retiredmartin

Last Tuesday we set off west, like in the Village People song*, to Do Some Wales.

Mrs RM, still “tired of pubs”, deigned to allow me a rare Staffordshire tick in Great Wyrley 20 minutes from our stop for the night.

So, what’s great about Great Wyrley, halfway between Walsall and Cannock. Let the OS extract reveal;

M6 toll roads, dismantled railways, clay pits, and this chilling sign in Cheslyn Hay.

Something for everyone. As indeed there is on Quinton Court Shopping Centre, which has two curry houses, an Italian and Bargain Booze where the Davy Lamp used to be.

But for every Enterprise boozer that dies, there’s a new Midlands micro ready to take up the slack.

There’s a certain type of micro, often in Kent or Sussex, which are the preserve of the 61 year old pale beer sipper on high tables who regard you as an intrusion into their fiefdom.

Thankfully, in the Midlands the micros aren’t like that, as Life After Football will confirm.

Although Life After Football‘s real identity MUST remain secret due to legal reasons (I think he’s Kevin Keegan), many of the punters in Andy’s could be LAF. There’s lovely cask beer (Bristol Beer Factory’s Blue Dot, a crispy 3.5), but also lots of cocktails and music and folk ordering taxis to take them to the hotspots of Norton Canes.

It’s joyously racuous (but well-behaved), perhaps a little too racuous for owner Andy, who “has a quiet word” in a way far removed from the bear on the glass.

Frankly, it’s a great little pub where you can contemplate life in a Chesterfield or chat garbage with mates. I’ll avoid the beer barrel tables though.

I congratulate Andy on his pub, and ask the dumbest question of the night;

“So, are you Andy ?”

“Yes, so but is he” he says, pointing to Andy (2). So should it be Andys’ then ?