Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000	Aerial
684	2010-04-25	Mussolini	Lavington Common Car Park	SU949187

Thank you Dr Blood and Pink Flamingo for providing an erudite and amusing account of run 683 perhaps we can find some other guest writers from time to time to give us a different point of view.
The rain had stopped just in time and the day was brightening up nicely, but Spiderman was a bit gloomy as Treefeller arrived having just been to the map reference given on the web site which was not Lavington Common, "the references are all messed up" said Spiderman looking down at his shoes.
Canman then told us something about a famous disappearing gun, however I wasn't paying much attention, I was watching Max running around marking his new territory.
The hares were as uncommunicative as usual, we had to assume that they also had been busy running around marking their territory, using flour of course, although ... thank god our noses are not as sensitive as dog ones.
"Okay the on-out is this way" said Mussolini, indicating a north easterly quadrant with a typical dictator like gesture.

The pack headed that way without question just like obedient zombies.
In the fullness of time and after following several long falsies it became apparent that shock horror the hares had lied, whatever next !
Old Faithful found the true trail over the road and south on the path towards Lower Barn.

There followed a series of well placed checks that kept the pack together and took us in a clockwise loop around through The Potteries ending with a regroup at the Cathanger Lane cross roads.
An outbreak of nattering here meant that things were slow to get started again and it took OF and Flash to get us moving, heading north east up the road and then north west into Main Wood.
Here, better late than never arrivals of Bika, Angel and Kermit swelled the small pack and brought the sunshine with them, things began to warm up.
The trail doubled back here and Flash and OF soon found their way, way out ahead back to the road, north east and then east up into the rhododendrons and an impromptu regroup near the crest.
More nattering as the regroup did its job and a short encounter with a horse rider, we did not have to muzzle Mussolini this time.
At the restart most of the pack did not appreciate the little puzzle of a trail that the hares had laid here and simply walked over a falsie taking a sizable shortcut, hares have no defence against mass shortcuts like this, perhaps the trail was a bit too clever.

Next on the menu was a nice stretch downhill east on to Duncton Common where there was a futile attempt to get us to cross the stream at the deep gully, well some gullible folk did cross and find the falsie on the other side, the rest turned up their noses and headed back north up the hill and then west back towards the chariots.
We were now almost in sight of the carpark, only that path that runs west along a line of old tree stumps to go at what must be the last check.
Splasher however started to do his infamous decoy run up an alternative northerly path in the heather, the pack looking on dumbfounded at what must be a clumsy attempt to take us up a falsie.
Only when the obvious trail proved to be false and Splasher didn't return did the pack reluctantly plod round a big anticlockwise loop to the on-in from the north after one hour and twenty minutes.

After thanking the hares for a great run Canman who saw "no transgressions" deferred to Dogwhistle to make various nominations, Panda for standing on a check while still looking for it was mentioned and Splasher wanted to turn in Mussolini for "murdering" a pheasant with his chariot earlier in the day, however Bika's excuse of being delayed by a closed road was not good enough to get him off for being late.
The Foresters saw us shortly after.

Bambi.