EPISKOPI HASH HOUSE HARRIERS CYPRUS

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

 

THE BRIGHTON SHIVERERS!!

 ..... and the RUN STATS OF 2018 - HASHERS ON THE ACTIVE LIST!  

EPISKOPI H3 - RUN STATS FOR 2018 - TOTAL RUNS 54
HASHER	RUNS	%AGE OF RUNS 2018	HARES	RUN/HARE RATIO-2018	CAREER RUNS	CAREER HARES		CAREER RATIO
Peter Hogg	51	94.4	3	17	713	93		7.7
Tony Flower	50	92.6	5	10	644	78		8.3
Jim Burke	49	90.7	8	6	1109	167		6.6
Dave Norris	48	89	7	6.9	1163	185		6.3
George Trotter	46	85.2	9	5.1	185	23		8
Laurie Mitchell	46	85.2	8	5.8	795	98		8.1
Mike Hillyar	45	83.3	5	9	937	93		10
Trevor Kemp	41	76	4	10.3	481	59		8.2
Keith Johnson	41	76	4	10.3	68	7		9.7
Barney Bruce	40	74	8	5	635	79		8
Ray Turford	40	74	3	13.3	1220	138		8.8
Aubrey O'Callaghan	39	72.2	8	4.9	158	23		6.9
Roger Smith	39	72.2	3	13	461	41		11.2
Mark Foley	37	68.5	4	9.3	529	45		11.6
Jim Adair	36	66.7	3	12	424	39		10.9
Mike Blocki	34	63	9	3.8	209	36		5.8
Mike Jones	31	57.4	6	5.2	145	27		5.4
Jimmy Carroll	31	57.4	3	10.3	1148	130		8.8
Mike Ball	30	55.6	3	10	876	86		10.2
Dave Marks	30	55.6	2	15	227	15		15.1
Peter Moore	29	53.7	7	4.1	564	74		7,6
Nick Smith	29	53.7	3	9.7	571	60		9.5
Paul Maynard	29	53.7	2	14.5	29	2		14.5
Drew Muir	28	51.9	2	14	624	48		13
Mike Woods	25	46.3	4	6.3	208	26		8
Nev Rushton	24	44.4	4	6	645	95		6.8
Brian Liddell	23	42.6	3	7.7	1364	113		12.1
Simon Carroll	23	42.6	3	7.7	364	34		10.7
Ben Cooper	23	42.6	2	11.5	113	10		11.3
David McGee	22	40.7	2	11	288	8		36
Chris Snaith	20	37	1	20	187	21		8.9
Giles Day	20	37	2	10	534	56		9.5
Tom McSherry	18	33.3	0	0	1404	200		7
Hal Butt	16	29.6	2	8	261	28		9.3
Rob Price	15	27.8	4	3.8	15	4		3.8
Marshall Hughes	14	25.9	2	7	192	24		8
Dennis Blackburn	14	25.9	0	0	238	22		10.8
Stewart Law	13	24.1	1	13	560	53		10.6
Dave Hancock	12	22.2	0	0	12	0		0
Joe Ward	11	20.4	0	0	38	1		38
Dave Smith	11	20.4	1	11	552	58		9.5
Joe Oldfield	10	18.5	3	3.3	301	28		10.8
Colin Garland	7	13	0	0	542	43		12.6
Rob Findlater	7	13	0	0	49	3		16.3
Brian Watson	4	7.4	0	0	70	2		35
Gary Mongomery	4	7.4	0	0	215	21		10.2
Dan Archer	2	3.7	1	2	257	24		10.7

 

