Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000	More
980	2022-03-27 11:00	Bambi - Remember that clocks change overnight!	Slindon Dukes Road	SU951073

The clocks went forward, we are on Summer Time, and the sun came out to celebrate, on an unseasonably warm day.

Before we started, the buzz was all about Dancer, who had just qualified as an official rozzer, apparently he and a load of others had got so excited the day before that they had "passed out". Now that he is getting a pay increase he can afford to move to a bigger flat, somewhere along Letsbee Avenue I heard.

I am sure that he was already fed up with folk extracting the urine long before this crowd of Hashers embarked on a tirade of innuendo at his expense.

So, with the usual cacophony of dogs rising to a crescendo we set off for the first check as the echoes of "EL O, EL O, EL O, wot av we yer" faded. Popeye, who had spent some time choosing suitable footwear before the off, managed to go A over T before even getting out of the car park, so he was already sporting a nasty gash which he referred to as "a mere trifle".

We headed East with the ever increasing sound of traffic, dogs on leads, and reached an early fish hook that caught Spiderman, Dancer and Cheesy Chips, before reaching a dangerous A29 crossing, South into the end of Slindon Common.

The hare had taken some time to mark the safest way to negotiate this hazard, and a regroup beforehand meant that we were all together, however nothing went as planned as the pack seemed to fan out and declare "every man for himself", the old adage on attempting to herd cats came to mind.

Mild panic over, we resumed the gentle pursuit of Hashing by heading East into the heart of the common through a series of simple checks and now, away from internal combustions, in the quiet of the woods, we could hear Kinky's horn ahead.

We reached the boundary of the recreation ground, where Dancer and Bika checked East while the rest of the pack checked a U turn West, both of which were false. Unfortunately the false trail mark to the West had been "interfered with", an odd case (if you are interested in such things), where the flour had been carefully laid on a pile of fresh horse manure with the aim of deterring disruption. The remains of the mark, among the scattered scat, looked like perhaps some animal, (dog, fox, badger ?) had taken a liking to the mixture, you know " I love that flour and horse crap combination, It's healthy, but is it Vegan?".

Of course, having missed the false trail mark, and even though there was no further flour, the pack continued blindly on without question, so it took a while to call them back to the path North to regroup before making an uneventful re-crossing of the main road.

Now the most pleasant part of this Hash, as we headed North West towards Park Lane through open airy forest, tall leafless beech above and soft green sward underfoot, allowing those who wanted, to race off checking thither and yon.

We crossed Park Lane into Butcher's Copse and more confined woodland with Olive Oyl and Dancer seeming to guess correctly and Kinky, Bika, Popeye and Spiderman less fortunate.

The trail continued West around the Park Pale before taking the main path back towards the chariots. It should be mentioned that only a small bunch (Bika, Popeye, Sausage Lottery, Slightly and Prancer) followed the flour here, the rest being involved in a mass shortcut.

A few thought it was all over, others had no clue as to where they were as usual, so were not dismayed at turning North again into the narrow paths and scratching brambles of Slindon Bottom. A fish hook here caught Snake Charmer and Dancer while Sausage Lottery just couldn't be asked.

That was it really, the rest was a short meander over nice crunchy leaf litter to reach the On-In after one hour and twenty six minutes of concentrated hashing.

At the circle there was much to discuss, short cutters, Bika and Popeye fall overs, Spiderman forgetting the Hash-It, which if we had had it would have been presented to Bika for an endless boring pedantic conversation about the difference between a "fairy" and a "pixie", both have wings, it's size that matters, then Bika would know all about that.

After a to and fro debate, shall we stay here or go to the pub ?, the pub won, so we made a short drive to The Old Stables, where service was swift and the garden a sunny place to compare the sounds of Japanese motor bikes making the climb towards Arundel.

On – On ! Bambi

See: Spider's Track ... AND ... photos by Bambi

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