Upham's Wood, Woodbury Common - Woodpecker and Howlin' Wilf - 30th April 2017

Everyone was reluctant to leave their cars, as rain lashed against windscreens. Fruity Bitz was back again for a visit, and obviously had brought the Irish damp with her.  Woodpecker swiftly took control of the circle and commented that it was the second time this year that his trail had been disrupted by the weather. Howling Wilf had helped plan and lay the route and there were 5 long/short splits (although they were only mini longs – I beg to differ as the last long certainly took me out of the way, albeit erroneously).

As usual on Woodbury Common, I’ve very little idea of where the trail actually went. I was with Twin Peaks for some of the time and she didn’t know either. However, I can tell you that it rained – a lot - and some of the paths had become rivers.

At the Sweetie Stop Boots was trying to trick hashers into eating his dogs’ treats, but no-one fell for it. Bertie Bassett was playing hard to get as I particularly fancied him this morning, but he came out for Wide Receiver instead. Then I made the mistake of referring to Woodpecker as Strongbow, and not realising why I’d make that mistake until Tight Lips pointed out that it was all to do with Cider.

The final long/short split was interesting as we seemed to lose marks. Fortunately, Boots was with us and found the correct way after the rest of us had gone significantly wrong. We continued in the direction that we’d gone it, ensuring that we were running parallel with Boots, and all finished up on the same track, just a long way behind.

The car park was visible from the On-Home sign, luckily, as the direction arrow had washed away. The closing-circle was short-ish. I’ve no idea who was fined as I was concentrating more on getting the feeling to return to my numb-with-cold fingers, so that I could open the peanuts without spillage. It was raining so much that hashers had fetched umbrellas from their cars. Certainly the worst weather on a Sunday for a while, or since Woodpecker’s last hash, anyway.
(Words by Bollards)

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Coming up...

7th May  Widecombe Way, Exeter (map) - Hole-in-1. BBQ to celebrate Dropped Ball' upcoming 18th.  Please bring your own meat (or equivalent) to BBQ - Rolls etc will be provided.

13th May  Stover Country Park (map) - Wide Receiver Bring change for parking

University of Exeter - Stix and Bollards - 16th April 2017

Best hash of the year - so don't forget to Rate the Hash and vote for it!
We 'Easter' Hared the trail from the Hatherly Labs, at the University of Eggseter, which is an eggcellent venue for this holiday weekend.  There were a few noticiable absentees, not including Paperwork had to go and find 'a proper toilet' up at the Forum Building, but a good sized pack of some 30-odd gathered on a slightly chilly but sunny morning.
The trail started with a long-short, with the longs fooled into going up the road towards the squash club, when actually the trail went across the valley and along the side of the cricket pitch, before heading across the road and around the student accommodation. It rejoined the shorts back at the very beginning of the trail.  Meanwhile the shorts were making good progress, along past the lakes and up onto Pennsylvania road.  Our 'check-back' caused some confusion becuase it had been coloured in, but Rocky and I remarked it for the longs to appreciate, and then (l)egg-ed it back to catch up the shorts who were heading towards Hillcrest. Eventually the longs did make an appearance, as we headed on the the Duryard Valley for the sweetie stop and hash flash.  There was some sitting down on the bench!

Then we followed Belvadere Road (its really a muddy track) behind the back of the sportds pitches, before the second long-short. The longs taking a detour downhill, and then back up 'Cardiac Hill', while the shorts continued past the sports hall (where the sign said it was 16º).  We worked our way back down through campus before the Easter Egg hunt in the woods at the bottom of the campus.  Speedy made the announcement ('BING BONG') so we all knew what we were looking for - 24 tags to find.  Goodness knows whether we retieved them all, but they were the numbers for the Easter raffle that followed once back at the car park.  Well done to Haribo, Child Catcher and Twin Peaks, whose numbers came out of the random number generator (me!), but we all took a share of the chocalate eggs.

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Coming up... 

23 April Four Firs, Woodbury Common (map) - Boots

30 April Uphams Wood Car Park, Woodbury Common (map) - Woodpecker

Tiverton - Hole-in-1 - 9th April 2017

Some may say that this was the first summer hash of the year.  Not becasue of the weather (which was stunning), but becuase of the return of Sorepoint and Paperwork after their winter hibernation. And they had brought Tiverton visitors with them (sorry, I failed to get their names, or intoduce them properly to the hash!). We all had to pay parking charges, but it was nice to know that Mid-Tiverton Council had anticipated  Miss Peak's visit as the machines were about 2 foot off the floor!

Stoke Woods - Bull Bait - 2nd April 2017

Today's trail was in honour of Splat's 9th Birthday.  Apparently, she had laid the last third of the trail (alongside Stingray), and Bull-Bait had done the rest, while CC put her foot up.We were advised that there were a number of L/S splits, with L/S standing for Lunacy and Safe rather than the usual definition.  We were clearly told that it was a 2 and on trail, but that didn't stop a number of people shouting On 2, when they should have shouted On On.