	EH3 RUN STATS - 1 JAN TO 31 DEC 2017
Hasher	Runs	% of Total(58)	HARES	RUN/HARE AVERAGE	CAREER RUNS	CAREER HARES	CAREER AVERAGE
Burke Jim	51	88%	10	5.10	1060	159	6.66
Hogg Peter	51	88%	8	6.38	662	90	7.36
Hillyar Mike	47	81%	5	9.40	892	87	10.25
Norris Dave	47	81%	7	6.71	1115	178	6.26
Foley Mark	46	79%	6	7.67	492	41	12
Bruce Barney	44	76%	5	8.80	595	71	8.38
Jones Mike	44	76%	13	3.38	114	21	5.42
Mitchell Laurie	43	74%	8	5.38	749	90	8.32
Trotter George	43	74%	5	8.60	139	14	9.93
Kemp Trevor	42	72%	5	8.40	440	54	8.15
Turford Ray	40	69%	3	13.30	1180	135	8.74
Adair Jim	39	67%	6	6.50	388	36	10.78
McSherry Tom	39	67%	6	6.50	1386	200	6.93
Smith Roger	39	67%	6	6.50	422	38	11.11
O'Callaghan Aubrey	38	66%	6	6.34	119	15	7.93
Day Giles	36	62%	3	12.00	514	54	9.51
Flower Tony	33	57%	6	5.50	594	73	8.14
Carroll Simon	31	53%	2	15.50	341	31	11
Liddell Brian	29	50%	6	4.80	1341	110	12.2
Smith Nick	28	48%	3	9.33	542	57	9.51
Ball Mike	28	48%	1	28.00	846	83	10.19
Carroll Jimmy	28	48%	3	9.33	1117	127	8.8
Rushton Nev	28	48%	7	4.00	621	91	6.82
Johnson,Keith	27	47%	3	9.00	27	3	9
Marks David	24	41%	4	6.00	197	13	15.15
Moore Peter	24	41%	7	3.42	535	67	7.99
Butt Hal	22	38%	3	7.33	245	26	9.42
Blocki Mike	19	33%	4	4.75	175	27	6.48
Cooper, Ben	19	33%	1	19.00	88	8	11
Duckworth Peter	18	31%	2	9.00	219	19	11.53
McGhee David	18	31%	0	0.00	266	6	44.33
Muir Drew	18	31%	1	18.00	596	46	12.96
Woods Mike	17	29%	4	4.25	183	22	8.32
Findlater, Rob	16	28%	1	16.00	42	3	14
Oldfield Joe	14	24%	2	7.00	291	25	11.64
Blackburn Dennis	11	19%	0	0.00	224	22	10.18
Hughes Marshal	11	19%	0	0.00	178	22	8.09
Kay Brian	10	17%	0	0.00	63	3	21
Law Stewart	10	17%	1	10.00	547	52	10.52
Montgomery Gary	9	16%	0	0.00	211	21	10.05
Smith Dave	9	16%	2	4.50	541	57	9.49
Snaith Chris	7	12%	1	7.00	167	20	8.35
Garland Colin	7	12%	1	7.00	535	43	12.44
Archer, Dan	6	10%	0	0.00	255	23	11.09
Rix, Gary	6	10%	1	6.00	6	1	6
Clayton Clive	5	9%	0	0.00	401	18	22.28
Cook John	4	7%	0	0.00	373	18	20.72
Watson Brian	4	7%	0	0.00	66	2	33
Mccrory, Colin	4	7%	0	0.00	17	0	0
McCrory Simon	2	3%	0	0.00	12	0	0
Tandy Vic	2	3%	0	0.00	311	52	5.98
Bolger Ray	1	2%	0	0.00	76	2	38

 

 

 

I first came across hashing in 1985  when a work colleague at HQ British Forces, Cyprus  wandered into my office and asked if I was “hashing” that afternoon. All sorts of things crossed my mind until he explained what hashing was all about. As an ex rugby player, the idea of a gentle run followed by a few beers had a definite attraction. And so during the next 3 years I became a committed hasher and, on my return to the UK, I immediately joined Cheltenham and Cotswold Hash (C2H3) with my wife Liz as she had taken up running whilst in Cyprus.

During the 15 years we hashed with C2H3 we attended 6 International Hashes in Thailand, Cyprus, Malaysia, India (Goa), Australia and again Thailand. Because of the numbers attending (somewhere between 4000 and 6000) at each event, there would be up to 20 different run sites. I well remember at the Cyprus Inter Hash in 1996 Epi H3 was responsible for one of the sites near to Melanda Beach. They expected, and catered for, around 250 hashers. Imagine their reaction when over 800 people turned up because it was hot in June and the RV was by the sea. However, in true Epi H3 tradition, the call went out for more beer which duly arrived before the runners returned – phew! All the evening entertainment was in the Municipal Gardens in Limassol and Colin Garland, one of the fathers of our Hash, has yet to recover from witnessing the women’s mud wrestling competition – totally naked – them, not him thank goodness!

My experience in over 30 years of hashing is that all hashes are different and long may it continue! We are an all-male hash and our partners are glad to see the back of us on a Tuesday afternoon. The thing I have always enjoyed in over 30 years of hashing is the camaraderie, banter and good humour; this is prevalent in Epi Hash where there is very friendly rivalry between members of all 3 Services, teachers, civil servants and those others who have/had to work for a living! The rivalry and banter also extends to nationalities where the Celts and Aussies love to take the “mickey” out of the English.  

Last year was our 50^th Anniversary and all credit to On Pres Mike Jones and his Committee for organising a great reunion of former hashers when nearly 100 of them with their partners travelled out to Cyprus to celebrate this important milestone. I understand that it has given a fillip to the Epi Exiles in the UK and, hopefully, we shall see many of them for our 3,000 run in 2021!

And so, after all these years, Epi H3 have asked me to be their On Pres for the next year. What an honour and I shall try to live up to the standards and ethos set by my 52 illustrious predecessors.

On On The Hash