When Sir Peter Hall, the former GB ambassador in BsAs was asked why he though the BA Hash House Harriers were so successful, he said, "You obviously satisfy a demand". Whether he was referring to the fact that it got his daughter out of the residence on a Sunday is not known, but it is clear that someone likes the BAH3.
Initial "hash" contact was made between Bad Penny(Emilia Hopgood) and the Knetchels at the Lincoln School swimming pool, where Karl showed interest in joining a Buenos Aires Hash, if one existed. Karl had done extensive hashing in Indonesia. So Hopeless(John Hopgood), who had no idea of what had been agreed, was designated to get things started.
A circular was sent out to the British, Canadian, Australian embassies etc., but met with no replies, so a month later another was sent out, thanking them for their replies and announcing a start up meeting would take place later that month, with drinks!
The first meeting of the BAH3 mismanagement committee took place at the Hopeless residence in Belgrano on Friday April 2nd, 1993, when a Brit, a German, a Costa Rican, a Swede, an Australian, and three South Africans agreed that if there was to be some exercise and a few beers to be had, it was worth giving it a shot. Of this motley crew, only 4 had ever hashed before and 2 of those has little intention of running, or even drinking much beer. After the meeting, the Australian and South Africans headed for the nearest bar, a sign of things to come.
On April 23rd 1993, the first run took place by the Golf Club in Belgrano, attended by some 20 would be Hashers, drawn from the St George's teachers, parents at the Lincoln school and others who had no idea what was going on. To add an international flavour, one of the hares was a visitor from the Guatemalan Hash, who immeadiately after the run and a down down, caught a taxi for the airport, and was never seen again. The first run was about 13 Km, so long that the committee was worried no-one would return. However the South Africans and St George's teachers offered to set runs, so the BAH3 was up and stumbling.
Because of other attractions, the runs were originally every 3 weeks, something unique in the Hash until a GM with a desire to Hash once a week, managed to rearrange the schedule to fortnightly. There was even a time when the gap was filled.
The first Hashers came mainly from families related to the schools, St Georges's, Lincoln etc., and as a result it became a family hash. This is not to say that beer was not drunk and that others were not welcome. Over the first 20 runs the numbers varied from a high of 92 on run 17, to a low of 20 for run 7 on a rainy day at St George's.
Chung's Hat was introduced, given to anyone who had committed a stupidity since the last run. It was awarded for such acts as locking keys in the car when on the ferry to Colonia, or inviting Hashers to see a new computer gane, only for it to crash completely. In other Hashes, this trophy is known as "Prick of the Week". The hat got lost over time.
In late 1993 some Hashers visited Curitiba to go on the First Latin American InterHash, organised by Gobbler and Chorizo, and there was a return visit from Brazilain Hashers for the 1st Anniversary Hash.
Run 42 saw BAH3 visit Colonia, and Uruguay, for the first time. There have also been Hash Olympics, involving such high tech games as egg throwing, along with Halloween Parties, where fancy dress was the order of the day. At Christmas there were secret friend present exchanges, and even a midnight party with skinny dipping, after the kids had gone to bed.
In the early days runs took place in Martinez, San Isidro Beach (yes, there is one!), Acassuso, Belgrano, Dwontown from the GB Embassy, Palermo, La Boca, San Telmo, and even got to Adrogue and Flores once. Later came weekend excursions to Carilo and Palomar. In recent times, the Hash has ventured south of the Capital to the wilds of Avellaneda and Quilmes - Who knows where it will end up next.
