Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000	More
969	2021-10-24 11:00	Popeye	Selhurst Park West	SU927118

Hats off for Popeye, not only did he set this trail single handed, he also found time and inclination to pick the litter left strewn around by thoughtless Saturday night revellers. Modestly, he would never mention this, however Bambi caught him in the act.

We had a sparse turnout of eager fit Hashers, even our sprightly president, Canman, came kitted out for action and joined us to enjoy the magnificent view over Halnaker Mill to the coast beyond basking in sunshine.

Our JMs were unable to join us, so Bambi stood in for them, and soon became aware of a great impatience among the pack to set off, on account of the bitterly cold wind that had sprung up, so the long entertaining soliloquy that Bambi had spent many hours devising was ditched in favour of a terse introduction of the Hare.

Popeye gave the usual lies and we set off in his recommended direction, East and thankfully into the seemingly warm shelter of the trees where our knees stopped knocking together. A short distance later we turned North and made the long gentle climb to the crown of Selhurstpark Hill with soft bracken loam underfoot and the shelter of pine to the right and beech and hazel to the left.

Hare arrows just over the brow made it easy for us to take the steep path down to Droke, however the front runners spotted some flour to the East which was to influence later choices of direction.

The steep descent to Droke was enjoyed with varying degrees of abandon, thus a small group arrived at the car park there ahead of the rest and decided on an impromptu regroup.

Among them was Dancer who is now a real Rozzer, who'd have thought it?, anyway Bambi could not miss the opportunity to regale him with all the old chestnuts, starting with a rendition of Policemen's chorus, from The Pirates of Penzance, and moving through to asking him if he had now moved to a house on Letsbee Avenue.

Dancer seemed to take this in good part but seemed relieved when the rest of the pack arrived and we started hashing once more and he did not have to answer questions about where he was hiding his truncheon.

We now set off East to Droke Hanger because of the aforementioned flour spot, with Snake Charmer getting well out in front and keeping to the contour rather than the expected climb South. This continued until we reached a Fish Hook that caught Snake Charmer (obviously), Bambi, Dancer and a reluctant moaning Pancsi, the tail of the pack is a long way back mate.

By the time we had readjusted our positioning it was clear that now we would be making the climb back up to the hare arrows on the crown, this time West on the most direct and steep path led initially by Splasher.

On reaching the top, legs now like Jelly, more arrows hastened us down the Western slope to a much needed regroup on the bridleway. And who is this? jogging up the bridleway, none other than Kinky, only nearly an hour late!, "I went to the wrong car park" he says, "I was wondering where everyone was?" even though we had an ace detective in our midst we did not question his rather shaky alibi, we were just glad to see him.

All that remained now was a scramble through the brambles up to the top of the ridge above Potcomb and a slog South to Selhurstpark Road for a long On-In, returning to the windswept chariots after one hour and seventeen minutes of full on Hashing.

Once again, eager to get out of the chill factor, we quickly circled up and presented the Hash-It to Kinky, a formality, and then dithered a bit before deciding to retire to The George for a tipple or two, where we had the garden to ourselves.

On – On ! Bambi

See: Track ... AND ... photos by Bambi