I look on HWH3 as one big happy family. It was therefore no surprise that Kerry was glad for her and Kevin to share the Hash of 2015 award with myself, though their hash had champagne. I didn't make that hash, but I was bubbling with enthusiasm to try out one of their hashes and here was my chance. Though a long way for me to drive, the closeness to the M40 made the journey time reasonable. The weather under-promised and over-delivered, and all was set fair for an agreeable summer hash, apart from Kerry's absence due apparently to a back injury.
At the pre-run briefing, Kevin told us that it was 5 ½ miles for the longs and 4 for the shorts. There was a walkers trail of 2 ½ miles. Tim, Steph and Tilley the dog were introduced as virgin hashers. They had breeding experience with Ian and Jenny (I think to do with their dog Arthur).
We set off down Salt Lane and soon took a left across one of the many wheat fields. After the pitch black tunnel under the M40 there was a long/short split and we reunited by the church in Lewknor. Kevin's on-backs followed a pattern: 2,3,4,5,4,3. After a diversion at Red Kite park and back to the north side of the M40 there was the 2nd and final long/short split. This time I went short, up to the Lambert Hotel, formerly the Lambert Arms, where we once had a Christmas Hash do.
The longs went up and along the Ridgeway, in the opposite direction to where I'd run on the summer Ridgeway relay with Ken and 2 others about 10 years ago. Both the shorts and later the longs went left to Aston Rowant, with a further left at the church there.
Mick told me about Gerry's Halloween hash many full moons ago from the Pheasant in Chesham. Apparently he sacrificed Audrey with fake blood in the nearby churchyard, which so frightened some tough-looking kids that they turned and ran away.
After Aston Rowant there was a 5-way signpost, which caused some head-scratching. We worked it out as another diagonal wheatfield run, this time to the south-west. Just as we were close to Postcombe we were stared down by a lot of udder-less juvenile bovines - I am talking a load of bullocks here. They ran towards the shorts and we ran back to the start of the field, just as the longs were catching up. Finally, we all plucked up the courage to re-cross the field and the bullocks disappeared. We all got back to the pub by 9.15.
The pub were very welcoming and we stayed a long time in their garden. In no small part because Kevin's earlier expert marshalling skills, to get us all to park off the A40, meant that most of us were blocked in. We were given chicken with chips and there was also vegetarian chips. I confess to having taken a few cucumber slices from the latter.
Roger announced that Dan is to be a father in mid November (2016 I think). 4 T shirts were given out: to Paul for 50 runs; to Nicky for 100 runs; to Andy (hot on my heels despite my 17 years of HWH3 hashing) for 250 runs; and Barney for 1,100 runs, his 22nd T shirt. A bit of a shame that he missed the other 256 runs.
It seems that Kevin had originally wanted to head west rather than east for his trail but that Oxon farmers are more inclined to let their paths be overgrown than, say, Bucks farmers. They don't know what they're missing (loud noises, dogs, trampled crops etc). No matter, it was a great run with a pub full of character, so well done, Kevin.