Malaysian Airlines Magazine
HASH BASH
Interhash '98 in Kuala Lumpur
celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of
the Hash House Harriers in Malaysia's capital.
Interhash '98 in Kuala Lumpur
not only celebrates a major sporting event, it also
celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of
the Hash House Harriers in the nation's capital. All
those attending will have the opportunity to run
where the original founders ran including legendary
men like A. S. Gispert Cecil Lee, "Horse"
Thomson and Torch Bennet.
Many new members will be
visiting Kuala Lumpur for the first time, and those
who have run here before will be welcoming the
opportunity to meet old friends and fellow hashers
from all over the world.
The event, organized by nine
hash chapters in Kuala Lumpur, runs from October 2 to
4. It is planed to attract 6,000 runners, plus their
families, from 60 countries, including Australia,
Europe, United States, Indonesia and New Zealand. The
event is expected to generate RM$100 million in
foreign exchange for Malaysia.
The major sponsors of Interhash
'98 are Malaysia Airlines, the Ministry of Culture,
Arts and Tourism, the Malaysian Tourist Promotion
Board, Guinness Anchor Beer, Adidas and SA Tours.
The celebrated running event
has a colorful history. The original idea was to
mimic the Hare and Hounds or Fox and Hounds style
chases that have been around for centuries in one
form or another. Some "gentle-men"
substituted men for the game in an effort to add
something different to the sport. There is evidence
of this in colonial America as well as in England. It
seemed a logical development then, to substitute the
hounds with runners as well. Men, not as well endowed
as dogs with a sense of smell, required a trail of
some sort to track their quarry. Paper seemed the
ideal solution. This sport was well entrenched long
before these sportsmen became known as
"hashers" and the sport was referred to as
Hounds and Hares or the Paper Chase.
The Hash House Harriers had its
humble beginnings in 1938 with an Englishman named
Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert, in what is now
Malaysia. Having a fondness for the "paper
chase," he gathered together a group of
expatriates - including Cecil Lee, "Horse"
Thomson and "Torch" Bennet – to form a
group in Kuala Lumpur that would later become a
worldwide legacy. The fraternity received its name
from the Selangor Club Chambers, which due to its
lacklustre food was commonly referred to as the
"Hash House."
Almost a dozen runs took place,
although attendance could sometimes be counted on one
hand. The sport was cut short during World War II,
but then re-established when peace returned. It was
some time before the international phenomena we are
familiar with today began spreading around the world.
A hash was formed in 1947 in Bordighera, Italy (near
Milan) by some former members of the original Hash
House Harriers. It ceased operations for many years
but was reborn in 1984 and is now quite alive and
well as the Royal Milan and Bordighera HHH.
It wasn't until 1962 that the
next official group was formed in Singapore. The
Singapore HHH was slowly followed by others until by
the 1,500th postwar run in 1973, there were 35 known
hashes around the world This figure climbed into the
hundreds by the 1980's and there are now well over
1,300 active hashes.
The main difference between
hash groups is their emphasis on the sporting versus
social aspects of hashing. Some choose to maintain
the tradition of a live hare hash chasing runners
while they lay a trail after being given a few
minutes head start. They thrill in the hunt the
occasional catch and the notion that there is a real
pursuit in progress during the event.
Other hashes have shunned the
competitive nature of the live hare hashes,
pre-laying the trail with a number of marks designed
to keep the pack together. These gathering checks and
other delaying marks allow the hashers of the dead
hare hashes to sing and make merry from point to
point, emphasizing the social aspects of the sport.
Regardless the event, hashing
knows no age boundaries, with family hashes and
children's hashes, as well as members from all ages,
with hashers in their 70's or even older. So there's
no reason to not join. As one popular Hash House
Harriers' motto goes: "If you've half a mind to
join the hash, that's all you need!"