retiredmartin

The WHOLE world (except the Southworths) is descending on Sheffield at the moment, drawn in by tricky GBG ticks, artisanal burgers and obscure football grounds.

Luckily, Sheffield is cheap, with £31 Travelodges and free camping in our garden if you bring your own potty. In contrast, these were the CHEAPEST rooms available in That Manchester last night;

When you see the word “Disappointing” in a Booking.com review you need to worry. The Milton is good, but I used to pay £30 for a room in what is actually a DHSS tower block on the edge of Eccles.

What seems like months ago, but was actually just over a week ago, with City goalless and bottom of the League, I met “Ian”, a chap who’s visited more GBG pubs than I have (but without the fanfare that BRAPA and I seek).

“Ian”, whose real name is actually a number representing the coefficient of the number of pubs ticked and Chelsea programmes collected, arranged to meet me at the Crow just before closing.

I sent him a picture so he’d recognise me in the crowd.

As I said last time, this is the Sheffield pub I’m most likely to unwisely head to for a last third of the night.

I strolled down into the industrial estate that’s now Craft Central at about 22:30, saved “Ian” a table, and had unwisely had a pint of something murky when he arrived from his bijou hotel up the road.

His face tells the tale.

For those wondering, “Ian”‘s band t-shirt says “Eastfield“, which appears to be a leisure centre in Rutherglen with artificial pitch, so not as cutting-edge as mine then.

To my horror, a quick 15 minute half before last orders were called at 22:45 turned into a 90 minute session as midnight came and went. And the keg from Deya became stronger and stronger as I tried to capture a screenshot of “Ian’s” GBG To Do list.

Blimey, imagine being that organised. Comes from being a Chelsea fan, I guess.

Someone should teach that Duncan fella how to do spreadsheets.