In the Spotlight – United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Hazukashii
In the Spotlight – United Arab Emirates
By Ed “Hazukashii” Howell
5 Apr 2022
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is located in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia to the west and Oman to the south-east. It also has coastlines on the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, that are connected via the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is located to the north-east on the other side of the water. An emirate is a territory ruled by a monarch in the Muslim world, such as Kuwait and Qatar. The UAE is an elective monarchy made up of the 7 Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Al Fujairah, Dubai, Sharjah, and Umm al Quwain which originally formed in 1971, and was joined in 1972 by Ras Al Khaimah. The four largest cities in the UAE are Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Al Ain, and coincidentally, the conjoined area of Dubai and Sharjah is the seventh fastest grow city in the world. These three city regions basically form a triangle with Dubai and Sharjah at the northern tip, Abu Dhabi down the coast to the south-west, and Al Ain to the south-east on the Omani border.
The human history of this region dates back over 125,000 years, and is much to detailed to describe here. In more modern times, the UAE has been a leading producer of petroleum and natural gas products. The Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, is also located in Dubai. The World Fact Book identifies that the languages of Arabic (official), English, Hindi, Malayam, Urdu, Pashto, Tagalog, and Persian are spoken, and that while Muslim is the predominant religion, Christianity, Hindu, Buddhist, Parsi, Baha'i, Druze, Sikh, Ahmadi, Ismaili, Dawoodi Bohra Muslim, and Jewish are also practiced freely.
Speaking of practicing freely, the Hash House Harriers have practiced their crazy sport here since 4 Oct 1977, when Bob Chesney founded the Ras Al Khaimah H3, located in the northern region, approximately 90 Kms north of Sharjah. This club was active until approximately 2004, but there are no other details listed for this club and although no longer active, it was the first of 14 clubs that are listed in the HHH Genealogy. If anyone has more details on this hash club, I would certainly be interested to hear about it.
In the Dubai / Sharjah area, there are currently 4 active hash clubs, with the oldest one being the Desert H3 founded in March 1979 by Martin 'The Ayatollah' Odell. Odell came over from the Bahrain H3, and was assisted by Terry 'Shirtlifter' Lewis. The Desert H3 runs every Monday at 1830, and has spawned two other clubs that are still active. First, currently running on Thursday evenings at 1830, the Creek H3 was founded on 31 January 1983 by Phil 'Noballs' Knoble after a revolt of the men wanting their own club, not wanting to run with the girlies. This would be the first of several breakaway hash clubs. The Barbie Harriettes were founded on 17 Feb 1998 by Tahlecion 'Barbie-Que-T' Jaay to give the ladies a night away from the lads, and currently runs once a month on Tuesday evenings. The Creek H3 also spawned the Moonshine Full Moon H3 founded by Raymond 'Rhode Island Red' Caldwell on 23 January 1997. Other clubs that are no longer active include the Falcon H3 (a.k.a. Budgie Hash) founded by Eric 'Phallus' Mallace in the late 1980s, as a spinoff of the Creek H3, when the drive between Sharjah and Dubai became overly time consuming. The Muff Busters H3 was a short (only 3 runs) lived hard core hash club formed by ‘Cock O' The North' when he felt the Desert H3 trails were getting too easy. The Spitroast H3 was founded by Ross "Tattoo" Wilding (son of longtime Creek hasher Bonzo) to give newer runners an opportunity to learn the ways of the hash. One interesting trait of this club, was making the virgins wear a Pig’s Head mask.
Headed south down the coast, there are currently two active hash clubs in Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi H3 founded by Tony Cordery on 22 January 1979, and the Wasp H3 founded by Alan 'Permanent Pussy Sniffer' Pearmain on 12 Oct 1991. Like many locations, there was a rift in the Abu Dhabi H3 in 1980, which caused a split resulting in a name change to the Island H4, and the forming of the Mainland H3 founded by Gordon Clarke on 8 Dec 1980. The Mainland H3 fizzled out around 2015, so the Island H3 is now once again referred to as the Abu Dhabi H3 (a.k.a. AUH4 for the airport code AUH + H3). It appears that the Wasp H3 is also slowing down, and may be folding into the AUH4 in the near future. On the other side of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the Al Ain H3 was founded by Grant 'Longshanks' Murdie on 4 April 1984. This club is attempting to get restarted after a hiatus due to COVID.
The HHH Genealogy also lists the East Coast H3, founded in September 1980, that was located along the Gulf of Oman in the city of Fujairah, but no additional information is available. While researching for this article, I happened to find an old website for the Sandpit H3 founded on 9 Dec 2011 and was able to track down the founder, John ‘Short Hand Job’ Henzell. He informed me that “It was supposed to be an occasional hash that combined the various hashes in the UAE, taking turns to host a camping weekend and setting the run [out in the desert]. But it never hit critical mass and the other hashes didn't want to do it, so it folded after about 25 runs.”
I recently had the pleasure of attending the Creek H3 2000th Run celebration (and a trail with the Desert H3) that had been delayed for two years due to COVID. David “Vomit” Bell is the current GM and was the front man for the event, and has happily cleaned out his spare bedroom of the 250 shirts and other assorted giveaways he has stored for over 2 years now. Vomit was assisted by fellow Creek hasher John ‘Compressed Fart’ Pye, who just so happens to be the GM of the Desert H3 for the past 10 years (note: they also provided a few missing bits of detail for the HHH Genealogy). It was an excellent weekend with about 50+ attendees, and fun was had by all (even Likk’mm). While chatting with some of the Creek hashers, I was informed of a chartered 747 flight that they ran a hash trail on, up and down the aisles. There were also fond remembrances of running a hash trail on the USS Nimitz back on 8 June 1993, during a port call in Dubai. Pictures to follow.
One question you may have after reading this, is how do they mark trail in the desert? As it is harder to get out of the city on a weeknight in current times, most of the trails are in the city and marked with flour and chalk. On one of the Creek H3 trails, we were mostly out in the sand dunes, so they used orange painted straws and stick them in the sand (which they have done for several decades). Checks and false trails were spray painted on rocks or other hard surfaces. It works quite well. Looking forward, Dubai is in the planning stages to host INTERGULF 2022 in November. So, if you want to visit this amazing country, that will be a great opportunity. Check out the website for more details and info on the active hash clubs in the UAE.
For many more articles like this on the history of hashing, check out . . . http://gotothehash.net/history/inthespotlight.html