Making a hash of the rail strike

Tony’s talk in full stride. Note the loudspeakers to either side of the screen through which we could hear him

Any hope that 2023 might be marked by a swift return to less troubled times were dashed by a train strike that prevented some members from making it into town for the first Club Night of the year. One of those people was our scheduled speaker, Tony Reid. Not to be put off by a technical hitch, we resorted to a technological solution that I'd been considering for some time. During lockdown we carried on our monthly talks by having members livestream from their homes. After restrictions were lifted we carried on the long-distance clubbability by webcasting the live talks from the pub where we meet. But at the back of my mind was the possibility of not just broadcasting our talks to the far reaches of the Chapposphere but receiving them too: so Tony livestreamed his talk from home (this time using a Facebook Room, which was a novelty for all concerned, but in practice is just like Zoom) and we projected this on to the screen at the pub, with Tony's voice coming through speakers in the room. It was just like having him there with us, and through the microphone on the laptop at our end we could ask him questions, heckle him, etc. And, of course, people who weren't in the Wheatsheaf could tune in too. The talk itself was about hashing, which turns out to be a sort of paper-chase. One member of the group goes out the day before and lays a trail of several miles through the countryside, using paper, chalk, flour, or some such, then on the day the runners race to follow the trail to the designated finishing point. I say "race" but clearly trying too hard is frowned upon (much like the the Chap Olympics). More attention is focused of awarding everyone with a silly nickname and issuing penalties for pretty much anything you can think of, the penalties being the requirement to down a drink in the pub afterwards. The trail layer can spice things up by marking symbols on the ground requiring the runners to do things like wait for everyone to catch up, or for the front runners to be forced to go to the back of the pack. Apparently it was invented by expats in Kuala Lumpur in an attempt to get fit, though it's hard to see how it could have made much of a dent on their pie-and-pint lifestyle. Which perhaps is the point.

You can see more photos from the evening at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sheridanclub/albums/72177720305402713.

Tim Eyre and Ed Marlowe set the world to rights