The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt (R.S.S.H.)
Please see our Fixtures below.
The R.S.S.H. is a school cross country club, whose aims are to encourage all students to develop their running ability, and to gain enjoyment from competitions. The Hunt has one of the longest documented histories of any modern sports club, perhaps only rivalled by the MCC: the unbroken official record of runs goes as far back as 1842, and individual records of House events from 1832. But why the ‘Hunt’? Originally the club began because boys were banned from fox hunting proper, so they set up their own alternative ‘hunt’. The younger boys were the hounds and senior boys the officials or gentlemen of the Hunt. Today many of the traditions established in the 1800’s are still observed. We have ‘hounds’ and ‘officials’. We attempt to maintain the ancient runs, and have a ‘kill’ (first one back)! We also have the customary dinners and celebrations.
In the last 2 decades the club had terrific success at national level, and at that time was arguably one of the best school cross country teams in the country. Since then we have struggled to maintain this position, but we are still consistently amongst the top half dozen schools. Since 2001 we have been loosely affiliated with the Shropshire Beagles, and train with the real hounds once a week, on a true cross-country chase! Notable old boys include Oli Laws (competing for GB at cross-country) and Oli Mott (British Universities).
R.S.S.H. Fixtures
It is a tradition for the 3rd years to begin their time at Shrewsbury School with an introduction to the Hunt. The boys have a long warm up which includes a tour of the site and some basic information about the history of the school, site and most importantly the Hunt itself. They then race around the ancient Benjy route (a mile and a bit).
Every year around the beginning of October, the whole of Shrewsbury School takes a half-day holiday to compete in a traditional race called the ‘Tucks’. All 700+ pupils plus 100 teaching staff and 30 grounds staff migrate down to Meole Village to race a 3.5 mile route.
See The Tucks for more information.
