Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000
Run 572	18 December 2005	The Pre Xmas Joggle - Robin (not Can Man) and Phil Henderson (BIKA)?	Buriton Queen Elizabeth Country Park	SU733197

The reading said minus 5C but 16 mad hashers still turned up at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park for the virgin run of BIKA and Robin the Younger. The Can Man gave a brief historical snippet about todays date revealing that a tired Scotsman wanting somewhere to rest his balls invented the golf tee. Lets not go there.......

Then BIKA gave an extremely confusing lecture about additional hash signs involving arrows and lines and the number of dots. I could not understand a word of it but a couple of members got a scout badge - super tracker - for understanding. Does anybody remember those childrens shoes with animal tracks on the bottom? However we were sent off and had a nice jog going up hill and down dale before coming back to the chariots and finding that two shortcutters were already halfway up the hill.

The pack scrambled on to the first check which was a short lived affair and then on to the next check. We had been told that the On now depended on the number of blobs of flour you counted. The game plan was flawed from the start. Bambi and Whispers spent the day bounding ahead not seeing much of any flour and even if they had, they were hashers and the new found skill of counting was a bit hard to manage. Hashers prefer the aboriginal way of counting... 1,2, many. That they can grasp.

The trail seemed to go ever upwards but this time with the additional excitement of ice on any surface. The Can Man did have a slight tumble but nothing was hurt but his dignity and as an experienced hasher he had precious little of that. The checks seemed to come along without much reference to spots of flour or falsies etc., but great fun was had by one and all seeing one of the hares add arrows in flour whilst we were standing at a check. Whilst some thought this a bit rich, others looked on in amazement as they had not realised that hares laid flour.They thought that some mystical being like the Flour Fairy, the tooth fairy or at this time of year Father Christmas put them down.

Sinbad found one very devious trail towards the end and the pack was called back to follow this wonderful find. Not too wonderful when the found they had already been on the trail previously. With stirling work being done at the front by the Sweaty Butterfly and a newcomer from Denmead Striders (seasonably dressed in green and red) the pack began to get the feeling that we were on our way home. Over the top of the hill and we really had the scent (no not the way home)... Mulled wine.

This stirred the pack into a frenzy and they sprinted home (hash sprint, known to the general public as an amble). Sure enough when we got back there was Hornblower standing over the mulled wine with Resta the Rasta guarding the mince pies.

The pack made short work of these and then the hashit was awarded to Hornblower for preferring domestic duties rather that athletic ones. This seems reasonable.

Happy Christmas to all of our readers and lets look forward to 2006!

Humble Scribe