A dreary evening and a reasonable distance to travel meant the gathering was smaller than usual.  But Ringer and Dingaling made it so what was everyone else’s excuse??

We set off through the village and were keen to run to keep warm.  We went out into the countryside and all was going well.  We ran along the end of a field and a chap sitting at a nature centre asked where we were going.  He obviously owned the land and knew something we didn’t as he drove round to intercept us at the next field to say that the permissive path we were on was closed about 3 years earlier.  The hares knew that the path was impassable further on but not that it was closed.  So we had to work our way onto the road somewhat earlier than intended.  The roads were quiet and we ran carefully but managed to completely miss one footpath and run up and down on the road for some time until the hares came to our rescue!  We ended up south of the village near Warren Barn and then turned back towards the pub.  The stretch into Great Haseley was a long one but it was interrupted by the encounter with a lady who got a little cross with us for deterring the red kites from landing to eat the food she was giving to them.  She feeds them twice a day and was quite an interesting character. 

By this time we could see the windmill in the distance.  We wiggled through the village as it started to rain and went right past the windmill, across the main road, and back through the village to the pub.

We had hash words in the bar and, apologising to the other drinkers, discovered that one was a gentleman called Strimmer from North Devon!

The Yellow Shirt could have gone a number of ways:  Hotips for moaning about big holes, Dingaling for being late (a bit harsh as he gets a lift with the RA), Gatecrasher for not using a glass during hash words, Pressganger for forgetting to take the paddle on the run and destroying the long-standing premise that women can multitask, Zorro for checking through a wall of nettles or Gnome Alone for droning on as GM and posting 2 videos of people refusing to run through puddles.  And the winner is …. Gnome Alone!

The paddle, although not carried, was still awarded.  It went to Buzz for continuously running past the hare and not even being out of breath.

On On 

Hares:  Pressganger and Eric

Hounds:  Big Stiffy, Hotlips, Rubber Sole, Lemony Snickett, Wimpey, Buzz, Hoodie, Hutch, Professional Peach, Gnome Alone, Ringer, Dingaling, Gatecrasher and Zorro

Date:  28 June 2016

Distance: Miles and Miles!