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Little Sai Wan Hash House Harriers was formed on 17th January 1979 when the Australians and British at the listening post at Siu Sai Wan or Little Sai Wan decided that Hong Kong needed a mixed Hash. Hence the name Little Sai Wan and the kangaroo and the lion on the LSWH³ logo. (genealogy ) In those days runs started at 4pm and all the runners were from the base (photo). In 1982, the base closed and Chinese radio satellite transmissions were monitored from Chung Hum Kok. Numbers dropped alarmingly. The start time was brought back to 5:30pm in an attempt to bolster attendance and one of the first civvies, Old Man Withers started running. Numbers were still small and old hashers still reminisce over the days numbers doubled with the arrival of a car-load of four runners. LSWH³ prides itself on its disorganisation. There is no GM or Committee, yet things get done. This is due to the many characters that have stamped their names on the Hash. Who can forget the immortal lines of `It'll be a good day out, and the run'll be flat on average' Bob Lampard, the first LSW hasher to do 200 runs, and how many people want to forget the `Hash from Hell' set by Gucci and Phil the Gut. Uncle Ralph was another character who cast his spell on the hash and on one run had to have his son airlifted to hospital. The first person to do 300 runs was Snakewoman Helena who started setting snake runs when the likes of Ironman was still in Hong Kong. Ironman's van will be remembered for its use as the bins, changing rooms, Hash Transport and anything else that anyone wanted to do in the back of a van. Helena emmigrated but the snake run tradition was upheld for a while by Diggaaa, Snake Lady and Shirley who also then drifted off into the sunset. Anyone who wants to revive the tradition is most welcome if they know of a decent snake restaurant that also hopefully offers apple crumble for pudding. Also departed for pastures greener if that's how one describes Spain were Hash Cash (762 runs) and Big Bitch (626 runs), but they did host a LSW reunion with their Mijas hash at Easter 2007 which attracted the ex-LSWers who could get there. Bobbledick, now over 900 runs, with Hopeless nearly 900 runs and occasionally Park'n'shop, Parky, Frank the Plank, are still regulars along with newcomers to Hong Kong, which in the context of those just mentioned is anyone who arrived in HK after the 80's. Due to a change in work ethic, kick off is now 7pm (or 7:15 if hard to get to) and the average run has over 20 hashers. There are the odd exceptions: Bobbledick held one sortie in Hang Hau village (before the MTR was built) during the rainy season where the On On fit comfortably round a majong table, and down downs consisted of dobbing yourself in and finishing your own beer. More recently Sweaty Snailgobbler sadly saw only five show up for his run in Chi Fu 'cos of a particularly dark typhoon 1 that got raised to a 3, did a U-turn and came back as an 8. He does pride himself on the 100% turnout at the on-on. However, LSW'ers are still made of stern stuff and a grand total of eight people showed up on Bravefart's Lamma run even though it was a bit cool out.... Most runs are still one to two hours long though they still occasionally turn into ballbusters like San & Amah Perks Handover Run, and Special Branch's Deepwater Bay run seeing the back of the pack finish in over 2 ½ hours, plus a mention in the local press of See You Jimmy's Tsing Yi Tunnel run. Several hashers also talk fondly of more recent efforts like Hashzilla's run that went from Parkview down to Deepwater Bay and back up to Wong Nai Chung Gap before popping off to Stanley, and Randy von Fokker's Wong Tai Sin to Sai Kung jog that had hashers threatening never to return. Other great runs that some people didn't care for were Crash Test Dummy & Winabago's Heng Fa Chuen to Shek O epic and Esoteric's double header from Wong Nai Chung Gap to Wanchai. Oh, and lest we forget, Bobbledick's Po Lam to Hang Hau extravaganza that someone GPS'd at 18k (including a longcut) that Bob le Dick said took him three days to set (and Nurse F**ker and Dr. Evil 4½ hours to finish). Actually Nurse F*cker starred in another debacle that had him near death, lying on the trail exhausted and dehydrated while Piss perfect shuttled back and forth filling a disgarded water bottle from a nearby stream. The pack split into different factions based on local knowledge (or lack thereof) and came back into Marina Cove from locations as diverse as Choi Hung and Sai Kung. Anniversary Runs PS apologies to all those notables not mentioned, but if you know of any that should be then email 'em in.
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