was the Fountain.
This turned out to be a bit of a dump and we were all a bit miffed that the hares had not suggested the admirable Staunton Arms for the apres hash as it serves good food in a comfortable environment and is close at hand.
So with winter approaching we look forward to more mud happy hashes. On On.

Humble Scribe