There was a good turn out for the hash at the Mermaid Inn, Sherborne, with debutant hares Sue Hodges and Matt Blencowe being “helped” by Mixy Chaffey – which meant that the planned route was quickly diverted through the adventure playground; had to be done! Julie Green arrived newly married – so now Julie Biss – and Chris Hurrell turned up newly ginger, the result of allowing his daughter to practice her hair dying (shame he’s already got a hash name – “collar & cuffs” would have taken some explaining, but then again so does “CB”!)

The whole group of hashers were good enough to throw themselves into it, all going down the slide and over the balance beam and seesaw, before heading down Blackberry Lane and out of Sherborne. Sue had devised a cunning course out past the Cattery, thinking of a nice big hill to take them up, with a nasty little “fishhook” at the top – although the surprise element was lost as Jon Crane and Lee Holloway were miles ahead of everyone else and were at the top of the hill and back down to the group by the time the others had regrouped and so knew there was no real incentive to be in the first 5 to the top!

A jelly baby stop later and it was on towards Trent – apart from the two who missed the false trail cross and were nearly in Stallen before turning back – and then on to a beer stop overlooking Sherborne golf course (nice brown stuff in substitution of the normal blue stuff!). Matt Blencowe used hare’s privilege to bring his daughter, and Jess was told she’d be given extra points for beating “the old ladies” to the finish – Tina and Mel were not impressed! There was still time for a trip up through Crow Woods and another jelly baby stop before heading back to the Mermaid. No food available at the pub but it’s changing hands in a month so watch this space for future pub runs…  

Forthcoming Hashes

We now have hash dates in hand until the end of the year…

Sunday 20^th November – Ilchester Arms, Ilchester – Richard “Janus” Dodge leading

Sunday 18^th December – Drayton Inn, Drayton (between Langport and Curry Rivel), joint hash with Taunton – Mixy Chaffey

Saturday 31^st December – Fred & Sue’s annual New Year Eve’s hash (everyone excited at prospect of “left over biscuits and chocolate stop!”)

Watch out for H5 100 – January 2012!!