First of all: Hash House Harriers do not encourage the use and abuse of the recreational drug of the same name. We don't smoke it - we run it!
Hashing is kind of an orienteering run comparable to the British game of Hares and Hounds. One or two people, the Hares, mark a trail of flour. This trail can be set anywhere: around fields, through woods, on roads, on city streets. The rest of the group will follow the trail. The Hares set false trails and check points where the Hashers have to look for the trail. This makes the group stay together as the better runners tend to run all false trails while the rest of the group is catching up. On finding the trail, Hashers holler "ON ON" to help Hashers running behind to find the trail. The trail ends at the "Hash Home" where the beer is waiting.
The original Hash House was a restaurant that was part of the Royal Selangor Club Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here in 1938 A.S. Gispert and seven other British decided to have a game of Hares and Hounds prior to drinking beer, thus being able to work up a thirst and see a bit of the countryside. This kind of social workout quickly was copied and carried to Singapore and other Asian locations. Since the 1950's the Hash started spreading worldwide. Today, there is a network of Hash House Harriers spread over all continents, with seven groups even in Antarctica!
Hashing first reached the fair shores of Estonia when in 1993 Cor "Blimey" Schouten from the Helsinki H3 organized the first ever Hash run in Tallinn attended by ragtag group of Finns and besotted Vikings. To their pleasant surprise they discovered the price of the local brew was almost as cheap as water! Unsurprisingly, in 1996 Blimey led another expeditionary group of Hashers to Estonia, this time to the wastes of the eastern town of Narva for a weekend of frozen debauchery.
But it wasn't until the arrival of Bob "G-String" Filby in 1999 that the Hash put down firm roots in Estonia. G-String, who started Hashing in Ankara in 1994 and was the first GM of the resurrected Sarajevo H3 during 1997-98, sent out the call for all to join in an inaugural run of the Tallinn H3 on Halloween Sunday, 31 October. And if you start it, they will come! Some 40 persons attended the run, including a large contingent from the Helsinki H5 as well as about fifteen souls from the expat, diplomatic and Estonian communities. G-String and Mike "Axe Murderer" Tully set the trail through the old town of Tallinn which ended up in a raucus circle next to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.
The Tallinn H3 quickly embedded itself in the community with runs every Sunday afternoon in the winter months (this would change in 2001 when the winter runs became bi-weekly). During the five "summer" months, Hashers meet every Tuesday evening for their assorted hijinks.
Although it was rare that the Tallinn H3 drew more than a dozen persons for a run, a regular cast of characters who somehow could not find a life - including G-String (GM), Axe Murderer (RA), Jailbait, Lubrication, Norm, Stains the Couch, Vaseline, Comes Infrequently (later to exchange names with our other Hasher - Comes Frequently), Great White Dick, Pouch Potato and Shag-A Wannabe - were soon showing up most weeks. With frequent visitors from other European Hashes the Tallinn H3 was able to keep its head above the water, if not the beer!
The big challenge came when, at the 2001 Inter-Scandick in Finland, the Tallinn H3 stupidly accepted the offer to host the next of those get togethers. Thus, in July 2003 some 80 Hashers, including such Hash luminaries as The Wolf and Drain Oil, disembarked in Tallinn for that year's Inter-Scandick - Inter-Baltdick weekend. Thanks to the tireless administrative efforts of Lubrication the event went off without a hitch. A long run followed by a sumptuous barbeque at the home of Shag-A-Wannabe highlighted the weekend as well as a night at the annual Tallinn Summer BeerFest where prodigious amounts of brew were consumed.
A further big event occurred in 2004 when the Tallinn H3 - founded on a Halloween Sunday if you have been following this screed - celebrated its fifth anniversary and 250th run on, spookily enough, Halloween Sunday! About 40 persons turned out including a not insignificant number from the Swedish Hashes. It was on this occasion the Tallinn Hashers unveiled their club's motto - "the small, but low-quality, Hash." May it always be so!
Since then the Tallinn H3 has seen lean and thick times but it has never stopped drinking - make that running! In October 2008 G-String, who slinked off to sunnier climes in the south of France, handed off the GM-ship to Tanel "Stains the Couch" Raud who has recruited many new regulars from the Estonian community and should be congratulated on doing a first-class, low-quality job!
That is our story in a nutshell. We have left out all the barfing and premature ejaculation tales to protect the guilty!!
The Tallinn H3 most heartily welcomes all 2013 EuroHashers to Estonia and promises to give you "the small, but low-quality" event of your lifetime!!
