QH3 Run 913. The Spanish Bar, Ilkeston

RUN #913

Date : Sunday 21st August 2016
Location: The Spanish Bar, Ilkeston
Weather: Warm and dry 
Pack size: 14

Barritone, our hare for today has a penchant for finding excellent 'new' hash On Inns and associated virgin trails. Our run from The Spanish Bar in Ilkeston fulfilled all expectations with a well laid and well constructed trail from a pub with a really nice atmosphere and good beer. The pub looks like a small shop from the outside but is deceptively roomy extending a long way back with a beer garden bedecked by numerous hanging flower baskets. Many of the hounds chose to come by bus - there was a bus stop right outside the pub. Car users had to use the public car park just 120 m up the road and free to use on Sundays. 
The hare explained the usual Quorn hash markings and emphasised the need to appreciate that a bar didn't mean you always have to go back to the last check to find the correct path. It was a master class in how to lay a good trail with helpful arrows and bars to keep the pack on track and difficult checks that kept the pack together - no need for holding checks on this run. Ilkeston is blessed with disused railways and off-road public paths. Too bad some spoilsports had chosen to try and obliterate the flour markings on several parts of the trail. Barritone always uses lots of flour so this was quite difficult to do especially as the trail had been laid earlier in morning rather than the night before. One particular quarter-mile stretch of the course had been subjected to particular stringent cleansing that must have involved a bucket and scrubbing brush. What goes on in these peoples' heads?

In the circle the RA Chicki made the following awards:

Too Tuf and Barritone christening new shoes

1. There was an abundance of new shoes with four hashers choosing to christen new footware on this trail - Jelly Knob, Too Tuf, Chicki and Barritone, the latter fulfilling a need identified some 18 months ago. Chicki was puzzled why her new shoes were the wrong size. One member of the circle was lucky to get away with suggesting it was something to do with the colour of her hair. Too Tuf pointed out that tradition states christenings are done on the left shoe, hence Barritone's first effort (see photo) had to be repeated with the right one. Hashers should also note that there are not rules on the hash (rule one), we just have 'traditions';
2. Continuing the theme of shoes, Sausage got a DD for squelchy shoes after the bog crossing;
3. Puss in Boots was caught flashing under a bridge (at the cross-over check that must have had at least five bars and even when Butcher's Dog found the correct way it was like a maze getting out of the check);
4. Durex was punished for being a 'girlie' and pulling up his long sock to avoid been stung by nettles. It was pointed out that girlies (e.g. Chicki and Lily the Pink) could do such wimpish things (like going out of their way to get around nasty boggy ground);
5. Pre-Mature, also being a 'girlie' by following them the long way around the bog;
6.Wee Willy for running back from his first hash in Nottingham and getting back to West Bridgford before the RA who caught the bus;
7. Lily the Pink for enjoying herself (?) with Too Tuf in the wood, both received DDs; and
8. Barritone for an excellent hash. No sheep on this trail though there was an urban fox who did a better job  than many of the SRBs of finding the correct trail home. Shame about the 'invisible flour' which hares have been using in recent runs. A 62% vote for the trail was well deserved.

On On.. Durex

Trail as done by Durex