10p. Sounds much better than 2 shillings, doesn’t it ? Made a fair dent in a 14 year old’s pocket money when I took in my first ever “foreign” solo football match back in ’79.
Frankly, by the 4th day of our family holiday in Bognor Butlins I was so desperate to escape I’d have gone to watch crown green bowls.
But half an hour through the mean streets of working-class West Sussex was a visceral joy,
and I remember a skillful and entertaining derby settled by Steve Gill’s 65th minute half volley from the edge of the area. You had to be called “Steve” to get a place in a Bognor side that would beat Swansea and scare Reading in the Cup a few years later.
They had Billy Butlin’s son as their President back then, and would reward the Man of the Match (Vijay Korgaokar against Gosport) by NOT making them take a holiday at Butlins.
I have a vague memory of eating outside Butlins once, possibly at the Golden Egg with its decadent Sunday opening.
L.V.’s are Littlehampton vagrants, by the way.
Here’s a recent pic of the only reason folk visit Bognor.
On my one recent visit I was deeply impressed by the orderly queue at the Spoons, a dozen Old Boys waiting for their 9am Smooth.
There’s a new micro, apparently; I assume they queue at 4pm for their Langham Hip Hop there.
Along the coast I enjoyed the old school Cabin in (relatively) affluent Middleton in 2018.
Groups of Old Boys clearly holed up for the entire Summer (possibly lasting till October 2021) were sinking pints on purple tables in the sun and discussing oil prices, while toddlers ran around in the bar discussing stolen packets of Haribos.
North of town in actually affluent Nyetimber, which probably gives its address as Chichester, the award winning Inglenook was a scorcher in every sense.
I liked the fact that this pub has such broad appeal, though that night I was at the younger end of the clientele, and one of the few non-cardigan wearers.
There’s a real pubby buzz about the place, helped by some superb drunken banter from two young Irish ladies sitting dangerously close to a monstrous fire, and the low level Sinatra.
And that’s your lot. Though if after a lager at 10am there’s probably few finer places on earth, and if pub lockdown eased in Bognor first I suspect I’d beat you there.
retiredmartin 
If not for the eight hour head start you have, you would find us there when you arrived.
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Trump plans to fix that so the sun rises earlier in the States so you’ll be fine.
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He’s personally developing the vaccine. And if it fails we know who is at fault.
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That statue is BRAPA post-lockdown…
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“Spoons not open in ’79”
Well it was, albeit not in Bognor. The very first branch of ‘Spoons opened in North London in 1979.
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2 months after that September 79 visit. I’m sure Tim could see the potential in Bognor even back then 😉
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“Spoons not open in ’79”
Ditto today.
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“L.V.’s are Littlehampton vagrants, by the way”.
Given that some of your readers might believe that fake news, I would like to post this for information purposes :-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal_voucher
It is surprising how popular they were 40 years ago ; having such a vouchers seems somewhat primitive now, and would no doubt be a source of amusement to the likes of your boys.
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Fred,
Ah, yes indeed.
“When the police raided her 1978 Christmas party, every man had a Luncheon Voucher in his pocket, which helped give the scandal its indelible comic tint”.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/18/cynthia-payne-luncheon-voucher-wentworth-golf
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If by scare you mean get thrashed 6-2 then yes you’re right! Bognor’s two goals were the result of absolutely appalling defending.
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Exactly. Shared 8 goals.
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Only just seen the video, they don’t show up on the phone so I’ve missed loads of the Zappa vids as well ! Some classic defending all round there. I remember the goals from somewhere.
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“I was so desperate to escape I’d have gone to watch crown green bowls” – yes, at Bognor’s equivalent of Wolverhampton’s Stile or Newhampton or Crewe’s Hop Pole. .
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I used to love the LV s my husband presented me with every month -used to use them for my weekly shop in Safeway -very useful.As for Bognor -a couple of years ago we found it entirely pleasant for 1 night & I saw a man with a huge lizard on a lead -we visited most of the pubs but names & photographic evidence are not to hand -I am useless at remembering where I have been !
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You were in Bognor, Pauline.
Sure it wasn’t a whippet?
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You get Mrs. RM to whippet if you want mate, we don’t need to hear about your lockdown debauchery…
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Mark will know that as Devo’s greatest moment.
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In my minds eye it was as large as a komodo dragon but I was too shy to take a picture as the owner looked a bit “bohemian “
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I wonder when OS stopped putting “here there be dragons” on maps?
Mind you, they still put “Telford” to scare the bloody wits out of us, so…
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Back in ’79, you shoulda stayed at the seafront, where you could have seen David Purley do unwise aerobatics in his Pitts Special biplane.
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You’ve mentioned David Purley before. Is he not from Croydon then?
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No. His dad owned a fridge factory in Bognor and Purley was the company pilot / Head of Personnel.
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Hophead used to be great, occasionally now, its good.
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Just for once you may be right, Citra. Certainly a notch down in the Evening Star a few months ago. But then again, only 2 years since I gave a half of Hophead an NBSS 5 in Hendon.
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I’ll take the once as a victory, as far as I know (and this maybe a load of b******s) Its brewed on two sites, Fullers at Chiswick and Dark Star at Partridge green , It’s easy to tell tell the difference, the latter being the superior to my taste buds, it seems a lottery as to what version you get where. You can deduct a point from me for talking about beer on your pub and walking site. 😃
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I think I’d need to visit some high turnover outlets in Brighton and beyond. Dark Star have/had a tap of sorts in Horsham that should have been a good bet.
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Went to the Anchor Tap In Horsham last July, was a Dark Star pub but no longer, and no DS beers on my visit. Probaby the best pub in Horsham though.
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Put our head round the corner a few months ago, looked an impressive craft wall.
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