Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000
Run 537	29th August 2004	Mussolini and Old Faithful	Eartham Woods	SU938106

By: Assistant to the Humble Scribe (who is on holiday)

Erfam woods car park was chocka when I arrived, a little earlier than usual, to find the hares basking in the afterglow of trail laying on a grey morning that threatened rain. Next "the ref" arrived, in the car that his wife bought for him to replace the one that had all that insulating tape that kept the engine going. Soon we were all gathered, including visitors from Wessex H3 and the return of Pete (if he has a hash name I dont know it) from Krautland. Pancsi had brought along his dicky knee to see if it was still working and the Chamois was sporting a badly grazed fetlock, aquired while learning to ride a bicycle.

After the usual rubbish from the hares we were off into them there woods to join all those other people that had already parked their cars and were presumably communing with nature. The first few checks were dealt with without drama, the pack showing an unusual keeness to root out the falsies and displaying a fitness that can only be achieved by sitting on a sofa, stuffing crisps and watching the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the 1500 metres, .... the marathon etc... from Athens. It was all too good to last, the 3rd/4th check had us completely flummoxed. I hate it when Mussolini just stands there with his arms folded and a big grin on his face, don't you ?. We got it sorted out eventualy, but not without a lot of hard work that took the wind out of our sails. From then on it was pretty clear that the trail was basicaly a right handed, clockwise, anti-helical, irregular loop. So predictable in fact that Carly (who had come back for a second dose) found a brilliant shortcut which she took in true hasher style by creating the illusion that she was returning from a long falsie. While on the topic of long falsies, surely this trail had some of the longest this season. The ON-IN appeared neatly at about 1hr and 10 mins, we all arrived in a bunch, perfect!.

There were plenty of contenders for the brown seat, why does the ref insist on wearing those red shoes without the dress ?, shortcutters Carly and Derek(given the benefit of doubt). The prize however went to the newlyweds in recognition of their first marital tiff, who cares what they were arguing about?, What is important is that they made up. Rehydration took place at The George, all in all a classic hash.

Bambi