Hare: Danny McBride
Co-Hare: A T Pusinelli, D Mc Graham, J E McGregor
Venue: Ladang Jasmin "Air Panas", (Bindora Sdn Bhd), Kampong Hulu Kalong, Ulu Yam Baharu, Selangor.
Scribe: Colin H for Elaine Leong
Run site was a few yards from the Hot Springs behind Bundora and it was a pleasant afternoon. The afternoon started off well with the beer wagon getting stuck and requiring a push to get it back on solid ground. Now guys it might have been easier to push if you'd waited until after we'd drunk all the beer.
The run started promptly at 4:30pm by GM and we all headed down the trail between oil palms. After about 500m we came onto a fresh clearing just in time to hear the on-on call for the first check. The check broke up the hill to the left and it looked like a fair climb just to get to the trail. Needless to say all but a few of the hardy FRBs took any easy pace up the road. Robin Cox was seen heading up the hill to the right and on enquiring why he said it was most likely a right hander and that he'd find the paper just up the hill. As it was actually a left hander we didn't see Robin again.
Followed paper for a while and it just went up and up. A couple of times I heard calls of "Checking" and "On On" further up the hill but I never caught up with FRBs again. The trail just went up forever. With 7 yo Jose by my side we kept heading up the hill, passing a few out of breath young ladies and leaving a few grown men in our wake. I think we climbed for over 50 minutes.
Alas, no view at the top, just tree cover and a pigs wallow with clear evidence Sophie and Wilma had gone for a swim. From there the trail went down and then down again. Just a bit steeper than I'd like and the old knees started to play up. Steep hills do that. Jose was running and kept pestering me to keep up. Jane & Nancy passed us on the way down. Eventually we reached the valley floor and the trail headed off to the right. There was a nice road off to the left which I was tempted to take but as I didn't know the area we followed paper. It seemed like several more kms of relatively flat trail, good running if one could run, but when you can't, and it's late, and you've just climbed a f..king big hill, it seemed to drag on.
Just getting back to close to the cars when we spot the Hot Springs with Danny and crew there. Headed over for a nice soak. Nancy and Celine kindly brought over a few well earned beers and so we stayed soaking in the Hot Spring until it washed away the memories of that awful climb.
The run was followed by short and humerous circle with usuals getting a down down.
On On was at Restaurant 1688 (?) with copious quantity of delicious food for only 10rm. Triple on was at Ronnie Qs to watch the footie.
Thanks to hares for an interesting run on new trails and a great afternoon.
Hare: Elaine Leong
Cohares: Dogshit & Jane Trane
Runsite: Kundang Lake
Scribe: Opera
This has got to be a run to be remembered and talked about for a while yet. Not quite for the quality of the run itself - or the lack of it, to some - but for a very disturbing incident: a hasher was waylaid and robbed!
While in the past there have been occasions when hares were relieved of their valuables at run sites either during recces or on the day of the run, this was probably the first instance when someone gob robbed on trail. Okay, I lied, it wasn’t on trail, truth be told, the victim was actually off paper doing a shortcut. So, Rob Stott lived up to his name. There has got to be a moral to the story – so, pardon the cliché - it doesn’t pay to shortcut!
For as long as I can remember, Kundang Lake and its surrounds have always been choice run sites, what with the immense expanse of estates that spans a full 180 degrees on its eastern, western and northern flanks. In my 20+ years of hashing, we have witnessed the numerous transformations of the area, as old growths were chopped down, new seedlings were planted, nurtured, and then grow into mature plants - now almost exclusively palms - and become such a boon to us hashers. With each stage of the cycle, we moved run sites to secure the maximum canopy for the run of the day. Unfortunately, this sad episode might mean the end of our hashing sojourn in the area, unless the authorities take effective measures to nab the culprits and prevent similar incidents from recurring. The irony of it is really laughable, because on the far side of this vast expanse posits the biggest incarceration center in the country, the Sungei Buluh Prison!
The run. Well, there were not much noteworthy things about this particular run to share. If one is content running in circles around a playground or in the lake garden, this serves the purpose well enough. There was ample running indeed, 8 or 9 km of it. But, looking at it from a hashing perspective, the run and checks were as straightforward as it gets. There were 7 checks, but up till the 6th, we were never really more than 300 meters from the Guthrie Corridor Highway.
From the outset, the hares took us into the oil palms, basically running on the edge adjacent to the highway. An easy 1st and papers then led uphill, still on the same heading. By the 2nd, it became obvious to those who have a fair idea of the general area that the hares will likely take us across the highway through the tunnel. This inkling very quickly proved correct. That about set the tone for the rest of the run and how it will traverse.
The trail towards the 3rd passed through the tunnel that doubled as a culvert, or perhaps the other way around, and looped to the left up a hill lock where the check was broken in about 20 seconds flat by FROP Lawrence. A long stretch of great running ensued, about 2km of it, which went past the second tunnel for an obvious 4th check. This was the high point of the whole run, because the paper trail, having passed the tunnel, then snaked back towards it on a 3m deep culvert with about 6 runners caught in it, and JM Kamikaze couldn’t help himself but kept shouting “where the fuck are we” in mock mimicry of the popular song ‘Wild West Show’.
The subsequent checks were of no consequence, for they were all easily breached, therefore not serving the purpose of keeping the fast runners in check. Not that it mattered, because by then hashers were spread out all over since the direction the run was taking became self-evident and the slower runners and walkers were taking full advantage to shortcut through without following papers thoroughly, although this was to become a bane to one particular SCB.
The FROPs got back to the wagon in a little over an hour, and the rest trooped in over the next 45min or so.
Hare: Opera and Uncle Shag
Venue: Rawang Water Tank
Scribe: White Rajah
Well what can one say when the run is set by a pair of cripples, (Uncle Shag with his knees, too much shagging, and Opera falling over in Songkhla trying desperately to get a shag). I suspected that they may have got a TA ringer from Mother Hash.
Jimmy and I discussed the possibilities and suspected Wong Chee Kong or Paul Lai.
Arrived just as the pack set off, and got to the first check about 10 minutes later, where I found the remnants of the pack. In there wisdom the hares set the check next to a pump making a good impression of a German Tank with no muffler retreating from Moscow.
Saw some people disappearing into the distance towards the railway line, but when I called ‘Are You’ got a reply from the opposite direction. So dutifully picked up some paper from the trail and laid through to the call. Hit paper after about 200 yards.
Climbed up through the farm and at the top same the back of the pack below, so followed on down. Followed paper all the way. Looked like a Wong Chee Kong run, up under the power lines down the other side before the big push over the hill to Kuang.
At this point I ran into Dave and the two dogs coming from the other direction. After some discussion decided one of us was running it backwards, so turned around and headed home for the Beer Truck.
After discussion with Opera, who insisted that the home trail was 800 metres from the Check I think I worked out what happened. The paper crossed the bridge and went right, maybe it was several hundred metres further to the check, but unfortunately when checking is called people will often start check from much earlier on the trail, looking for a back check. From the point where the trail crossed the bridge it was only a couple of hundred metres, compounded by the noise from the German Tank making it impossible to hear calls from the true trail.
The usual circle was held, forgot who was charged, but I am sure “the usual suspects were apprehended”.
Forgot if it was this run or not, but I think the On On was at Equatorial where we had great food.
Thanks Opera and Uncle Shag for the run.
On On