Sunday, March 13

6th March - Tipton St John - Dr Jekyll


Lovely sunny morning greeted the pack today at Tipton St John where our hare was eagerly awaiting. Today the pack was nearly 30 strong which was a good turn out, One hasher from Totnes, Squashed Balls, appeared for the second week on the trot. Also there was no Slipshod, is he still in Ashclyst Forest, and no Stat-Nav and as sheriff he was failing in his duties or absent without leave. It was mentioned that his hands are slowly slipping off the Woodpecker Trophy, for record number of appearances. Odd-bitz stepped in and did the honours with his usual splash of humour.

Cousteau set off at his usual pace, fast, only to be seen some time much later, even the greyhound in the pack could not match the boy for speed and as a result elected to stay with his master, the one and only Dr Jekyll. We encountered a certain amount of road at the beginning with uphill bits thrown in for good measure, which soon had the pack well and truly spread out like a thin layer of marmalade on toast. As luck would have it there were of course several fish hooks which came as a great relief to some of us back-markers, but we did notice the same familiar faces returning to see us over and over again, they reminded me of border collies, where does their energy come from! Our hare also put in several long/shorts which gave some of the rear gunners some hope being able to catch up.
The sweet stop was, as always, that chance for the pack to natter to which they are of course all professionals. Once off again the landscape turned to the hashers advantage, it was downhill and in the distance on occasions that Narnia of places could be seen namely Tipton St John. However we took the scenic route travelling in a meandering type motion before finding our way back to the village later that same year. In fact the shorts arrived back before the longs which is encouraging, the longs returning with tales of wading in the river whilst us shorts had the good fortune of crossing the river via a bridge.
Well done Dr Jekyll for a great trail and so its on-on to next weeks trail at Joney's Cross with that hare that you all asked for, Tampa. For those who don't know Joney's Cross is just off the A3052 Exeter-Sidmouth Road between the Halfway House Pub and Newton Poppleford.