Hash house hussies on the run

The Aucklander

16 Dec, 2011 05:00 PM4 mins to read

It's the people and the exercise that Eager Beaver loves about the North Shore Hash House Hussies.

The Devonport resident, otherwise known as Vicki Reddick, joined the "drinking club with a running problem" six years ago and can be seen jogging with sausage dogs and men in little red dresses shouting "on-on", "on-back", or "on-call".

She earned her beaver hash name because she was born in Canada and was always at the front of the bunch.

The club is a branch of the Hash House Harriers, an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs. There are 20 others around New Zealand - with four in Auckland. The North Shore group meets every Wednesday at 6.30pm and has been running, so to speak, since 1981. It has 40 members aged between 25 and 77, with some having completed more than 1000 runs.

Vicki, 57, says hashing originated in Kuala Lumpur in 1938 when a group of British Colonial Officers and expats began meeting for a run. It was patterned after the traditional British Paper Chase or "Hare and Hounds" game - where a person (the hare) - scatters a trail of shredded paper and the "hounds" have to find them. They named themselves "Hash House Harriers" after the building where the men were billeted - known affectionately as the "Hash House"

for its notoriously monotonous food. The constitution was as follows: to promote physical fitness, get rid of weekly hangovers, acquire a good thirst and satisfy it in beer - and to persuade older members they aren't as old as they feel. Hashing has remained true to its roots, Vicki says.

"The hares mark their trail with paper, chalk or flour ... special marks are used to indicate a false trail or halt."

The route passes through forests, swamps, shopping malls, or even up cliffs in pursuit of the hare. "Trails may contain a Beer Check where the pack stops to consume beer, water or snacks, allowing any stragglers to catch up to the group."

Vicki says hashers sometimes communicate with each other by blowing horns, or shout . "on-on" to let others know they are on the right trail, "on-back", to call back runners to the correct trail and "on-call", to indicate a trail has been found.

At one event, a runner became separated from the group and didn't show up a the end. "It was decided to call in Search and Rescue. It turned out the main guy in the search was a hasher from Hibiscus Coast called Lost," Vicki says. Fortunately, the missing hasher was found.

After the run, they return to a member's house for a meal and a gathering known as "the circle", led by the Grand Master and Mistress. "We hand out fines for things like tripping or falling ... putting a mark in where they shouldn't have, or having their photo in the newspaper ..."

They then stand around singing "quasi rude songs" and have a few ales.

Vicki knows some people may frown on the link between sport and alcohol, but says the club has never purported to be athletic. At any rate most meet just once a week. "We are there for the social aspect not fitness - the fitness is just a side benefit."

She had asked the 'boys' whether drinking beer undoes the good work and they said "drinking only enhances the good work".

The North Shore Hash House Hussies occasionally go bowling or play golf together and have special runs like the Christmas Run, the Annual General Meeting run and the red dress run - when male members of the group adorn sport little red dresses. They did that for last year's Round the Bays and Vicki says the group have their eyes set on the national hash meet in Nelson next year and the Interhash in Java.