On the journey up to Hull I was listening to the new Tracey Thorn album on repeat. Despite having proper song structures and intelligible lyrics, it’s my record of the month (a new and shortlived feature, no doubt), with the sort of confessional detail normally only seen on a BRAPA trip to Runcorn.
Tracey, of course put Hull on the map in the early ’80s, long before those Norman-come-lately Housemartins made the city more fashionable than London.
And my last East Yorkshire GBG tick for the year (there’s only half a dozen newbies each year, it’s no big deal) was just above the University on the map.
I was staying in the Cross Keys on the corner of Beverley and Endike roads, a chicken run across the road from two (count them) Chinese takeaways and one of those somehow inadequate Premier convenience stores.
You never know what you’re going to get for £28 a night. In this case, a mock tudor roadhouse with warm welcome, clean room and the promise of Stones Bitter later. I win.
The bar café stretch from University into town, and the joys of the Old Town are (thankfully) out of walking reach, so I’ve got two proper pubs tonight.
Starting with the GBG Lord Nelson,five minutes west.
There’s some very scary modern art next door that turns out to be the local college.
The Nelson is the sort of estate pub you rarely see enter the Guide these years, unless you live in Reading, which takes a more enlightened view of these things.
As usual, the GBG promises beery exotica like Backyard and Wadworth, but to be honest I’m hoping for proper northern beer and Friday night banter.
I get both. And that ultimate marker of a Proper Pub.
Inside a dark social club style room the only light comes from wall-mounted TVs showing the Rugby League to an almost entirely male crowd.
At least they’re all seated, bar the chap enjoying his IPA through a straw in the traditional manner. I hope it’s a paper straw.
I get a proper welcome, but choose not to upset the barmaid by asking which beer is going fastest. Who on earth would order that Camerons guest ?
The locals make space for me so I can watch Castleford demolishing Leeds in their own backyard, racking up four tries in the first 20 minutes.
With a decent Tetley (NBSS 3) with lovely lacings, and an Old Boy keen to tell me the minutiae of the parking arrangements (he didn’t believe I was staying up the road and had walked), it was a top half hour, even if I didn’t actually see any other cask pulled. You never do, do you?
Best line – “Has Cruyff scored yet ?”
I let Leeds fan Richard know how his team is getting on (26-0 down).
Back at the Cross Keys, I thought I’d watch a bit of the Holland/Netherlands/Dutch v Engerland match in the public bar. Bustling and cheery, even if most of a younger crowd were nursing pints more than you might expect.
There were half a dozen TV screens, just one of them showing the footy, which meant I was facing the opposite way to a crowded bar all watching the second half of the Leeds-Cas match.
I could have had Leeds Pale, but you should never turn up a chance to sample a Proper Beer, even if it is produced in Wolves or Leicester. Wiki says cask Stones was discontinued in 2011, so the product below may have been a dream.
It was nicely kept anyway (NBSS 3), and I enjoyed five minutes of England possession before my attention wandered back to the League, where Leeds were attempting a futile comeback. No-one notice the Lingard winner. No-one cares about you, England.
A genuine slice of Hull, and a highly recommended pub stopover.
retiredmartin 
I haven’t seen cask Stones since the 1980s; it used to be one of my favourites. Despite Wiki’s tidings of despair, glad to see it’s still A Thing.
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Sure I’ve drank it in Rotherham into early 2000s, but first sighting for some time !
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I was at a Crosskeys in London the other day. Strange to think that there are lots of pubs named after a Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts instrumental: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjyEBHP7bp4
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The cynic in me thinks that these beers that don’t appear often may just be a label job on a bigger selling brand from the same beer factory.
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Probably true but I wonder if anyone has seen any other “ghost beers” around, either cask or keg. Brew Xi? Toby? Please tell me whitbread trophy and tankard are no more.
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Martin spotted keg Brew XI recently. In Crewe last year I spotted both M&B Mild and Manns Chestnut Mild. Keg Tetley Dark Mild in South Lancs today. I’d bet they still sell plenty of Stones in working men’s clubs.
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That’s true. And Magnet on keg in Barnsley. Rarely see those old favourites on cask of course.
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“In this case, a mock tudor roadhouse with warm welcome, clean room and the promise of Stones Bitter later. I win.”
As we say over here, not too shabby. 🙂
“There’s some very scary modern art next door that turns out to be the local college.”
For some reason that building reminds me of the movie Demolition Man. 😉
“The Nelson is the sort of estate pub you rarely see enter the Guide these years,”
BBM’s been banging on a bit about these over his last few posts.
“And that ultimate marker of a Proper Pub.”
Over here that usually indicates a Walmart. 🙂
“bar the chap enjoying his IPA through a straw in the traditional manner. ”
It does get you drunker quicker. Tried it once back in the late 70s. Seemed to do the trick. 🙂
“so I can watch Castleford demolishing Leeds”
Is that similar to L**ds? (LOL)
” Wiki says cask Stones was discontinued in 2011″
I know this may come as a shock but not everything written on the Internet is true. (chuckles)
Cheers!
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I must admit that I would have had a pop at the Camerons, if only as a change from “the Tets”, which I like a lot and which is very common up here in the NW. I’ve never had it through a straw though; must try that 😂
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Try it through a straw and tell us about the improvement in taste !
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I like to think we live in a world where Tracey Thorn would read this, understand the BRAPA comparison, and nod approvingly. (Do you know the Everything But the Girl version of “Night and Day”? Probably my fave version of the song)
I do like a pint of Tetley’s. I saw that the “mother company” was planning to put a bit more muscle behind the Tetley’s brand, and hoped that might mean availability here in the States, but I won’t hold my breath…
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Don’t hold your breath, Mark.
I do know “Night & Day”, and love the EBTG canon, but her solo records have an even greater honesty I find compelling.
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The sad truth is people care more about paper straws than England’s world cup hopes …
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It’s our year, Ian.
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I hope so but odds are betterr on blues surviving!
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