First things first. Best wishes to Norwich United’s Andy Eastnaugh for a quick recovery from the sickening injury that brought a premature end to my Non-League experience yesterday. Not a good way for anyone to spend their 30th birthday.
The collision happened straight from the kick-off, bringing an understandable abandonment after 16 seconds.
I’ll be back in October* to review the catering, though possibly not for the Doom Bar and IPA.
A premature end did give me the chance to explore that lovely Fenland scenery that people who don’t live there write about. There were lots of fields like these on the way to Qua Fen Common.
No street art, unless you count the little knitted purse the fish wears.
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QUIZ TIME – Why does the fish have a purse ?
Unless you’re a windmill ticker, the Common is probably the highlight, a vast expanse of grazing horses and carrots. And dog walkers.
Back in town, the highlight is the Fountain, with it’s weighbridge, pool table and Doom Bar. Mrs RM called it quite pleasant, which is fair enough.
Apart from that, Soham has an excellent skate park, church and more beauty salons and takeaways than you could ever need. Just see how bustling it is on Bank Holiday Monday;
I was feeling quite brave so had popped in the Ship pre-match. If there’s a shorter description on What Pub I’d be surprised. Following my visit I can only add that this is your model for a basic one bar Greene King pub with massive smoking shelter.
I suppose I had to visit this one eventually, on the way to ticking all of Cambridgeshire’s pubs, but I felt slightly miffed I’d picked Beer Fest day. Actually, the Fest had rather oddly finished on Sunday. Locals were contemplating the decline of the Bank Holiday bender, as they put away Carling and local cider.
The barmaid was very cheery, pointing me to the remainder of the Fest ales. I stuck with the Otter Amber, as I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d walked away without trying ale from my my brewer of choice in recent months. The taste of honey told me I should have come the day before, when I suspect it would have been a drinkable pint.
Most drinkers were congregating outside the Tasca Portuguese café, one of two in town. Super Bock is probably your best bet in Soham, particularly matched with calamari.
*I wasn’t.
retiredmartin 
Is it to hold it’s eggs?
When Maxine Carr got a new identity, she moved opposite a York pub, then rubbish, now GBG listed. Or so the locals thought.
Is windmill ticking a thing? Is there a Good Windmill Guide?
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Might have known you’d have something to contribute Si. Eggs is right. If folk can tick trains they can tick windmills.
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I sense some collusion on the egg answer!
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If you’ve got a better/dafter answer I’ll accept it Dave. I thought it was something a child had dropped, attached to the nearest convenient point !
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My rather lame attempt was going to be a lost purse as well….
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Appears to be the right answer. I might ask in the Tourist Information when I go back in October.
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Watching my grandson and viewing his shows – one with bubble guppies and another with a sponge who wears square pants while living in a pineapple under the sea – a fish with a purse for her eggs makes good sense. I could use that Otter Amber right about now!
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Lovely image.
Perhaps not that Otter though Richard.
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I have no doubt you are correct. Even so, it was probably better than the only cask I saw while in Champaign, Illinois this weekend, Berliner Weisse with Mandarin Orange.
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Are you an Illinoisan ?
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Guilty. I live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. My son lives in Champaign.
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Great city.
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Watching a gig in Cambridge tonight and they’ve got Otter Amber on, might try it later.
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I hope it is(was?) good. Apply that to both.
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The gig was challenging ,the Otter was easy-drinking. Both superb. Post to follow.
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“YASSS” (as my Aussie ‘friends’ on Twitter often say), I knew there was a “purse of fish eggs” thing. Amazing what you can learn from Spongebob and co.
So are you going to tell us what Whatpub says about the ship. Is it “locals no nonsense boozer” in the true spirit of the 1982 Good Beer Guide.
Meant to say, my Mum told me off for a certain “too soon” comment on my Anchor blog.
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Must go back and read the Anchor blog. Was it the Villain ?
WhatPub says, drum roll, one changing beer. That’s it. So my blog has all you need to know.
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it’s a moray eel, not money eel, buh
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I believe that salmon traditionally have ‘purses’ of eggs which they take upstream to lay before dying (actually, I understand that to be an urban myth and not all of them die young at that point, however a good number do). It would make sense in Soham, being an inland location, for it to be such a river fish and it does look salmon like to my untrained eye. I don’t know whether fish other than salmon have purses, that may be tomorrow’s research.
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I won’t sleep waiting for that Tom.
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The research has been concluded. It seems that most of my answer was at least partial bollocks. Salmon don’t have purses for their eggs. Pacific salmon always die soon after laying eggs, but others have a low survival rate.
Those fish that lay purses of eggs do so on the sea floor and not in a river, and are a few species of sharks and skate. Thus, I don’t see how the purse would be seen in a place like Soham, thus I wish to change my backing to Martin’s original lost child property theory. Those of us who said egg purse, an abbreviation of Devil’s purse, should be deducted 10 QI points.
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