Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000	More
908	2018-11-11 11:00	Dr Blood & Pink Flamingo - Remembrance Day	Selhurst Park West	SU927118

If contemplation is your thing, then a golden autumnal view towards Halnaker Mill with the coastal plain beyond certainly takes some beating. With a fresh Southerly rippling through the birches Prancer led us in a silence on this Armistice Day centenary.

There were no newbies, however it was nice to see Olive Oyl and Owen with us once again. Canman clued us in to the situation regarding Soapbox and Treefeller arrived late, having come to a halt en-route to observe the 11 am silence.

There was mention of there being a poppy at almost every Check to mark the day, then without any hint as to a favoured direction the pack spread out and circled like homing pigeons until a good trail was found to the West.

Not far and we were checking again, but not for long as Kinky thought out of the box and crossed the road to find flour on a stile.

It is quite amazing that anything can grow in the big field to the south of Selhurstpark Road, very little soil, mostly lumps of flint, which made spotting the meagre trail South very difficult and threatened to twist an ankle at every stride.

Most of the pack spotted the Waypost at the bottom and made for it, regardless. Some of us remembered being here before on a Canman Hash, when he gave us one of his riveting lectures on the historical significance of Monarch's Way, and guessed rightly that we would now head West again towards Pilleygreen on this well trodden path.

Soon we found ourselves in amongst a host of pheasants that have so far been lucky enough to escape the firing squad. These proved great fun for the dogs that chased to no effect.

Oh yes, I forgot !, this day also marked Dr Blood's dad's birthday, so he lined us up to make a musical (well, let's say some sounds were involved) video clip of congratulation.

Continuing West we ventured into virgin territory, to boldly Hash where few have Hashed before, by heading South into the private shooting grounds of Red Copse. It would have been ironic to get shot on Armistice Day, however all was quiet as we negotiated a series of great Checks that lead us thither and yon, mostly following Olive Oyl, to a regroup on Halnaker Gallop.

On the restart it became apparent that we had just reached the low point of the route, everything before had been easy peasy, now everything was as chore, not helped by the Hares' very loose interpretation of the relative position of the three dots that mark a Falsie.

The lost height was regained all in one go as we climbed steeply North up Chiseldown following Snake Charmer, Olive Oyl and Kinky who had no breath left to give us the pleasure of his horn.

Another short pause to gather our flock was followed by a suicidal dash across Selhurstpark Road to reach the Easterly path that leads back to the chariots.

Now the rain started, not rain, a veritable deluge, it would have been drier standing under a power shower not to mention warmer as the temperature tumbled.

Bambi could not see anything through misted up wet specs but did manage to notice Owen taking us down a long Falsie towards The Droke before we returned to find Hashers failing to find shelter under leafless trees.

It's not clear if there was any more in the trail because we all slogged a soggy way back to the chariots just as the squall abated after one hour and twenty minutes of glorious Hashing.

At a towel festooned circle we decided to make certain that this time Dr Blood would get the Hash-It after having dodged it so many times recently.

Then with nice dry socks we returned again to The Partridge where it dawned on Bambi that you can tell that they are Dog Biscuits because they are shaped like little bones and not little bow ties as he had first thought.

On – On ! Bambi.

See: track