On a gloriously hot, sunny, Friday evening, hash number 797, hared by Sir Tom Tom, commenced at 6.30pm in Hornby’s car park. There was a reluctance to form a circle as it meant stepping out of the shade but the RA hastily revised an early ruling on hats: in exceptional circumstances hats CAN be worn in the circle when temperatures exceed 25 degrees C. Thank goodness, as we might all have suffered heat stroke before we began, Sir Tom Tom’s preamble was lengthy. We knew we were in for a long sermon when he produced his handwritten notes on several A4 sheets….the gist of the instructions was to follow the trail, (isn’t that the whole point of hashing??); don’t go through unmarked gates or gates marked with crosses, don’t go up hills as the styles are broken & dangerous, watch out for a Wimps/Rambo split and follow the flour! However, it was just as well I was paying attention because then there was a further option - wimps route, a Rambos route, and also a “Rimbo” or perhaps a “Wambo” route: at the split continue on the Rambo Route along the river but then wait for a lift from Mealbank Bridge back to the finish!!! Well I never.

Finally off we set, slowly, as it was VERY warm, led by Large Package. The route on the way out was exceptionally well marked with regular blobs of flour and neat evenly spaced arrows, all was well. We ran across lush green fields of grass, no hosepipe bans here in the NW, and on to the Main Street in Wray, where we met Sir Tom Tom checking for sabotage on the route. We came to the river and followed the path along it’s edge, across the road where we could smell the sewage works, very scenic. Amazingly, the path we traversed back in December in knee high mud, was dry and shiggy free, in fact the whole route was shiggyless, checkless and fish hookless. The only hazard was a field of large inquisitive cows. Then on over a couple of shoogily styles which were well arrowed pointing back towards Hornby, but then we came to an unmarked gate. We’d been told never to go through an unmarked gate, however due to insider knowledge I knew there was no other option. On we went and saw some arrows, we were back on track. But the Wimps it seems were not so lucky, their route was sabotaged and so they had to work out their own route back, however Rockafella foolishly admitted to spotting some flour and was punished with a down, down! Off His Trolley & Wears the Soap risked the new “Rimbo” or was it a “Wambo” route, but hadn’t listened to the explicit instructions at the start - WAIT for the Hare lift back and ended up walking, I believe they got back around midnight……

Hard Astern & Ready About made it back quickly and enjoyed a quick dip in the river to cool off, I skived off back home, pizzas were calling. I hope everyone had a good meal at the Station Hotel in Caton. The good news is that for the next Hornby Hash there may be a pub, the Castle Inn is due to open in September, the bad news is that Hornby Butchers is closing, also in September.

On on…

Glassy Lady