EPISKOPI HASH HOUSE HARRIERS CYPRUS

Epi Hashers,

To comply with the Government's Current Movement Restrictions all runs are currently postponed until restrictions are lifted; the current date planned for the reinstatement of the Run proper is Tuesday 2nd June 2020. On Pres will publish directions for Hashing with Restrictions soon.

On-On,

Aubrey.

The Episkopi Hash is one of the last gentlemen only hashes left in the world. Why gentlemen only? Well, initially when founded in 1967 by three military types from Episkopi base that was the norm for hashes. Now most of our members are of retirement age and are driven out of the house each Tuesday to give our Harriets time to themselves. How many marriages we have saved is incalculable !!

We are these days very much an informal group of mates who meet every Tuesday afternoon for a little exercise and socialising afterwards. We are, of course, always eager to meet new mates who fancy a bit of exercise.  We run, jog or walk in the beautiful Cyprus countryside for around 5 km. Following a pre-laid route, known as a trail, and this is designed for most levels of fitness – shortcutting is allowed and indeed encouraged by the hares who control the run. 
The run or walk takes about 45 mins. In the summer and an hour in the winter but is rarely on flat terrain as we avoid like the plague, any tarmac or built up areas.
Hashing as it is known began in the 1930’s amongst ex-pats in the Far East who decided that they needed to take some exercise and so began the phenomenon which grew into 3000 clubs worldwide.  Essentially it is a paper chase and you might have done one at school or seen it like me in "The Railway Children". However to make it non-competitive and ensure that it caters for most levels of fitness hares go out the day before the hash and lay 2 trails one for the runners, joggers and plodders and one for the walkers. Then the participants (hounds) follow one of these trails, with guidance (shortcuts) being given as required by the hares.

The whole emphasis of a Hash is to exercise in an informal way without any competitive pressures and then to relax afterwards with mates over a nice cool beer or soft drink. After a suitable time of taking refreshments at the end of the run/walk we always go to a taverna for a local meal to round off the day. Being such a social club, we throughout the year, have a range of events that include our Better Halves be they on the beach (we know many deserted ones) or up in the hills. These events are either catered or we bring picnics.

Happy New Year!

The Annual Run Stats for 2019 are in!

Click Link

Hash Words does not accept responsibility for any errors or omissions in the Stats unless written on the back of a €20 note!!!

Can someone tell Nogsie its 2020, not 1920?

As my tenure as 54^th On Pres draws to a close I thought another missive is due to bring you up-to-date with what is and has been happening.

The year started with the well attended Brighton Shiverer’s run. We then followed this with great runs through January and February. We had surprisingly inclement weather on many Tuesdays. Nev (Hash-Ash) successfully managed to always get a good fire going that warmed us up at the RV. Needless to say, Mark was always there to add further fuel to the fire!

The Burn’s run was well attended and Athol Brose prepared by Drew was very much looked forward to and appreciated by all who attended the chop at Michaels. We managed to have some excellent haggis together with neaps and tatties. Our Scotsmen were sorely missed, but a toast was raised to them by all hashers. Our eloquent English bard, Brian, addressed the haggis managing a wonderful Scots brogue.

The St. David’s Day run was an outstanding success. The Welsh Hares all dressed appropriately, went well beyond “the call of duty” for a most enjoyable run. Chris made a quick trip to Wales to bring back excellent cheeses for after the chop. Chris provided traditional Welsh Cawl at the RV together with some magnificent Welsh Penderyn Whisky from Bollo. Check out run 2964 on the gallery.

We managed a St. Patrick’s Day run again almost rained out, but the promise of some great Irish whiskey after the run encouraged many a laggard to complete the run. By this stage restaurants were closing so there was no chop.

COVID-19 then put awry our plans for the following weeks’ runs as we followed the Cyprus Government’s recommendations and rules on isolation. I had been told that the Hash stopped for nothing, “not even the Gulf War”. I am reliably informed however, by our Hash Historian (Mike Jones) that there was a hiatus during the invasions of 1974.

Hashers are if nothing else innovative when wanting to have an excuse to imbibe that golden nectar “Keoooo” (and perhaps even run). So the first week we simply had a “crit” from On Pres’ to keep spirits up. Then we decided this wasn’t sufficient, so since then we been having amazing virtual runs thanks to today’s technology.

To date we have had 4 virtual runs. We all meet together using  Zoom at 15:45 (quarter to four civi’ time) for a run at 16:00. The single  hare has availed of his government permitted walk/run and has prepared a video of this for the run. This is then played back. At each check the runners have to select a direction. Whoever gets the most correct On-On’s wins. One advantage of this is that we can drink Keo during the run. The run is followed by a video crit of the latest jokes passed around and an opportunity to catch up with each other and plan for the following week.

Cyprus has been relatively successful in combatting the virus, and our isolation is slowly coming to an end in the coming weeks. Though it is likely that it will be still more than a month until we can start running again. I suppose the one positive aspect is that this year we only have to contend with “virtual screw grass” this year.

Our run numbers heading towards the 3000^th. are in hiatus. There are no normal passenger flights to and from the Island and UK has yet to start relaxing movement restrictions. So, we will have to wait until we have more clarity as to what will happen in October for the 3000^th.

In my last missive I wished all hashers a healthy and active 2020. Let me simply add to that, and wish you and your families a continuing safe and healthy period during these lock downs.

On-On