Amathus Hash House Harriers Home Page
Last Revised 11.10.98
Welcome to the Amathus Hash House Harriers Home Page.
This page is ALWAYS under construction(rotfl)
Contents:
A short history of AH3
Hashing in Cyprus
When and where do we run
Where to find us & how to contact
us
How
to contact the other Cyprus Hashes
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Index
to all pages in the ring
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This page copyright Amathus H3. Webmaster
jjackson@btinternet.com
A Short History of Amathus H3
The arrival in Limassol of two ex-Cheltenham and Cotswold hashers, out
here working for a Generator company, led before very long to the formation
of Amathus Hash. This momentous event took place in summer 1987, and Run
1 was held in the Amathus area, to the east of Limassol proper, in June
7th that year with an opening pack of about 7. The two hashers in question
were Jake Jarman, and Dave "Phallus" Thomas (also ex-Medan).
The hash muddled on, as newly formed hashes often do, with numbers in
the twenties, for a couple of years, but gradually took hold and increased
in numbers to the present average turnout of between 40 and 55.
Amathus H3 has always been a mixed, and supposedly a family hash, although
it has to be said that no prisoners are taken in the circle, and no particular
concessions made to the presence of Horrors. We take the view that they
are under Parental Control. In point of fact, they are not likely to hear
anything in the circle that they don't hear in the school playground. It
is a little disconcerting though when an angelic looking three year old
knows ALL the words to 4 & 20 Virgins!
Major events over the last 9 years included our 50th. Run, when 98 Cheltenham
& Cotswold H3ers came out on tour, the 200th which attracted 200 altogether
from all over the Middle East (held to coincide with one of the Muslim
holidays), the 333, a practice for Interhash, which gave us all the toughest
learning experience you could imagine, and the Big One - Interhash'96.
3000 hashers on the loose in Limassol.
Hashing in Cyprus
Cyprus was in the forefront of the hashing explosion, and there have been
active hashes here since 1967. Dhekelia H3 was founded in January 1967,
just beating Sydney to it as the first hash outside Malaysia/Singapore.
The then Deputy commander British Forces in Cyprus, Gris Davies Scourfield,
was approached by one of his junior officers (believed to be Ray Thornton)
and asked if it would be possible to set up a hash at Dhekelia. Gris replied
that not only was it possible, but that he would run in it and be the first
On Pres! Six months later he was transferred to Episkopi (the other British
base in Cyprus) where he started Epi Hash. both hashes continue to run
to this day, although Dhekelia are getting a bit thin on the ground and
are running with packs of about 15. Epi thrives, though and on a big run
can turn out 70+. They have acquired several runners from the British retired
community in the area, something which Dhekelia have not been able to do.
Dhekelia do have on of the oldest/most continuously running hashers with
them in the person of Gero Choporian, a Armenian t-shirt maker who has
run with the hash pretty well from its inception. Unfortunatly, they have
no records of the early years. Epi also have their own veterans, foremost
among which is Jack Blocki, who has recently celebrated 1000 runs with
the same hash at the age of 75.
Polygon H3 was set up in the third, (and much smaller) British base
in Cyprus, Agios Nicolaous by a pair of hashers who were pissed off by
the idea of not being able to take their wives or girlfriends hashing.
. Why Polygon? The base at Ay Nik is roughly shaped like a polygon! Poly
celebrated their 800th run in January 1997. They are an open and family
hash, but like other hashes of military origins, find their numbers shrinking
as the British forces in Cyprus shrink slowly.
Larnaca and Amathus were set up within two weeks of each other, quite
independently with Larnaca beating Amathus to it by a shorthead in late
May, 1987. Larnaca H3 were first based in a pub called the Railway, which
has since closed down. Their initial mainstays were a bunch of telecom/software
engineers who were based here. Their current senior veteran is George Whiteman,
founder of Little Sai Wan and Scarborough H3s and now retired here. After
the software project closed down George carried Larnaca pretty well on
his shoulders for some years until they built up a community of their own.
They are a very family oriented hash (clean names, #1 on Flying Boogers
Hash Scale) but continue to thrive and regularly muster 40+. They are in
the practice of regrouping at every check, which makes for slowish runs.
Nicosia started up a year later in 1988, founded by Duncan Kirby among
others, and have the largest number of Cypriots running with them (about
50%). They are a hard running hash with the usual dip. corps contingent
found in any capital city hash. They run Tuesday nights. All details can
be found on their webpage (see Hash Contacts below ).
The terrain in Cyprus is basically Mediterranean scrub with small hills
and valleys. Temperature ranges from about 12 C and wet/windy in Jauary/February,
up to 38 C and bakingly hot in August.
When and Where do we run,
On Sundays, at either 2 pm. in the winter or 4 pm in the Summer.
Occasional Full Moon Runs
We almost always run within 35 minutes drive of Limassol, and generally
closer than that.
Water is always available on the run in high summer.
We carry our beer with us and hold LONG circles.
Lifts are generally available; phone one of the contacts below to arrange.
The Hash House is currently The Roadhouse in the Tourist Area in Limassol
The Run time and location are in the Whats On column in the Cyprus Weekly:
read it on the plane
On a Full Moon Run, circles are shorter and we invariably go on to eat
somewhere.
How to contact us
1. Look in the Cyprus Weekly Whats On column. A current phone number is
always there.
2. Phone Des Thomas (Lettuce) on (357) 5 324971
3. Phone Karen Mills (Big Top) on (357) 5 387384
4. Phone Anne Parker (Wholetonecum) on (357) 5 632446
5. e-mail Des Thomas on desthoma@zenon.logos.cy.net
6. e-mail Sarah & Peter Robinson at petrob@spidernet.com.cy
7. e-mail No Problem at elaine.kafkalias@bankwatch.com.cy
8. Write to us at PO Box 6458, Limassol, Cyprus.
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