This afternoon Durham play Glamorgan in the final (the final !) of the nation’s premier one-day cricket competition.
Search in vain for any mention of it on the BBC’s website, which is devoted to The Hundred, the purest form of cricket.
Now the final is played on a Thursday at Nottingham, which with the greatest of disrespect isn’t the Home of Cricket. The days when the showpiece event drew coachloads of drunker Somerset fans down to Lords for a day of cider and full-day BBC coverage are long gone.
Anyway, good luck to Durham. I’d quite like to watch a day of slow county cricket at their idyllic ground by the River Wear, but of course the 4 day game has been relegated to Spring and Autumn when it -30 degrees in Chester-le-Street.
A year ago I met Duncan in C-leS, as the kidz call it, and he mentioned the ground had a handpump.
“Ha, that’ll never get in the GBG, what with real ale availability and quality so uncertain” I might have said.
So of course it did, a month or two later, and my night in town enabled a Covid-delayed tick as I neared completion of the county with the most weird entries in the Guide.
Actually, the absence of a GBG icon on my app (tech speak) indicated that it had been swept dismissively out of the Guide, possibly on the basis that cask and entry to tickers were only available to match attendees.
But here I was, the day before Durham sent Sir Alistair Cook back to Essex to face BRAPA, standing at the bar of a stylish venue filled with giant cocktails and gourmet burgers.
What is it with coal mining towns and cocktails ?
Oh, there IS cask.
Once again, the old scruffy bloke shuffling nervously with a fistful of coins is ignored as the pashmina’s ladies get fawned over. Get used to it, James and Matthew.
Eventually I get served, and within one sip wish I hadn’t bothered. After all, once a pub gets de-listed from the Guide, my work is done. De-list them all, give me my prize.
The Rivet Catcher, a noble beer once as ubiquitous in the North-East as Oakham Citra or Plum Porter, was undrinkable (NBSS 1). The first total write-off of 2021, tasting like it had been in the pipes since Durham won the County Championship
Did I take it back, though* ?
*No.
retiredmartin 
When was this? I went last Weds and the rivet catcher was decent. As was the pizza. A tricky quiz night was underway – ‘What is Postman Pat’s surname?’
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The Saturday before. Really, it was vile, and we generally agree. You got the new barrel put on for their matches.
The food looked very good to be fair.
Is the answer “Postman” ?
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Oh I’m sure you are right. My reaction was ‘he doesn’t have one’ just as some woman shouted the same thing out. I was stumped (groans)
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That’s bad. Need to take a half of Doom Bar off you.
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Clifton is the answer…dull, but true!
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Should’ve left it, undrunk, by the stump holes of the wicket as a kind of ‘dirty protest’! You’d have made the front page of the Durham Argus (PUB TICKER IN GIANT PLANTPOT COUNTY GROUND SNUB!), and also took the heat off BRAPA ahead of his inevitable wee-wee at deep square leg…
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I think you’ll find BRAPA’s preferred position is Willy Mid On (or off, depending on whether it’s after 6 pints or not).
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I know what you mean about how enjoyable watching a game of cricket in the long format can be, especially with a pint in a proper glass.. I remember watching Durham versus the Australians at the Racecourse ground in Durham in 1993. Wayne Larkins got a 150 and it was also Ian Botham’s last ever first class match. Very enjoyable, although I missed the infamous incident on the last day when Botham was bowling to Boon.
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Durham had a Racecourse Ground?! Grief, you’ll be telling me they had a Bass mirror factory next.
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it’s real ale, it’s meant to taste like that,
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Poor beer and de-guiding is really all it deserves after the re-naming. Jets Bar? Sticky Wicket?
It will always be Austin’s.
We’re playing Glamorgan, not Gloucestershire by the way.
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Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, same thing really. Bet they merge next season into the Severn Sorcerers.
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Salt n Vinegar Severn Sorcerers.
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“The Rivet Catcher, a noble beer once as ubiquitous in the North-East as Oakham Citra or Plum Porter, was undrinkable (NBSS 1).
Did I take it back, though* ?
*No.”
I don’t know whether I’m more disappointed about the beer quality or your failure to complain about it. Perhaps you could take it with you to the next GBG selection meeting of the local Camra branch. Or just send them a link to this blog post. That’ll do it.
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You know if it had been the 100 then it would have been NBSS 5 don’t you? Better quality product!
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Just listening to the 100 now, proper cricket. Shame Chris Tavare isn’t around now.
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