HISTORY OF THE HASH

Hash House was the nickname given for its institutional food, to the Selangor Club Chambers in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, where resided a number of bachelors and others separated from their wives (long separations being an inevitable facet of colonial life at that time). The idea of Harriers chasing paper was not new to Malaya, there had been such clubs in Kuala Lumpur and Johore Baru which became extinct about 1934 and others. So the Hash House Harriers was not a new idea but was a show with a completely novel name. The principal Dramatics Personae were: A.S. Gispert ("G"). Cecil Lee "Horse" Thomson, "Torch" Bennett and later Philip Wickens and a fairly small supporting cast. Members on the books was rarely over 50 up until 1966, and often much less (directly after World War 2, after Malayan Independence in 1957 and again in 1965) and Hash became an endangered species. The story really starts in 1937/38 when Gispert formed Springgit Harriers in Malacca, gentle weekly runs basically run on Hash rules. Gispert moved to Kuala Lumpur and after discussions with Torch Bennett, was given the credit for actually getting the whole show off the ground. Torch Bennett technically was not a founder member as he was on leave at the time, but upon returning introduced the first necessary minimum organisation - a bank account and balance sheet. Philip Wickens helped H3 going immediately post war. The first runs incidentally were on Fridays not Mondays. Sadly, Gispert had only a short time with his extraordinary creation, being killed in 1942 and Philip Wickens died in London in April 1981. The others are still very much Hashmen. With the arrival of the Japanese in 1941, Hash slipped into oblivion for nearly 12 months, a precarious existence in Hash History was 1948/51 as their activities were illegal in terms of the curfew imposed on areas surrounding Kuala Lumpur, and the second Hash Chapter was founded in Singapore in 1962, followed by Kuching in 1963, Brunei, Kota Kinabalu, Penang and Ipoh in 1964 and Perth was the first outside Singapore and Malaysian in 1967. In 1973 the total was only 35 clubs and so the subsequent explosion has been really spectacular. The present official International list totals over 800 clubs in 176 different countries and all continents including Antarctica. The first attempt at an Interhash was Kuala Lumper 1000th run in 1966, but the first official Interhash was in Hong Kong in 1978 with approximately 1000 runners, Interhash 80 in Jakarta credited 1242 runners and Interhash 84 in Sydney in excess of 1700. 1986 in Pattaya - Bangkok, 3000. Same - same Bali 88. About 2,500 in Manila 1990, 3500+ in Phuket, Thailand in 1992, almost 5000 in Rotarua N.Z. in 1994. Since then there have been Interhashes in Cyprus in 1996, Kuala Lumpur 1998, Hobart 2000, Goa 2002, Cardiff 2004, Chiang Mai 2006, and soon Perth in 2008..South of Perth Hash started in 1981 when a group of Perth Hashers felt the need to run more than once a week. It was decided to give them the area south of the Swan River to run in so they became the “South of Perth” Hash. The first run was from a house (since demolished) in Davey Street, Alfred Cove on the first Thursday in December 1981. Of the 12 original runners, 6 are still regular members of SOPH3. The first run was set by Lofty McMannus who also was a Hare for the 25th Anniversary Run held at Woodman Point in December 2006.