Freezers

Pissquick Glittertits Donut Hashgate Fannybag Bogbrush and dog Pebbles Dumper C5 C4 Hamlet BGB Gnomealone Desperate Shitfor Cerberus Billy Bullshit Iceman Hitchhiker Spot Flash Rainbow Warrior Lilo and dog Emma TinOpener Cheating Twanky Dorothy Lonely Skinny Dipper Motox Lunchbox Dave Sue Mother Theresa Lemming Posh Bomber Poca Centaur Dwight Scoot Old Dog Ms Whiplash Whinge TC Fanny Sniffer Florence Dave Messenger Boy and dog Lucy Foghorn Mr Blobby Mrs Blobby Shandyman

Shitshoveller’s Hash

I’m sure most of you are aware that Dave Busby (Shitshoveller) passed away very unexpectedly recently. We have lost a really nice man and a very good friend to BH³. He thought of the Hash as his second ‘family’. He has Hashed all over the world and was always enthusiastic, running several times a week at local Hashes.

On a bitterly cold morning we stood in silence and paid our respects after C5’s perfect eulogy. The picture on the left is of Dave at Bude last year, on his birthday. His deep tan is the result of leading us on the mother of all walks along the Cornish coast in blazing sunshine. In a typically generous gesture he bought the exhausted group a delicious cream tea at the end of it. Dumper also recalled his generosity. When Dave heard that Dumper was looking to stay at a B & B to be near Septic in hospital he immediately offered him room at his house.

Dave was our Trailmaster and approached the job professionally and with good humour – it isn’t an easy thing to do. He also filled in any gaps and made sure we always had a Hash by laying Trails along with Penny. Dave will be sorely missed and our thoughts go out to his wife Penny, son Chris and the rest of his family.

Today’s Hash was due to be laid by Dave and Penny and we offer many thanks to all the Hares (listed above) who stood in at the last moment and laid a darn fine Trail in freezing weather.

Let us also thank Old Dog, who strode into the literary lion’s den and wrote the last two Gobsheets with a panache to which V.S. Naipaul can only aspire. Tolstoy – who’s he? Dickens – a mere scribbler of circumlocution. Fitzgerald – a tad flashy. The lassie’s prose leaves the reader breathless. She has no equal.

Like I said, it was frozen. Literally. (F)rigid water cracked like pistol shots as we tramped on its stiffnesss and the icy shards scattered left and right. What unfrozen water there was seeped into one’s plimsolls and gripped the toes with arctic fingers. My own fingers, gripping the recording machine and attempting to press its tiny buttons turned into reddened claws earlier on (which probably explains why I lost most of the Hash names – apologies if I missed yours) and only the loan of Twanky’s gloves prevented frostbite and the possibility I would have to drink my later pint with a straw. Desperate opted for the hoody look, so beloved of the good Mr. Cameron, and I almost followed his advice and hugged her just to try and get warm. Curiously, people like Dave and Fanny Sniffer elected to wear nothing but a T-shirt on their top half. On the other side of the body temperature coin Donut sported a duvet over several layers of thermal insulation, space foil blankets, beaverskin leggings, sealskin elbow muffs and a camel fur balaclava. Think hers was probably the more sensible approach.

However, after a few miles of the Trail we began to warm up quite dramatically and we were pretty steamy at the Regroup. This was where Billy found that the tall footpath signpost could be taken out of its socket. So while Messenger Boy was off taking a comfort break he put Lucy’s looped lead round the hole and replaced the post. Messenger Boy was suitably perplexed that his dog had managed to jump high enough to get her lead round it! Those who chose the Long Trail from this point were not to be disappointed. It was a pretty long trail. We seemed to be running for ages. The Hares had laid Checks, one-blob Checks, Two-Way Checks and Rampant had felt it necessary to put down a Field Check. Even though the area wasn’t really a field. More of an extended lawn really. There was also a Check with a smiley mouth and three small tomatoes for the eyes and mouth! Different. He had also placed what he called a ‘Sucker Blob’. This is a scatter of flour off the Trail that makes the sucker think he should go uphill on a different path. Worked perfectly for C5. He got caught out later on another part of Rampant’s section. Since this particular Hare runs quite fast his idea of laying blobs is one every 250 metres from the Check. So poor C5 ran about 200 from the Check, found nothing and came back. Only to find Rampant pointing everyone whence he had returned. Interesting thunderstorm brow, C5. Probably best that my telepathic skills are in their infancy. Though I might have learned some words I hadn’t heard before.

Almost at the end (of our tether) we watched a huge herd of beautiful deer, all warmly dressed in insulating fur, streaming across a field in a rather more lithe and sinuous stream than our own exhausted, raggle-taggle, foot-dragging mob. It was quite a relief when we hit the On-Inn and we all dived for the cars to change into warm, dry things before raising a pint to our dear friend Dave.

On On. Hashgate.

Down Downs

RA C5 presented the following :-

A very polished performance

Up and Coming

Next Run Sheet

From Iceman - I am trying to put the next run sheet together. I have a draft from SS which has people for all the dates except 3rd of May (and the last entry 24th May which should have been SS and PP) but few Venue details so I am chasing up the Hares. If anyone who volunteered could send me their details it would be appreciated - iceman@berkshirehash.co.uk