Hash House Harriers
The template for a hash run is loosely based on hare hunting. One or more hashers (the "hares") lay out a running trail, that the rest of the club (pack or 'hounds') follows. The trail may include false trails (check-backs or CB), short cuts (or splits), breaks, and checks (a marking on the trail that requires the pack to search the area to discover the correct direction of the trail. These features are designed to keep the pack together regardless of fitness levels or running speed.
Hashing began in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1938, when a casual group of British colonial officials and expatriates, Cecil Lee, Frederick "Horse" Thomson, Ronald "Torch" Bennett, and a British accountant of Catalan descent Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert (A.S. Gispert) would meet after work on Monday evenings to run, following a paper trail, through the environs of Kuala Lumpur to get rid of the excesses of the previous weekend. There was another member of the group, John Woodrow, who is rarely credited as one of the founders as he left Malaysia after the war to return home to his family in Scotland.
Some Hashing Terminology
| "Are You?" | Question shouted by the pack to FRBs, meaning "Are you on the trail?" |
| Back hare/Sweeper | Hare who remains with the last runners |
| Check | Trail mark indicating the true trail must be sought out from the false trails |
| Check Back | Same as false trail |
| Circle | Assembly of hashers at trail's end, normally for the purpose of conducting down-downs |
| Checking | Answer shouted by FRB to pack when asked "Are You?", indicating that FRB has not determined whether the trail he's following is true or false |
| Check-it-out | Invitation given to the hounds by the hare to find the true trail |
| Crop busting | Short-cutting across a field |
| Eurohash | International hashing event held in Europe in odd-numbered years |
| False trail | A short trail ended with the Tee sign, three lines, or other mark indicating termination, see also Falsies |
| Falsie | A false trail |
| Hare | Hasher who lays the trail |
| Harriette | Female hasher |
| Hash Name | Nickname, usually bestowed after a set number of runs or in honour of a notable incident; not used by all hashes |
| Hasher | Any Hash House Harrier |
| Hashing | The act of running a hash trail |
| Held/hold Check | Trail mark indicating an intersection where true trail may take another direction, but requires hashers to wait until ordered by the hare to 'check it out' |
| Hounds | The body of hashers in pursuit of the hare, see also Pack |
| Interhash | Regional, national, or world hash gathering |
| Looking | Answer shouted by FRB to pack when asked "Are You?", indicating that FRB has lost the true trail |
| Mismanagement | Hash officials; sometimes elected, sometimes appointed |
| Nash hash | A national interhash |
| On In | Trail's end, also On-Inn; trail mark indicating proximity to end |
| On On | Shouted by FRBs or hounds to indicate they're on trail, sometimes used only to indicate true trail; trail mark indicating true trail |
| On Sec | Mismanagement member normally in charge of hash rosters, run records, etc |
| RG | Trail marking indicating hashers should not continue until The Pack has regrouped |
| Sweeper | see Back hare |
| T(ee) | Hash mark indicating a section of trail going nowhere, designed to slow down the pack |
Last Updated: Saturday, 07-Nov-2015