Increasingly I’m getting away on Sunday nights, when the A14 is passable and hotels are half the Friday rates, but you can still expect 1 in 3 of the new GBG entries to be open.
So that means I’m spending more Saturdays close to Cambridge, tidying up blogs and cupboards. Feel my pain.
Last Saturday I arranged to meet top pub man Leon for a quick pint at the Haymakers before Tranmere’s thrilling draw with Cambridge United. It’s important that visitors to the city see the gritty bits of Cambridge as well as the chain restaurants in the centre.
The walk from the new Cambridge North station to the Haymakers is one of the less heralded urban walks.
And street art along the guided bus route is at the primitive stage.
Problem was, I had nearly an hour to kill before I met Leon, so I drifted towards one of the real Cambridge oddities.
I wrote about the Golden Hind, one of the famed Tolly Follies when it was re-opened three years ago. Oddly, it hasn’t graced the Beer guide since then, despite my rave review of the Broadside. Still looks lovely, though food trade was considerably lower than I remember in what was always a basic local before the refurb.
Anyone who’s been in a modernised Greene King diner in the last year will recognise the line-up, plus or minus a Colchester or Buntingford beer.
I nearly turned on my heels and walked out, being a beer snob and all.
Oh, not you.
Well. would you resist ? Perhaps not the ideal lunchtime pint, unless you’re BRAPA or Mrs RM, but I knew you’d want to know if it was any good.
Well, if there’s a more reliable pint, even when first out the taps in a lager pub, I’ve yet to come across it. Not quite Staggs standard, but a chewy NBSS 3.5.
I joined the rabid crowds watching the Brighton v Derby Cup tie. Since the volume was turned down on the telly and the R’n’B turned up, it was a painful experience. All I can tell you is that Bogle miscontrolled the ball, because the lad opposite shouted that out.
Next to me a sockless Old Boy was tucking into his big breakfast, oblivious to Bogle.
He asked the barmaid who took his plate for another pint of Peroni, and had the £5.05 ready for her when she brought it. And I thought table service was dead.
An outwardly impressive but soulless chain pub, partly redeemed by some decent beer.
But was that pint of 6% heaven a folly ? Oh no.
retiredmartin 
The true Green Devil notices not pumpclip details, just the name.
And “6% abv”
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You are to Green Devil what Wickingman is to Bass and Cookie to Bud Light, Matthew.
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Mentioned in same comment as Cookie…my work is done.
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Why all the white tiles behind the bar nowadays ?
There must be the risk of someone who’s over imbibed not realising he’s not yet in the toilet.
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Good point.
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Why all the brown faience tiles outside all the late Victorian early Edwardian boozers?
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Maybe to make the premises stand out from ordinary brick frontages.
Money invested outside suggests the same inside.
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Quite so, but nevertheless, a trend of the times.
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That green devil looks delightful but dangerous! A smart looking pub I have to say…is in excess of a fiver for lager the norm in Cambridge?
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Oh yes, for Peroni anyway. a quid more than Carling or Fosters. The Golden Hind is close to an estate pub by Cambridge standards.
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Ha ha that made me chuckle! It looks like a fantastic building
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I think the only Tolly Folly outside the Ipswich area.
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Northern heads, indeed.
“I’ll have half a litre of best, please”
“We don’t sell half litres”
“I think you’ll find that you do”
Always goes down well in Yorkshire.
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Or
“Could you put a double scotch in there please”
“Yes Sir”
“Well fill it up with beer instead then”.
Or “I see the vicar’s in tonight”.
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Of course, I’d rather have 80% of a pint in a Sam Smiths pub for £2 than 99% of a pint in a Fullers pub for £4.70. I guess that, and my disinterest in beer festivals and preserving uneconomic pubs, are why I tale no interest in CAMRA.
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I like the last especially, TSM. It’s a new one on those of us who lead sheltered lives.
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I hope you asked for a top-up on that pint.
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Certainly not, that’s what Northerners do.
NB. It was £3.70, which is roughly a quid cheaper than the pint I had in the brewery tap.
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I have seen the Reverse Top Up before now, where what I consider a perfect pint is taken back, and a sullen request made for a “proper head” to be put on it, resulting in quite some waste of beer.
But, y’know…
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It might not be the ideal lunch time pint but I would have made myself ill for it!
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Good man. Do you see Green Devil in Leeds?
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Yes, more frequently on keg. The lower ABV Citra is more prevalent.
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I have to agree with you: that pump clip design seems almost designed to repel rather than attract! But I’m expect they’re not trying to reach someone of my age and boringness. 😉
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“Get with it, Daddio ! ” Or whatever the kidz say.
That redesign just makes it look like a novelty beer, rather than the worldbeater it is. Who’d go for that over Doom Bar, let alone Peroni ?
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“Get with it, Daddio ! ”
Oh Dear Lord, is there a BRAPA Vlog just for you now?
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I know I called you Russ by mistake yesterday but have I uncovered your secret?
Anyway, keep em coming.
BRAPA did one of those Periscope live blogs from Dewsbury a couple of years back. Drunkenly hilarious.
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