BUT DOES A PUB GARDEN COUNT AS A TICK ?

Oooh, messy pink marker there; should have got Mrs RM to do it.

I’m just back from my first actual new GBG pub of the year, A BIG THING.

Clay Cross deserves a lengthy post, perhaps two, it was that good in the North Derbys sun.

Note the flowerpot as ash tray, the Denby cup, the lacings on the Jaipur. All scream “Proper Pub”.

But elsewhere in the “Pub Ticking Community”, which needs a witty acronym, there is disquiet;

As ever, I am attempting to play peacemaker.

Before you’re tempted to agree with Duncan, just remember that his ticking is all in halves, and he also accepts tasters.

I’d rather be indoors, but as BRAPA discovered, the banter outside can be the highlight of a pub visit, and on several occasions I’ve taken my pint outside to be with the drunks locals.

After all, you’re doing this for the pub experience, NOT the building. Stuff your heritage (unless it comes on the side of a sweet bag in Clay Cross).

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

35 thoughts on “BUT DOES A PUB GARDEN COUNT AS A TICK ?”

  2. The only ticking I’ve ever done is completing every entry in Larry Hawthorne’s The Beer Drinker’s Guide to Munich. I did it over the course of 3 months one summer a few years back. In summer the beer gardens hold more appeal than the beer halls and where a beer hall has a beer garden, where to sit? And is that a full tick? I opted that the area of most comfort was the tick, usually the garden, but I walked thru and checked out the beer hall even if no one was sat there just to see what it was like in winter. That was it ticked off. I also marked what I thought worth returning to.

    One day I was drinking with a Spanish lad who was very keen on Catalonian independence and informed me he was off to the Hofbrauhaus but had got lost on his earlier attempt to find it, to check out the booth Mozart sat at. I already had several ticks for that gaff and seen the beer stein on the wall of a mates Nazi granddad who by amazing coincidence was shot dead in a battle my own grandmothers brother fought at in the African desert. Though I don’t know if my relative shot his. Anyway, I took him as I knew the way and we went about exploring the deserted upstairs looking for Mozart’s booth. A random German asked us what we were doing and then joined in the search with us. My Spanish mate declared he had found it and we sat in that booth in a deserted upstairs. We swapped seats as the lad wanted to sit on every bit of both benches to make sure he got the full Mozart arse on the same bit of his arse. The booths looked new and they could have been just well maintained though I did not share my doubt as to whether Mozart actually sat on this very bench. When my Spanish mate went for a slash, I told him to piss in every trap to make sure he pissed in the same toilet as Mozart. He told me that was a good idea and to this day believes he pissed in the same bog as Mozart despite the toilets being clearly less then a decade old plumbed in. Anyway, I digress. Yes, it’s a tick if you only sit in the garden. You don’t have to discover every nook and cranny of a gaff. Though it is polite to do so if you end up boozing with others on a strange classical music related arse mission. And you can tick off a place more than once if you’re on a drinking adventure.

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    3. Cookie,
      Mention of “he pissed in the same bog as Mozart” reminds me that I once pissed alongside Brian Redhead though can’t quite remember where the urinal was.

      Liked by 1 person

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    4. I’m with you on that one, Cookie. What I wouldn’t give now for the chance of doing a few of those splendid Munich beer gardens, listed in Larry’s guide.

      Far preferable to some of those dodgy GBG entries, that the tickers seem to love so much.

      I’ve done a fair few over the years, but am nowhere near completing them all like you have.

      As for my favourites, Kugler Alm, Hinterbruhl and Hirschau amongst others. 🍻

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  5. “BUT DOES A PUB GARDEN COUNT AS A TICK ?”

    Yes.

    Oh wait… there’s more? I shall read on then.

    “I’m just back from my first actual new GBG pub of the year, A BIG THING.”

    At this rate you might get a whole page done before the next one comes out. 🙂

    “All scream “Proper Pub”.”

    (takes a deep breath)… PROPER PUB!
    (even my neighbours heard me) 🙂

    “As ever, I am attempting to play peacemaker.”

    (slow golf clap)

    “I’d rather be indoors, but as BRAPA discovered, the banter outside can be the highlight of a pub visit”

    *cough* Wharf in Welford. 😉

    “After all, you’re doing this for the pub experience, NOT the building. ”

    Or, the outside counts just as much as the inside; and that’s true with respect to people too! 🙂

    Cheers

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. I’m not a ticker so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I do think if you manage to get in the pub, if only for the loo and perhaps sight of the bar, the tick should be yours.

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  7. You are wading into deep water here RM. I will await the adjudication of the disciplinary sub-committee, which is due to meet next week in the safe hands of an independent chair, believed to be Count Arthur Strong.

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. Count Arthur has offered me a place as a lay observer. The hearing is being screened live on St Mirren TV in a special programme hosted by John Cooper Clarke. The stakes, I need hardly add, are high, as are the seats.

        Liked by 3 people

  8. I’d have thought you could temporarily loosen the rules during a once-in-a-hundred-years worldwide pandemic, but this just goes to show how little I understand the full gravity of the pub ticking code, clearly. 😉

    Your reference to the Denby cup got me to Google it, since I wasn’t aware of the brand. Is it the sort of thing where you can recognize them by appearance alone?

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. That’s the problem with you Americans, you just don’t understand the importance of pointless rules to us Brits. Saying that, we don’t understand the importance of your silly games like rounders and netball.

      Denby is one of our most famous pottery brands, very long-lasting and distinctive classic designs.

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    2. I’m more worried about the gravity of the global pandemic than the gravity of rules about pub ticks! (Answer YES!). Let’s hope you are right about it being once in a hundred years!

      Yes Denby is a pottery brand from Denby. We have a ‘Greenwich Green’ set which was a wedding present and still going strong 29 yrs later, thanks to factory shop and no pieces ever being discontinued!

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      2. “Yes Denby is a pottery brand from Denby.”

        Blimey. My favourite coffee mug (dark purple) is a Denby, while my favourite tea mug (grey) is a Denby. Have had both now for over 20 years. 🙂

        Cheers

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      4. “Sounds like the ceramic equivalent of Trigger’s broom.”

        I read that as Tigger’s Broom. Took me a bit to realise it was Only Fools and Horses (which I have sadly never seen).

        Cheers

        PS – Me mugs is in good nick!

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