Today was a special run as we were celebrating Ron C’s 77th birthday with a three course lunch put on by Ron and free beer to follow at the National Trust Tea Rooms.

I travelled down with John K. & Mary to help deliver and set up the beer – supplied by Rowton Brewery for the après. 

Poor Ron had struggled with the weather conditions to lay his trail, the high roads around the Long Mynd had been closed due to icy conditions. Oh yes it was going to be an interesting run!

A couple of the pack were with friends of the Full Moon Hash and had been celebrating Christmas in true Hash style with a pub crawl around Birmingham,

As we waited in the valley more and more cars and 4×4’s began to arrive and, as expected, it was a very good turnout, the clocked ticked around to 11 am and Ron C. called the pack to order to give us the word, we all heard how bad yesterday’s weather was and he had struggled to lay a trail, but we knew he was just teasing!

The trail was laid in sawdust; there were plenty of sheep, wild ponies, golf balls and train and with that a long arm stretched out and pointed back up the valley and the pack called out OnOn. We soon found the trail which took us up on to the hills, this was just a taster for a great trail laid by an experienced Hare.

We had plenty of checks, loads of flights of steps, some greasy treacherous sheep tracks and even some street pounding through Church Stretton.

We managed to cross and re-cross the train line to Ludlow then over two foot bridges less than 200 yards apart!

Eventually we sighted the ‘On In’ that took us back over the hills in to Carding Mill Valley and soon the cars came into view below, the vehicles had been attracting the local wild ponies who were enjoying a good salt lick   The ponies were not going to be moved on easily as a festively dressed ranger found in a Mexican stand-off with one of them!

On Returning to The National Trust tea room in Carding Mill Valley John K and I set up the beer barrel in the Tea Room only to discover we had a slight problem, expecting a barrel of Rowton Bitter we found it was Rowton Portly Stout, a stronger beverage for a Sunday session. We did have a small quantity of the excellent Rowton Bitter and that was consumed very quickly.

The Tea Room looked very cheerful with Christmas Crackers and lights and it filled up quickly as all who were eating found space around the tables. The food was good with festive favourites and plenty of vegetables.

After last week we welcomed back Paula to carry out her duties as Joint Master and proceed to give out Down Down’s for our Hare Ron and Jofrid, no complaints about today’s trail, except it was too short, there were not enough steps and the weather was too warm! Thanks for the trail Ron.

At some point John K. stepped in to encourage the Pack to speed up the Down Down song, ‘guys it is not a dirge!’ For breaking the Hashing cardinal sin, Hashing is NOT competitive!   Dasher got a Down Down for careering down a slope in sight of the car park to make it back to his motor first!

After the Down Down’s the Circle was handed over to Mary the Raffle Mistress, and, no complaints as Ron C won in the lottery of life, taking home this week’s Toblerone. He tried to convince me it wasn’t for him but for Jofrid.

Graham made an announcement about next Saturday’s Hash pub crawl around Wellington starting at The Cock Hotel at 7.30pm.

Ron thanked everyone for their birthday greetings and attending his Hash and Jackie presented him with a gift card on behalf of everyone, with the hash bursting into a chorus of Happy Birthday which then turned into Happy Birthday Mondial, as we had versions in Spanish (Paula), Italian (Pablo), Polish (Ewa). and Chinese (Wei Lee). Not to be left out Jude then belted out a Black Country version. What a very talented Hash we are!

With all the Rowton Bitter drunk, several bottles of wine and a dent made in the Portly Stout, the Pack began to thin. It was getting gloomy and homes were calling.  So ended a most excellent day, thanks to our generous Hare.

Happy Birthday Ron

Next Week Run 2285 Hares: Keith and Kate meet at Shelve, with the après at The Stiperstones Inn.

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 On On FINGERLESS