Beer Meister Guide The Beer meister has a critical role in the hash. No one want’s to go without a tasty beverage at the end of the run or have no beer for the circle…. The logistics for Beer meister are quite easy: go to shop, buy beer, bring to hash. Stocking up once every few weeks with beer, cider, soft drinks & water is recommended and we can recommend Aldi and Lidl as suppliers of good beer cheaply. Two grades of beer should be purchased: good stuff for voluntary consumption and cheaper tins for down downs. Speak to the hash cash/hash tick to get your money back.

Chef Guide The Chef is also critical to OH3: we are one of the few hashes in the UK who do food and it makes a big difference! If you have time and enthusiasm to cook, then this is appreciated, but it isn’t mandatory. In the summer, rolls with a selection of fillings are a good option and just involve a trip to the supermarket. Aim to feed 20 people, but adjust this based on recent turn out and time of year. If you want to have a crack at cooking, go for dishes that are easy to scale up, such as soup. And one important point to remember: we have several vegetarians and one coeliac (gluten intolerant), so try to go for options that cater for the vegetable lovers and/or can be gluten free. Goldilocks can provide recipes if you need suggestions. Speak to the hash cash/hash tick to get your money back.

Hare Guide The hash survives from week to week as a result of everybody taking his or her turn to be a hare and lay a trail. It is a real challenge to research and lay a good trail with the aim of outwitting the pack of runners – the hounds. It can then be very satisfying to watch them find their way around your trail. The overall aim should be to keep together a pack composed of different standard runners through judicious trail laying and the use of short cuts.

The objective of the hash is to lay a circular flour trail from the pub to form an interesting run that ends up at the beer stop – a short distance from the pub. The trail should take between 1 hour and 1 and 1/4 hours to run with well-planned checks and the occasional more difficult check to allow the slower runners to catch up, thus keeping the pack together. A re-group can also be incorporated to bring the pack back together. Further instructions can be issued there as necessary. Trails should be laid by pairs of hares (Where practical).

As the Oxford Hash always runs at 7pm on a Wednesday evening we have two distinct types of trail:

• Winter runs: Town and city based making use of the lit streets and interconnecting footpaths where the use of a torch is necessary.
• Summer trails: Daylight runs starting from pubs in surrounding villages making use of country footpaths and other public rights of way.

HARES’ RESPONSIBILITIES

The responsibilities of the hare are:

• Research and lay a trail starting from the appointed pub to commence at 7 p.m.
• Check with the pub landlord well in advance that it is acceptable to use their pub as a hash venue. Warn them that there will be up to 40 people guzzling their beer and ask them to make the necessary staffing and stock arrangements. Some landlords will provide free plates of chips or sandwiches for the group if cajoled gently, don’t push this point too hard though.
• Inform the Hash Beer Master and Chef of where the beer stop for that week will be. Also let them know where on the trail it is possible for them to shortcut back in order to set it up.
• Brief the runners of any hazards on the trail such as livestock in the fields and of any unusual trail markings.
• Keep pack together
• Make sure everybody gets back home to the pub.
• Mark the trail for latecomers. Carry some flour with you on the run to lay arrows from the pub.

RESEARCHING THE TRAIL

• Pick a pub where you think you can set a good trail from (if the hair-razor hasn’t already picked one for you). The Pub should also sell good real ale and be prepared to put up with 20 or 30 noisy hashers.
• Obtain a map for the area: use the Oxford A-Z for the city runs in winter and in the summer use the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale map of Oxford (Explorer 180).
• Plan a route using the map picking out suitable places for checks, re-groups and short cuts. The trail should be approximately five miles long.
• Walk or run the trail several times to familiarise yourself and your fellow hare with the trail. Remember that a one hour hash will take over two hours to walk.
• Plan the trail around footpaths, bridleways and other public rights of way. The use of private land must be by consent only. Where footpaths cross farmers’ fields containing livestock or crops it is only courteous to inform him that 20 to 30 runners will be using the footpaths over their land.
• Use the geography of the area to confuse the pack’s sense of direction and always ensure the pack can’t see the pub or beer stop from any point on the trail.
• Avoid long straight runs between checks, as this will just space the pack out.
• Include a few loops for the faster runners to keep the pack together.
• Checks should occur every 300 to 500 meters or so but at varied intervals and, if possible, at natural check points. The trail should start up again within about 30 to 50 meters and anywhere in a 360 degree circle, i.e. “BACK CHECKS” are allowed.
• Pick a safe location for the beer stop (i.e. not where cars are broken into or where there are double-yellow lines) and plan how the Beer meister can leave the beer truck there or shortcut to it during the hash. Hasher’s back gardens make ideal locations.

LAYING THE TRAIL

• It will usually take two hares at least 3 hours to lay the trail and will use at least 5 bags of flour. Sawdust could also be used for long grass or x- country trails, and flour can be substituted for thick chalk in urban areas.
• If possible lay the trail immediately before the hash. This will eliminate the possibility of it being washed away, sabotaged or eaten.
• Before laying the trail consider hiding some flour en-route so that you have less to carry with you.
• Lay the trail with the cheapest flour you can find: Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s value plain flour range.
• In damp conditions trails can also be laid in sawdust or chalk. The latter two can be mixed with flour for economy. For health reasons do not be tempted to use Lime.
• Do not use chalk on the city pavements as it will still be there many weeks later: very confusing for subsequent hashes.
• Flour blobs can be on the ground, fence-posts, trees and garden walls etc. and should be every 20 or 30 yards. In open country the spacing needs to be closer, especially when changing direction. During dark evenings markings could be placed below street lighting to make it more visible but consider placing it behind the street lamp away from the direction of the trail so that hounds have to look for it.
• If onlookers are curious about what you are up too then let them know that you are laying a trail using plain eco friendly bio-degradable products which will not harm their pets, you could even pass them a OH3 card and invite them to join in on the trail. This will hopefully prevent them from destroying your masterpiece as soon as you turn the next corner.

MARKINGS

ON THE DAY

• Brief the runners of any hazards on the trail such as livestock in the fields and of any unusual trail markings, or where dogs are to be on a lead.
• Mark the trail with arrows from the pub for latecomers. A fairy liquid bottle or cycle water bottle can be very useful for this. On some terrain the check circles can be cut in the direction of the trail.
• There should always be two hares – one in the middle to front of the pack and one bringing up the rear looking after the slower runners.
• If in doubt – consult the hair razor or ask an experienced hasher for help.

Remember: The main objective is to keep the pack together. Ladybird Sept 2002

Hare Ye Well Hare Ye Well is guide to Hash trial laying written by Biggles and revised by Busby, both of whom have hashed with many of the hashes in Devon. Hare Ye Well can be downloaded from there: hare_ye_well