HASH HOUSE HARRIERS A Drinking Club With A Running Problem !

"Hashing" as it's known, is based on the crazy 60 year old idea of a Hare & Hounds paper chase or hunt. The "Hare" pre-lays a trail of flour and the "Hounds" follow in pursuit. Breaks in the trail - called "Checks" or "False Trails" - help to divert the faster runners whilst allowing the slower runners to catch up and have a short rest. The whole emphasis is on having fun, socialising, getting moderate exercise and working up a thirst. For a more detailed description go to Kobe Hash

"Hash packs" of between 25 to 60 people generally start and finish at a pub. It's one of the world's best kept secrets - even though more than 300,000 Hashers regularly do it world-wide! Click here to read or download an article on hashing

Come and give it a try. New members always welcome. Call a committee member for more info.

HISTORY OF BARNES HASH

The first Barnes Hash was on 14^th September 1983 from Rocks Lane tennis courts with the Coach & Horses as the On-Inn. There was a group of people, some of whom were ex-pats, who used to play tennis in Barnes on Wednesday evenings during the summer. As autumn approached this no longer became possible, so one of them, Charles Earle (ex Hong Kong Hash), suggested they form a Hash.

The first run was to be at the Green Man pub, Putney Heath, SW London. Someone leaked this news to the local press, the story being that the first Hash in the UK was to be started. This information filtered through to the well-established Surrey (SORRY) Hash who turned up in force to show these "upstarts" how it really should be done. Hence the friendly rivalry between Surrey and the Barnes (Yuppie) Tennis Club. Many of each membership still run on both Hashes.

Charles Earle, the first GM, and his wife Lucy (Chastity Belt) still continue to run. It started as a fortnightly event but Nick (Relic / Napoleon) Seymour, GM '86 - '89, shaped it into a stronger pack by going weekly. A typically sized pack is 40 - 50 in the summer, 25 - 35 in the winter. Barnes completed 1000 runs in January 2004. Runs start at 20:00 throughout the year, every Wednesday, in SW London and environs.

This following abridged Hashtory is taken from the Barnes H3 500th run news sheet (2-3 July 1994) and written by Charles Earle.

" The idea of the Barnes Hash was hatched in August 1983 on holiday in Kota Bahru beach in Malaysia, after I had bumped into some Singapore hashers I used to run with. But the Barnes Hash House Harriers really began it's modern day history in September 1983 when Charles Earle, Steve Archer (Doris) and the uninitiated Mike Pattison had their arms twisted by an attractive physiotherapist about to return to the Far East. She insisted in taking part in the inaugural run laid by Doris & myself, before she left the UK and this was organised for the 14th September 1983 when about 17 hashers turned up for this historic event. The hashers have multiplied and we now count a membership of 70 and an average pack of 30.

We set several runs from the Coach and Horses in Barnes, the pub which was our original sponsor. We attempted to have Young's Breweries sponsor us - hence the ram on early BH3 T-shirts, but when this failed, the owl took over from ‘Barnes’ Owl. The tennis racquet which is still on BH3 kit is a reminder that most of the original runners on BH3 played tennis together on Wednesday nights in the summer at Barnes public courts.

For the first year we ran just once a fortnight - there weren't enough hares for a weekly run. Names I can remember from the very early days are Jaqui Pattison, Annabel Gaast, Heather Pearson, Debbie Sutherland, Gill Uglow, Tony and Omar Wolfe, Peter Clark, Nigel and Tessa Edwards, David Harris, the Dunley twins, Jackie Eyres, Gurney, Michelle Rogers and of those who still run with us, John Parker, Bob The Wank, Twiggy, Chastity Belt, Bumburner, Long Prong and ABBA (apologies to the many I don't recall).

The Surrey Hash in those days ran with us a little, but always critisised our runs. Their noses had been put out of joint because a newspaper article had called BH3 "the first South London Hash".

Mike P took over from me as GM in September 1984 and I gave up running on the hash in July 1985 when I moved to Cobham and became a proud Daddy. I kept up my membership of BH3 and it was a great surprise when I took up hashing again in 1991 to see how BH3 had grown - put on the map by Relic and Bumburner, I'm told.

Subscriptions at the start were 50p a run or £20 pa. There was a curry after runs in true traditional fashion until all Barnes curry houses had banned us for drunken behaviour and trouser dropping.

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