Just back from a trek round the Isle of Wight which made me hate buses forever, and reminded me just how ill I felt on the trip round the Fife coast this month.
Only a short hop from Crail to Anstruther though.
This was going to be a highlight of the Big CAMRA Weekend (fringe edition), something a reformed Arab Strap would write a song about.
The local organising committee had noted the two GBG pubs AND the Anstruther Fish Bar, a former National Champion. How anyone can beat the Withernsea Chippy I’ll never know.
It’s more Great Cumbrae than Largs, by no means a classic, but I liked the simplicity of the seafront.
I had an hour to Do Anstruther before the bus returned, unless they had Bass and Plum Porter on, of course, in which case two hours would be fine.
A big queue for the sit-down (mainly Italians, there being no Proper Food in Genoa), not so much for the takeaway.
Eating outside brings the challenge of our winged friends predators, but luckily I’m a fast eater.
I’ll be honest, the chips were a 4.5, the fish was let down by a tough batter (2.5). Still, a tick’s a tick, as they say.
I couldn’t finish the chips, good as they were, and you can’t pour chips into the pot plants.
Sadly, I couldn’t finish my drinks in the two pubs either.
I won’t have a word said about the Ship, even though I was greeted by this;
Yes, the Good Beer Guide pub without any real ale at all, a rarity never mind six pumps with the same sort of beer six times.
“I’m sorry, the beer delivery didn’t turn up”
I blame the CAMRA members from Stockport, myself.
No Guinness or even Tennents, my fallbacks, so had a can of coke* which I took on a tour of an unpretentious boozer. I won’t rate the coke. Should have had IrnBru.
Sadly, only a lone couple in at 2.30pm on a Sunday, enjoying the seagulls diving for chips through the window.
I haven’t the heart to complain about the lack of real ale. Sometimes my local Chinese takeaway doesn’t have the squid, and I’ll get over it.
But you can’t help thinking that this was the big chance for local pubs to get some custom. Or were they all in the Members Bar ?
*Yes, I count it as a tick and mark NRA on my spreadsheet. You can sleep easy.
retiredmartin 
I was worried you weren’t going to allow yourself a tick. Phew.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Russ has clearly been in torment and had to leave the country.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’d force him to go back if it was in Maidenhead.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hmmm. Normal protocol is to (a) not count it and revisit (Maltmeister rules) or (b) force down half a fizz and I don’t mean coke (most other people rules). Otherwise you could just go round ticking on coke as it were. Notice they had that 13 Guinness thing on the taps but oh no you had to be different! And it wasn’t even draught coke. You are formally required to attend a disciplinary hearing in due course.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s draft coke, just can dispense like all the best hipster bars.
What about drinking a third on a J20 glass with ice cubes in it? Views 🤔
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think Duncan’s strict adherence to the rules is admirable 👍 you must be due some kind of sanctions? Maybe a week in Solihull town centre on the same pub crawl every day…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beer delivery didn’t turn up? Bollocks. GBG pubs should have enough in the cellar to cope with a late drop.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These are very marginal cask outlets. Expected to hear “CAMRA members drunk us dry”; there was quite a lot of debate on CAMRA Discourse about travelling to Anstruther beforehand.
LikeLike
Reminds me of pubs in SE London. They often have two handpulls covered in cobweb in the corner. Thank god for Guinness, but in lager territory, even that may be off.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Morten,
It’s not like that in Manchester.
At 11am yesterday I was the Hare and Hounds on Shudehill’s first customer and over the next half hour, as the pub started filling up, there was a pint of Holt’s Bitter sold every two or three minutes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hare and Hounds, eh..? I’ll be in Manchester for two nights in July so I’ve just stored it in my Google maps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A must. In fact there’s a dozen musts within a 5 min walk.
LikeLike
Good.
The Holts Bitter is a quite reasonable £2.50.
The other cask beers are DBs — Dizzy Blonde and Doom Bar.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t know the H&H did Doom Bar. One to try.
LikeLike
Indeed. No lack of turnover in Manchester pubs. If you’d been there a couple of hours before the football it would have been a pint every 30 seconds.
LikeLike
Yes, the football.
In the Circus Tavern a few hours later I was talking to four young Danes who had come across for the match.
LikeLiked by 1 person
City get a few football tourists from exotic places like Japan, Uzbekistan and Waterbeach.
LikeLike
Er, somehow I never thought to ask the young Danes which team they supported, and they wore no clothing to give a me a clue.
And clothing reminds me that although it wasn’t a cold day scarves were being touted round the pubs, the conversation typically bring “How much ?” “Ten” “Five ?” “Two for fifteen”.
Scarves in Manchester, hipster’s underpants in Stockport, kiddie’s clothes in Northampton – each town has it’s pub bargains.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hopefully you scored it NBSS 0 – No cask ale available. If committed pub and real ale people don’t score accordingly then nothing will ever change. You can’t just go around pouring beer down the urinal, not scoring pubs and beer on NBSS and then complaining and expect something to happen? I guess that’s the current British way though.
LikeLike
Oh yes, just put 50 scores on WhatPub.
Incidentally, I don’t think occasional lack of real ale is necessarily a reason to drop a pub from the Guide though presumably it suggests it’s not keeping many barrels settling in the cellar.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nil points, Zero, Nix – IMO any GBG pub without beer should be scratched immediately. Part of the Landlord/Lady’s art is the proper ordering of beer, including pre-empting busy periods. It’s poor licensee who runs out of ale without good reason.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So those pubs in Kelham Island that were flooded and beerless for a few weeks in 2007 should have been booted out then? Exaggerating to make a point.
Everyone has disasters occasionally.
LikeLike
I think I put without good reason
LikeLiked by 1 person
You did. Devil’s advocate and all that. Scottish pubs much more likely to have a single beer and seasonal supply.
LikeLike
Scottish pubs are like the curates egg. They actually invented a word for many of them – dour.
LikeLike
IMO any GBG pub not open a proper number of hours a week should be scratched immediately.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would be more than TEN HOURS PER WEEK here then, Paul
https://whatpub.com/pubs/BIR/3645/rock-roll-brewhouse-birmingham
LikeLike
Yes, of which at least a third must be before noon !
LikeLiked by 1 person
These tap rooms and pubs that don’t open evenings or at weekends are just pointless GBG entries, however useful they are to locals.
LikeLike
Hard to believe but NRA means something even worse over here.
LikeLike
NOTHING is worse than no real ale Dick.
LikeLike
I suspect the annual Beer and Buses weekend on the Isle of Wight runs it a close second.
https://iwbeerandbuses.co.uk
LikeLike
I won’t be doing that. Wonder what a taxi to Niton and back from the end of the train line would cost?
LikeLike
Yes, you are correct. No real ale is the worst, which I experience for all but two weeks a year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
One month now!
LikeLike
Clearly the only real solution in such cases is to go to a nearby grocery store, buy a cold bottle of Bass, and then surreptitiously pour it into a pint glass while the bartender’s not looking. This would count as several ticks, just based on the extra effort. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good idea. The footage on CCTV is grainy, but I believe there’s evidence that Duncan decanted a can of Boddington into a pint glass in Carluke in 1996.
LikeLiked by 1 person