The Hangover Hash was to start at Selhurst Park instead of Freeman Towers as it was felt that we knew the area too well. It did not bode well when half of the pack was in one car park and half in the other but this was soon resolved and we were ready to start the first run on the new year. Mussolini was wielding the whip for the last time, and after a short speech we were off (8 minutes late). The Doc had brought along as many family members as he could to swell the numbers and we had newcomers on the first run, Michael and Beth and small baby who actually volunteered to lay a run (tardy hashers take note).
We set off along the familiar trail but then we started to go down, down, down. This is always a problem as this does mean that you eventually have to come up. The first check gave an indication of what was to come with the Hares managing to confound the laws of physics by finding a lot more ups than downs before the day was out.
We set off up the trails to find that after a couple of checks we were confronted by a barbed wire fence which made a back check inevitable. Newcomer Beth started to run up a hill on a long falsie (dont worry we will cure her of that) and Hairbrush and Old Faithful trudged up the other hill leaving the pack to ponder upon which was the true trail. As the On On was heard we all set off in hot pursuit of the leaders only to find that at the next check the hares had been really sneaky and taken the trail through the forest and off of the pathways we are used to.
The boys (mini-Barty and mini-Bell) managed to acquire the trophies of some dinosaur jawbones leaving Whispers and others showing their ignorance by trying to prove they were deer or sheep bones.
So ever downward towards Droke car park and a suggestion of crossing the road but Mussolini was not fooled (he spends a lot of time hanging around woods you know) and the trail was soon found.
By now we were accustomed to the inevitable up but as it was towards the chariots we were cheered a bit.
It was as we were wheezing up a hill that I mentioned to Joan that my brothers wife had just completed a 145 mile run from Birmingham to London. I know Joan replied I saw her but I pulled out at 89 miles!.
I found an excuse to run with somebody else. Most hashers have trouble even driving 89 miles.
At the next check the trail was up and towards the finish but there was the Doc at the end of a falsie stopping and short cutters (as if any of OUR pack would short cut). So two more checks and then back to the car park and on to Freeman Towers for the Hanover Hash where Joe Bell received the Hashit for asking for it!!!
The JMs then presented your Humble Scribe with Hasher of the Year (by virtue of the fact that all other candidates had already received it) and then Old Faithful gave a review of the year before handing over to the new JMs - Simon Splasher Lawrence and Joyce Porrett (except Joyce was not present or maybe invisible). As a JM must have a nickname Joyce has created her own by this action - so Joyce Invisible Porrett is born. So Splasher and Invisible (aided by Pancsi Enticott) got down to the serious business of the year - the raffle. Many wonderful prizes were won but the prize of a weeks holiday in Bali has still not been claimed so if the winning ticket could be presented to the JMs we can book the flight.
Mention must be made of the generosity of Sue Spooner for providing the beer always gratefully received by the hash. On, On for 2002

Humble Scribe