Where is Stechford ? A mile east of famed boxing Brum boxing arena St. Andrews, apparently. And just below Ward End, home of the Midland’s most idiosyncratic Spoons.
And what’s happened to the “t” in Stetchford ? After all, there’s a “t” in snitch (top). I blame the Villa.
Stechford is the nearest station to the Beer Guide newbie, the Sheldon & Marlborough Cricket Club. Which is listed under Yardley in the GBG. Confused ?
I’ve brought together the highlights from suburban Stechford/Sheldon/Yardley on my 20 minute stroll.
I particularly like the town map which shows all the trees.
And the lion welcoming me with the Sheffield Wednesday club badge.
As always, the keg boozer that BeerMat has probably been to was to look more exciting than the actual Guide pub.
Instead, I get the Cricket Club.
Now, these clubs do a sterling job, but they don’t half look the same. Contrast and compare with St. Annes, Saltburn and countless others. Can’t they mix it up by sticking a pub on that wicket ?
The highlight here, and Duncan and Simon will be nodding, is getting into the damn thing.
It looked closed. I saw a light. I rang the bell. Nothing. Just as I was turning to go, the door opened.
“You got to press and hold at the same time* !!” Yeah, like I’m supposed to know that.
Theoretically only open an hour, the bar was lined with the products of our finest brewers.
One beer (hurrah !) something micro and local (not M&B Mild); Russ will recognise the weird pumpclip. How folk put NBSS scores on WhatPub when they can’t see the clip, I’ve no idea.
A very good pint enjoyed in front of the Premiership analysis expertly provided by Joleon “he’s top of the League” Lescott.
The other punters were a dad and his lad, and the room layout hardly promotes banter, not that I was at my most sociable best.
I think I may have mucked up the process of getting out as well. Do clubs really want nerdy CAMRA members coming for a quick pint and sneaking out ?. Don’t answer that.
*Isn’t that a line from World In Motion ?
retiredmartin 
Classic stuff!!! Can’t believe that’s in it but probably only place selling cask for miles…yes I’ve been to the north star but not for years….it’s had an external lick of paint 😀 I once judged a beauty contest at the barley mow in ward end… arguably the pinnacle of my career!
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If only I’d known that before I’d have gone to interview the one you made runner-up.
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😀
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“Birmingham, Birmingham – so good they named it twice”
You’re making these maps deliberately hard to read aren’t you? 😉
“View from The Hornet”
Hang on; I’ve seen that before.
“Confused ?”
With you lot? Hell yes. 🙂
“A real ale desert for you”
They really get into their recreation around there I see.
“I particularly like the town map which shows all the trees.”
Pfft. That’s just the same tree duplicated.
“Owls welcome”
I take it that’s a regional dialect meaning everyone is welcome? 😉
“Oddly omitted from WhatPub”
And with what appears to be a sort of mobility scooter to boot!
“All your favourites”
Hey! I’ve got two 500ml cans of Bombardier waiting for me at me mum’s when I fly down in order to escort her to Edmonton to see her first ever great-grandchild.
“Russ will recognise the weird pumpclip.”
It looks a bit like Enville Ale, but that’s not right.
“NOT Bombardier”
(sigh)
“Don’t answer that.”
Hey, a sale’s a sale. 🙂
Cheers
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I got in ok as someone else was going in just ahead of me but needed a table full of regulars to shout in unison to get out. Odd layout as you say that doesn’t easily facilitate interaction even had you been “at your most sociable best”, which, as we all know, is very sociable.
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I think we all have to acknowledge that it’s sometimes pot luck whether you interact with the licensees and locals in a pub. Obviously, shoving a Beer Guide and green marker in their face and saying “I’M A TICKER, ME !” helps. But if my usual “”Hello, how you doing, nice weather for it” fails, I’m often a bit stumped.
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You do yourself a dis-service. I have seen you in action! Can’t expect everyone to be the life and soul all the time but it is a little strange how some people are drawn to the ‘hospitality industry’ when they don’t appear to enjoy the conversational dimension of their trade.
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The Whiston one was bad. But then a few locals and visitors popped in and we had a good chat about Blackpool in that all round the micro way.
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Stechford is also notable for the by-election which took place there in the late 70s.
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I drove past the North Star a few weeks ago and was interested enough to google it. Apparently after a few years of trouble and strife it’s now a private drinkers club, not open to casual disappointment like me and thee. Probably explains the no-show on whatpub, or not…
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Not even if you untick the real ale, pub/club and open qualifiers!
Not very secret though!
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Borderline Shebeen! In t’old days there were always a few pubs that flatly refused to be included in the GBG, maybe they’ve threatened the local branch that they’ll turn up at their beer festival with a coachload of Carling drinkers.
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I can almost understand a basic small place such as the Queen’s Arms in Cowden Pound not needing or wanting the hordes a GBG entry brings in.
A WhatPub entry need have no more than name, location and “not a public house”.
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I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the cricket club as yet (it is on the agenda for sometime in the summer, fingers crossed) but I can claim a call at the North Star a couple of years ago. It did indeed spend a few years as a private members club but had reverted back to being a standard pub and wasn’t as awful as anticipated – in fact I rather liked it! That mystery pumpclip looks like it has a runaway tyre on it.
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Ah, so it might have Cloudwater and Bathams on cask, then ?
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If only!! I think I had to make do with M&B Mild and a game of darts – we did it as part of a pubcrawl on the Outer Circle bus route which made for a ‘lively’ adventure.
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Nowt wrong with lively ! Or with M&B Mild. You’d be amazed the lengths certain Curmudgeon and I went to on two recent crawls to find M&B; used to be ubiquitous in the early Ember Inns in Brum.
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Not M&B cask Mild but Brew XI was on in Ember Inns’s Red Lion at Kings Heath until about a year ago.
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I’d pay good money for one of those Bombardier glasses. Not such a fan of the beer, to be honest, but I do love that (now abandoned) logo design!
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Can I send you one by drone and drop it in your garden. Have lost track.
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Yes, “English, ever reliable and damned tasty. Bang On” says it all really for one of our favourite beers.
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