First U.K. Full Moon Horrors

You don't know how much having children changes your life. At first it's not much of a problem going hashing - they're too small to realize what's going on. But as time goes by you have to make up excuses for leaving them behind. Essex were very useful in this respect. Apart from the usual 'rules' (of which there are none) the two big no-no's were no dogs and no children. After agreeing to 'take you when you are older' the day finally arrives in the guise of the Nonsuch Horrors set up by Saddlesniffer and Gyrobonk. We went to their Christmas party and damn cold it was too. That should finish off all desire to come hashing, I thought. No such chance! 'When are we going to get our own hash?' they demanded. July 16th 1995 was the day of the inaugural run from the Blacksmiths Arms, Thornwood Common, Epping. A good turn out was there at 2pm on that Saturday afternoon to see Panther and Kebab lay their first trail and set the scene for the months to come. We ran about six or seven times a year to begin with and then settled into ten times a year. As is usual with the hash a lot of visitors came to see what was going on, but the hard core of a dozen or so soldiered on oblivious. The Easter Bunny, Christmas parties, Halloween lanterns and several T-shirts later, we were doing very well until Essex relaxed their opinion on horrors.
It was Digger's fault really. He ran more times per year than most adults and couldn't really be ignored any more. He was quickly followed by Panther, Kebab and Pic 'n' Mix who taught the hash a thing or two about shiggy! We now get the situation where Digger is closing in on his 300th Essex run, Kebab coming up to his 100th and Panther and P & M to their 50th. They are as much a part of the Hash as the rest of us. Add to this the dropping off of the casual horrors and we are left with the hard core who don't need their own private club any more.

Where does that leave us now? Well, the Horrors made it to their 50th run and called it a day. Several years later, they now run with Full Moon (venue permitting) and Essex. We had a great time while it lasted but we all move on. (Of course that is not true - they move on, we still tread the same path, don't we?.)