An exciting report of a trip outside Cambridge to come. But first another raiding of the archives to bring you the time that Brian Clough’s Forest competed for the Skegness Paper Bag trophy (possibly), romping to a 4-0 win even without Shilton.

A week later, Forest won 3-1 at Goodison, went top of the League, and the rest is history.
No doubt a weekend in Skeggy on the Bateman’s, Bass and Worthington was just the boost that Kenny Burns, Martin O’Neill and Peter Withe needed.

Perhaps they stayed at The Vine, for many years the top Skeggy hotel.


When Mrs RM and I stayed here for £50 (fifty !) back in 1999, it just seemed an old-fashioned Best Western.
Twenty years later Curry Charles and I visited and it seemed like an old fashioned Best Western with a proper public bar.

The busiest pub by far on a cold Thursday night in March, and clearly selling more Batemans than the rest of Skeggy put together. These folk had clearly trudged past 17 fun pubs to get here and drink BBB.

Alongside restaurants of increasing formality in the other three rooms, there was an Indian menu in the bar. There is no better beer to wash down a Chicken Dhansak than XB (NBSS 3.5+), though the maltier XXXB was a bit of a challenge. Yummy.

Back in 2018 Charles insisted on visiting all the fun pubs, speculating on what Tony Woodcock had got up to in Busters and the Spoons back in ’77.


Before we’d got to Skeg, the gent at the Consortium micro warned us;
“Your chances of getting run over by a mobility scooter by an old bloke in a moleskin fleece are high !”
He was right.

We had a great overnighter in the Jewel of the East. £33 per room at the North Shore Golf Hotel, top coastal walking. The “Adopt your own wind power generator” scheme is a winner.

15 minutes walk to the funfair. Mind the starfish.



As we’ve seen already, decent beer IS available. And the pubs were full of drinkers. All human life is here, and not just in the Spoons.

Unfortunately for Charles, Bizzy Lizzie’s Whip & Dip Parlour turned out to be less exciting than promised.

A short walk north takes you to a stream of caravan parks, each with their own craft bar and gourmet food.

My new Guide pub was the Seathorne Arms, Skeggy’s first since BRAPA was in short trousers, was an unexpected corker.

It’s more social club than fun pub, packed with retired gentlefolk, fluorescent jackets and girls with prosecco in a bucket. A proper pub.

The Heritage was cool and silky (NBSS 3.5), and flying out at £2.50 a pint. The Hen was going quicker.
And of course, as Charles noted, tremendous lacings.
A great English seaside holiday. Just not this year, I suspect.
That takes me back – I used to drink in Nottingham’s Falcon, Canning Circus, back in the day when I still had close ties with the city, and would sometimes stray over to the Hand and Heart on Derby Road. There was often the odd Forest player in there, notably Trevor Francis, at least in the early 1980s, I seem to remember.
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Those two are still good.
Oddly, Trevor was only at Forest a couple of years (79-81) before they sold him to City.
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From a beer point of view the Falcon wasn’t really that brilliant back then. It was a Shipstone’s pub, but often failed to keep a memorable pint.
However, in the things that really matter, it was brilliant.
The Hand was about as fashionable as a pub could be. Young – and not-so-young – ladies would go to meet chaps who lived in Nottingham’s nearby salubrious and exclusive Park estate.
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Like you…?
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No, I lived in Long Eaton then 😁
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Some of my favourites pubs in the A52 corridor in Long Eaton.
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Yes, the Crown in Beeston, through to the Royal Oak at Ockbrook, with plenty of others on the way.
Happy days.
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Love the Skegness Paper Bag Company in Rear Ida Road. Rear Ida was quite a local character I believe.
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Sadly, just a typo. It’s actually Rare Ida Road. Ida had a rare ability to withstand the bracing Skegness cold for more than 17 minutes wearing only 5 layers back in the 60s.
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Two mobility scooters, Kenny Burns, Peter With, Tony Woodcock and dodgy late night bars…you are spoiling us!
Could you imagine Liverpool or Citeh playing Skegness these days??
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You must have played a few non-league grounds pre-season in your career. Rarely see a Prem team do it these days, sadly.
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