A LANCASHIRE Evening Telegraph investigation into The Hash House Harriers has unmasked one of the biggest fishes in the organisation.

We can reveal that Capt Rabbi Haddock has been doing The Hash Run under an assumed name.

We tracked down this slippery customer to the Arden Inn, in Accrington, where his fiancee Fanny Haddock is in charge of apres-hash catering.

The captain and his "mate" are, in fact, Barry Allen and Marion Duxbury, landlady of the Abbey Street pub, headquarters of East Lancashire Hash House Harriers.

HHH has nothing to do with running dope, but being a touch potty has to be a qualifier for this international social-cum-running club with a style all of its own.

Hashing is definitely NOT recommended for people who do not have a sense of humour, cannot laugh at themselves, do not drink and are not broad-minded.

One Sunday a month, Hashers from across East Lancashire jog seven or eight miles across the countryside negotiating streams, ditches and muddy paths, following a trail marked out with of blobs of household flour. Every two or three miles or so there is a beer stop either at a pub or an open-air stop with beer, wine and soft drinks.

To make it a bigger barrel of laughs, the Hash "hare'' who marks the route lays false trails as well.

After a newcomer has been on two runs they are christened with a Hash name possibly reflecting their features or jobs.

Before he trimmed his bushy beard, Barry landed his "handle" from Capt Haddock on the children's television programme Tintin.

His middle name was added after he ran in a rabbi's cap won in a raffle.

When he and Marion got together it was only fitting that his fiancee became Fanny Haddock as she puts on the Sunday afternoon food at the Arden after the runs.

Some of the names, it has to be said, are less than squeaky clean - a possible throwback to the club's roots in the armed forces. In the Far East in the 1950s, three British soldiers started the club from their "Hash House" or canteen, to break the boredom.

When they were transferred to other posts in the Middle and Far East they began their own groups.

Barry, who is Hash secretary, said: "It's for everyday people from all walks of life who enjoy a drink and a jog - we put the two together.

"There are no winners or losers. The aim is for everyone to enjoy themselves and have a good time.

"It's an international thing and Thailand is one of the biggest places for it at the moment," he added.

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