NEWS

The Birth of a New Chapter

The urge to run another hash run in a week, other than running on Tuesday with Seletar Hash, had been in many of us who enjoy hashing. For the writer, there is no exception. Many attempts had been made to organize regular run on "another day" of the week. Back in the 90s, a group of about 20 Seletar Hashers and family used to gather regularly at either the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve or the MacRitchie Reservoir 10.5km trail on Sunday for their “exercise”. It was an enjoyable way to pass the weekend. The enthusiasm lasted for about a year and eventually people trickle away and the group broke up. In the early 2000, a Seletar Hasher organized a regular walk and jog session on Thursday at the MacRitchie Trail. After the run/jog, beer, wine and cheese fondue and on-site-cooked food were served. That did not last more than 2 months. The writer thought that in order for a small hashing group to survive, it should be done in the hash style – trail, beer, circle and food. Nothing less can sustain the interest of a hasher.

On the 2003 CNY piss-up party at the home of the writer, in the presence of BROTHER (Andrew Cheng) and FORGET-ME-NOT, the writer, already half-pissed by now, brought up his idea of forming another hash in Singapore. Ideas flow freely (so were the Chivas). We all agreed it was timely to have another hash chapter in Singapore. Thursday was the obvious choice of day as it was the only free day (rest your liver day) in the week and being Seletar Hashers, a day rest after the Tuesday bash should be a welcomed option. The writer’s original idea was to form a "batang" only hash but after much deliberation, it was felt that we do not want our brothers in Seletar to feel threatened that the new hash (at this stage, no name yet) will be pinching members from them and at the same time, it was felt that a mixed hash stand a better chance of survival. Key objectives were laid down; a) It should be a happy and friendly group with a "local flavour"; b) it has to be an exercise club, where member join us to exercise; c) low emphasis on drinking in the light of the heavy penalties on drink driving; d) we should not be reclusive but instead expose our members to other hash – running with the our Malaysian brothers. As the writer had committed to the performance at the 2003 National Day Parade at the National Stadium, our first run should be held after the National day (9 August).

Words were passed around about our 1st run on 28 August, 2003 at the Vigilante Drive Park. Come that day, without any expectation, the writer was at the runsite setting the trail of the run at 2.00pm. By 6.00pm, only 3 hashers turned up for the run, Andrew Cheng (BROTHER), Lena Lee (AGAR AGAR) and a hasher from Seletar. Without fanfare, the run was started promptly at 6.00pm and it went on without a hitch. Beer flowed freely after the run. The bunch was not discouraged by the small turn-out and had volunteered to bring in more people for the next run – at the Bt. Timah bicycle Trail. For the next 10 runs or so, because we do not want to waste time setting runs for a small numbers of people (less than 10), we ran on establish route like the BT Trail or the MR 10.5km.

One day, a visiting hasher passing through Singapore, called to say he wanted to run with us. That gave us a shock. We cannot allow a visiting hasher on a non-set trail. So the story goes, from that day onwards, no matter how short-handed we are, we will set a trail for the run. As an off-spring of the Seletar Hash, most of what we do on Thursday is similar to them – the circle, ice, whipping and hare-sponsored makan etc. However, some differences are:- shorter and less strenuous runs (45 – 75mins), buy your beer on site, lower Subs etc. As our membership grew to about 20, a meeting was held on one of our run at the Chinese Garden (BROTHER and MORNING COCK’S RUN). A protem committee was elected with SAYETING (GM), SPIKER (JM), SLEEPING DICK (On-sec) and AGAR AGAR (Treasurer).

Instead of a place’s name, we have decided on a day (Thursday) as our chapter’s name with a little twist to describe the condition of a runner after a run (thirsty). It was decided that 01-01-2004 be dedicated as the Formation Day and anyone who ran with us on that day are founder members. To date our membership are holding between 25-30 pax. To expose our members to hashing (many of them are new to hashing), we organized at least 2 outstation runs per year to Malaysian chapters since 2004. It is hope that future grandmasters will continue with this tradition. Celebrating Hole-in-one’s BD at the runsite

If anyone is passing through and want to run with a small and friendly Singapore (don’t be shock if we don’t speak like the Brits or the Yankees) mixed hash, please feel free to look us up @ www.thirsdaehash.com, write to us at thirsdaehash@singapore.com or give us a call. You won’t be disappointed. On On!

Thirsdae Hash at our very Best

William Cheng SAYETING

Founder