Yes, it’s time for the Rover.
I’m pressing on with these posts, though to be fair it all seems a bit pointless now BRAPA has won the blogosphere by getting Syd Little to pour him a pint of Prosecco in a Fleetwood boozer.
Anyway, next up is the best known Manx pub, possibly alongside the Sidings and the Trafalgar. I thought the Rovers Return, tucked away in a “lively” alley between the offices and docks, might be a Top 100 pub. Man probably deserves one on the list.
It’s the Manx “Live and Let Live“, its’ Olde Vic, for the desperate sake of comparison. Pick a lightly scruffy but lovable “Come Ye All” town boozer of your choice.
It’s the first time we’d seen many folk under 25, and the first time we’d not seen Okells on the bar, being the Bushy’s flagship. Note also Blackburn’s finest 3Bs on the Guest pump, which looks like the sort of pump you’d get in a Hamburg pub.
Imagine the joy of operating these FANTASTIC handpumps, apparently made from fire hoses, which should add a 0.25 to NBSS, anyway.
Actually, our little group found the Bushy’s a bit variable after the consistency of the Okells, though the Mild was a winner. Perhaps those fire hoses aren’t so great.
But the pub was a great place to natter. Sadly, not only are these photos garbage, they also feature me (again). It must have been a good night.
Despite being a shrine to the Rovers, we failed to get served by Jack Walker or Colin Hendry, which was perhaps the disappointment of the night.
Is that a Bass triangle above the “Arte” ? I think we should be told.
So is it getting in my Top 100 Pubs.
No. Nay. Not Yet.
retiredmartin 
“apparently made from fire hoses, which should add a 0.25 to NBSS, anyway.” –I feel you are trying to lure certain readers of your blog into posting, “Hang on here, the aesthetic quality of the hand pumps should have no bearing on the NBSS rating!” 😉
(You know me, I determine my beer ratings by how 19th century the logo looks…)
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19th century logos are more valid than “Oooh, Greene King are a nasty company, Oooh, that beer is made under a railway arch) etc.
Actually, I was really wondering if beer thru a hose was a great idea. I had top beer there a decade ago, mind, and it wasn’t “Bad”.
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Arthur Leslie or the football bloke?
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Who’s Arthur Leslie (Don’t spoil it, I’ll check in Encyclopaedia Britannica tomorrow).
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He played Jack Walker,the landlord of The Rover’s Return in Coronation Street.
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That’s a coincidence, with Jack W being benefactor of Blackburn, to which the pub is a monument. Or is it ?
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“it all seems a bit pointless now BRAPA has won the blogosphere by getting Syd Little to pour him a pint of Prosecco in a Fleetwood boozer.”
He was making that up. 🙂
“It’s the Manx “Live and Let Live“”
At least it has the correct Budweiser sign up.
“Shocked at sight of Duncan’s shorts”
Or at least what they failed to hide. 😉
“Imagine the joy of operating these FANTASTIC handpumps”
Christ. I thought was were keggers!
“It must have been a good night.”
Definitions of that differ wildly. 🙂
“No. Nay. Not Yet.”
I take it ‘not yet’ is the English version of the Irish ‘not yet’. 🙂
Cheers
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BRAPA never lies. Just like Bucks Fizz’s camera.
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Seems to be difficult to go into a Fleetwood pub without bumping into Sid Little. Saw in Strawberry Gardens on visit in 2015. (Owns the food concession there apparently – not implying he’s on a permanent pub crawl!)
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He cooks the burgers at the little restaurant in the Steamer, which his wife runs.
https://www.facebook.com/thelittlerestaurant
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In 2009 I was served with a bizarrely incompetent cheeseburger in the Rover’s Return – cold, soft roll, dry , chewy Westlers-type burger and portion of cold grated cheese on the side. Had these people never actually seen a burger in the wild and were making it up as they went along?
Is that image an early version of Simon doing his best not to draw attention to his knee?
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He doesn’t like people mentioning his knee !
I recall that burger from a post of yours around the time. It probably pays homage to the quality of the fayre at Ewood Park in the ’80s 😉
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Maybe the cheese was on the side so that the burger was kosher – seriously
Or maybe it’s that Manxmen do things differently, no unpure ingredients in the beer and no cheese in the burgers – less seriously
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Just looked on Trip Advisor for food reviews. Basic sums it up.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g190928-d261072-Reviews-or20-The_Rover_s_Return-Douglas_Isle_of_Man.html
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There’s an ex-bass brewer who lives on the island. He now does the cask marque assessing for all the H&B pubs but Bushys don’t use his services.
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The Isle of Man is a place that many people hardly have heard of. Seems to be a nice place to visit though.
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It would be better known if it was closer to London or in France.
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IOM is a bit like North Wales – North West conurbation on sea with more exiles than natives.
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I blink and I’m about 10 posts behind!
Wrong Rovers, but I’d have it in my top 100. Spent about 8 of the last 10 Easter Sundays in the snug refuelling.
Okell’s a very consistent beer over there
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Did you say you went over for TT ?
Yes, Rovers is pub I’d gravitate to, if I didn’t have a quid for the Quids Inn.
Is there a Tranmere Rovers shrine in Maidenhead Conservative Club ?
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Maidenhead 1-0 Tranmere is now immortalised in a tapestry taking pride of place alongside the portrait of James May and just above their GBG sticker.
You won’t catch me wearing leather. The Easter Athletics Festival provides some justification for brightly clad pub tickers to run back from Peel Hill tower to Douglas on Easter Saturday via each Okells pump. This year I managed to find a Cat with no Tails clone on the edge of Peel and a kind taxi lady took a few of us to the Baltic, which was long overdue.
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