Ever heard of a drinking club with a running problem? Well, welcome to the Hash House Harriers, Cayman-style, whose members like a good social and run every Monday night and give the alcohol consumption some justification in the process.
Of all the sports organisations in the Cayman Islands, one of the least known is the Hash House Harriers. It may have a jokey image but there are some pretty fine athletes amongst them who regularly compete in international races in commendable times.
The Hash House Harriers has a global membership of millions and is one of the longest established sporting institutions in Cayman.
Each branch is known as a kennel, and management is typically known as the MisManagement and consists of individuals with various duties and titles, such as Grand Moron or Religious Adviser.
There are more than 1,700 kennels spanning all seven continents. Most major cities are home to at least one kennel, with some areas boasting more than ten groups.
Hashing began on a Monday night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1938 with a group of four British army officers who wanted to purge some of their weekend excesses. Seventy years later, Hashing exists the world over.
Roger Davies, one of the founders of the Cayman Hashers, hosted a pool-side party at his house in George Town last Friday to commemorate a special occasion.
“We’re here today to celebrate 30 years of running of the Hash House Harriers in the Cayman Islands,” Davies said.
“We started on 28 January 1978 and have run every single week since then on a Monday night, including the day after Hurricane Ivan, when Richard Crawshaw ran it.
‘He’s a great hurdler and in the space of a mile and a half he hurdled 42 palm trees!
“He kept up the tradition, it’s never been broken, and we’ve been running now for just over 1,600 weeks.
“We keep a record of the schedules and every single run is consecutively numbered, so we know exactly how many runs we’ve done and we’ve never missed a single week, thanks to Richard.”
The Cayman branch was started by Raymond Legge who was a member in Hong Kong. Legge organised a group of about eight and Davies, now 63, was one of them who, eh, Legged it around George Town.
They run mostly in George Town but also out towards West Bay and Savannah sometimes.
Davies said: “Our runs are usually between three and five miles, depending on how much our members have had to drink.
“We have a membership fee which is probably the cheapest on the island for any sports club of $10 a year. Once a month we have a social run which involves having some beers and food afterwards. And that’s the one Jerry Harper concentrates on!”
How much longer can the club exist? “I’m not sure I’ll last another 30 years but I’m sure it will,” Davies said.
Drinking is an integral part of the Hash set up. Brett Hill introduced the Christmas event which involved consuming a six-pack afterwards which you had to carry with you on the run. Hill is also proud of holding the record for being the latest stayer on a non-social Hash, around five and a half hours after the end of a run.
Women enjoy the Hash camaraderie too. Layeen Bernier has only been on the island two months but already feels like a veteran Hasher. She ran the 10k on Sunday and will do the Cayman half marathon next month.
Kat Tyler has been a Hasher just over a year since she came on the island. “I love the fitness – and the beer!”
Chuck Cobo is a Hash character. A triathlete as well, Cobo got a lot of satisfaction recently when club mate Alex Harling beat him for the first time on a Hash run. “It was a bitter-sweet moment,” says Cobo. “I didn’t really like being beaten by Alex but at the same time I was pleased for him.”
Other regular local Hashers include Rodger Yeoman (24 years), Mike McGrath, Tom Gammage , Nick Dixey, David Shibli and Brian Livingstone. Early stalwarts who don’t run anymore include Malcolm Davies and Peter Kandiah.
Hashers Murali ‘Mellons’ Ram and David Smith claim they are the only Cayman Hashers who set their routes the traditional way, with flour on the ground.
“We don’t use maps, we do it the traditional way,” said Smith proudly, who has been on the island for 18 months. Between them they have Hashed in Barbados, Thailand, Wales, England, Pakistan and Malaysia.
At the party was Alan Jones, a running icon in Cayman who set numerous records, especially in the early days of the Cross Island Relay, which started in 1973.
“In the early days Hash used to put in a team that won it just about every year,” said Davies.
“Alan was our top runner then and he was fastest of the six of the four-mile legs. He also had the fastest half marathon and full marathon time of anyone in Cayman.”
Jones came here 33 years ago from North Wales and was initially just a footballer before discovering a flair for running.
Although there were no marathons organised here, he ran around six abroad all under the 2 hour, 40 minute mark, the fastest being 2:33.
Any one of those runs would have set the Cayman record, which was 2:53 until newcomer Scott Brittain smashed it last year in 2 hours, 43 minutes and 23 seconds. Brittain hopes to beat that time when he runs the Cayman Marathon on December 7.
Top international marathons are usually won in under 2:10 now, but in that era a 2:20 time would have secured you victory, which goes to show just how fast Jones was. Maybe he’s got some Kenyan blood in him!
Jones, 64, was a science teacher at the John Gray High School for 25 years. He retired in 2000 and doesn’t appear to have put on an ounce since.
With wife Barbara, they enjoy their retirement and regularly go to their holiday home in the Lake District in England.
He doesn’t run anymore after tearing a muscle in his calf a few years ago but is still a Hasher to the bone, helping with Barbara at runs. They kept tabs on the finishers at the To Hell and Back run on Sunday.
So how come he’s still so slim? “Barbara’s good on salads,” he jokes. “I’m still involved in athletics on the island and go and help out when I can. I’ve been lucky to have been involved with the Hash crowd.”
Richard Crawshaw was at the party with daughter Victoria, 14. Both are keen runners who went to Hell and Back and lived to tell the tale.
Richard’s most pleasing memory of running with Jones was when they won the Cross Island Relay and Crawshaw ran sub-six-minute miles throughout, finishing in around 23 minutes, 53 seconds.
“As you can see, Alan has got a few years on me, yet he ran faster that day,” he laughs.
Crawshaw warms to telling the tale of his legendary post-Ivan run which was on Monday, 13 September 2004, the day after the category four storm obliterated Grand Cayman.
“The run was actually due to go from my house in Tropical Gardens, George Town,” said Crawshaw.
“So Ivan comes screaming through on Saturday and Sunday and I’m well aware that we’ve had a run every single week for 26 years and I thought: ‘I can’t let the boys down’. It was meant to be a social so I had the beers ready.
“I was lucky with the water around my house because it had come to within 100 feet in two directions. So there my house was, high and dry, in good condition and I didn’t have any serious maintenance to do.
“I ran down to Andrew Tyson’s apartment close by to make him run with me.”
But as Crawshaw got to Old Crewe Road, he met a mass of water and ended up wading through it.
At Tyson’s house, the water was up to his kitchen window. Tyson could not open his front door so had to climb out of the kitchen window and then, for some reason, he did not feel like doing the Hash run.
“Andrew let a small hurricane get in the way of his run!” roars Crawshaw who waded back home. “I kept the record going for Hash, which is important.”
Shouldn’t there be a plaque commemorating his heroics? “Yeh, Fool of the Year. At least I had all the beers to myself.”
Crawshaw is a semi-retired director of a hedge fund firm so making the effort to run every Monday is not too difficult now. When he worked full-time that was the only night he left the office early.
“I used to do a bit of track and if I ran the 400 metres fast, Alan Jones would say: ‘Oh you’re fired up on whisky,’ because I do like a dram or two of whisky.”
Richard is still faster than Victoria on the runs, “but I can beat him at sprinting,” she smiles. It’s only a matter of time before she’s faster on the longer runs, which means a second generation Hasher will continue the legacy for years to come.
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