#1181, The British Oak, Shunter

The one for the few not the many.

Spring is in the air, temperature rising and flowers blooming, what better than to go out hashing at least that’s what eight of us thought, the pub disagreed, but we braved it anyway and headed south to The British Oak.  Shunter (him again??) had set the trail and took us to Mosborough for the latest instalment.

The pack which consisted of Trunks, C'ptain M, Soggy and The Aprentice had already set off by the time Fast Eddie, Desperado and myself arrived.  We were greeted by Spiv in the Car Park who had decided to show support by doing a solo hobble. We soon caught the pack who were puzzled by a check with seemingly no trail attached.  Of course our fine young checker ‘The Apprentice’ helped us out and showed us the way passed the school and through the housing estate.

Spiv decided to concentrate on his National Geographic
Photo Competition entry this evening

Another checking puzzle presented and solved itself, a speeding Mercedes was also headed up the same path and rushed passed us, I thought only BMW drivers had the monopoly on driving like door knobs??, it was then on on for a while down the lane.  

One of the main topics of conversation was how many events we would have to run in September due to the number of postponements, there’ll be some tired legs in Autumn!  Parkrun everyday for a month?? Desperado, not so fresh off the Grindleford Gallop and suffering from a recent bout of nobbly bobbly knees, was feeling the burn and in desperate need of Jelly babies to perk himself up – good effort for coming out to play!

With the lane at an end we hooked a left towards the woods, this eventually took us across a stream and led to a long ascent, there were cries of ‘familiarity’ amongst some of the group who felt they had hashed this way before.  I reckon I got three or four checks in a row correct during this ascent, which was doubly impressive as I think it’s the first time I ‘ve done checking three or four times in a row…and still the climb continued.

Part of the trail - at time of setting

We finally entered a field where lived a few horses, the owner was out tending to them, so all would be well or so we thought. About halfway through the crossing the equestrian asked a)  what we were doing and b) if we thought it was a good idea to scare her horses like that. We explained ourselves and her initial self-described grumpiness mutated, from suspicion to curiosity to concern to genuine worry for our wellbeing;

‘Are you poisoning horses? What are you doing then? Running out here?  Every week…out here??  Different pubs, have you been drinking??  Are you lost? How will you find the route??  Are you sure you’ll find your way back? You be on your way now; I’ll be backing off slowly…

I think we convinced her of our honourable intentions, she even tried to predict the route for us.  No need we said, someone has already laid a trail, ‘What out here?  With what, flour?  Are you Poisoning horses?  and so it went on…

We continued down the lane until we hit the road, a bit of checking went on then we were on on along the road and back into the woods, where treats awaited us.  The finder got a prize of an individual bog roll (topical) and the rest of us got to share the Jelly Babies and Meal Worms….yes meal worms, some were more enthusiastic than others, Captain Morgan gorged himself so much that he even gave away the last Jelly Baby. It was then on on down then up towards Plumbleywood Lane.

Mange Tout Rodders

At this point the Apprentice committed his first act of mutiny and took three with him, Soggy, Sticky and the C’ptain.  A wise act it would seem as we got back to the car park before the others.  We were greeted by Shunter who was very apologetic about the pub being closed, not your fault, simply a sign of the times.

With all runners back we discussed the possibility of a run next week. With a hare and at least two runners committed minimum quorum was met, just need to find a publess car park now.

On On Sticky Shaft

….phew just over 700 words without mentioning Coronavirus…oops!

Late entry for the National Geographic Photo comp