KENNET VALLEY HASH HOUSE HARRIERS

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If you are keen (but not.. well..squeaky keen) on cross-country running, then why not turn up for a run (or walk) with the Kennet Valley Hash?

We are a friendly bunch of about 15 runners and maybe 15 walkers, who meet every other Sunday. We follow a trail of about 5-6 miles for runners and, half that distance for walkers.

Each time we meet at a different pub within a radius of about 15 miles from Marlborough - so we see a lot of beautiful countryside, and it never rains, (strange but true) - well not during the past 6 years, anyway.

Hashing is not a race; more of a hare-and-hounds event, following a trail laid earlier by a different volunteer each time. And with plenty of false trails and blind alley to check out, the leader can soon become tail-end Charlie at any time. We set off at 11:00 sharp(ish) and are usually back at around 12:30 - for a couple of pints and Sunday lunch. It's a lot of fun, not competitive, good exercise, good beer, no anoraks allowed - so why not try it and see? Advanced age and/or lack of ability are no bar to participation!   

Contact:                                                           Last updated:

k.mitchell@griffins.co.uk                                 11/08/2008

jer@xyz.port995.com

To begin at the beginning, as they say in all the best yarns, one should go back to 1938 in Kuala Lumpur in what is now Malaysia when a group of ex-patriates associated with the rubber plantations started a modified paper chase in order to work up a decent thirst before retiring to the Selangor Club. There the restaurant was known locally as the "Hash House" so naturally the name was adopted by the harriers and in contrast to other groups undertaking similar activities the name stuck. The particular genius of the founding father, A S Gispert, nicknamed "G", was to make the traditional hare & hounds running more fun by making it non-competitive. But you knew all that really, didn't you?

So we will move on quickly to the Second World War and its aftermath which became known as the Malayan Emergency when British and Australian troops joined in the fun and when posted elsewhere began new chapters and the Hash House Harriers spread throughout the world rather like the AIDS virus spread from a central origin in Africa. You knew that, too? Well, perhaps not the fact that Hashing is an affliction akin to AIDS but how's this for exponential growth:

Both servicemen and diplomats have been largely responsible for the contagion spreading and indeed the first known recorded hash in the UK was the Commando Forces H3 based at Plymouth founded in 1969 by the then Col Ray Thornton (ex-JM of Singapore H3) which flourished in the early seventies but like many military hashes petered out when postings decimated the membership Ray went on to found Bicester, Donnington and Looe & Liskeard which survived by becoming predominantly civilian hashes.

See also the entry in Wikipedia on hashing.