It’s the most wonderful day of the year* , the day the Good Beer Guide brings joy to 4,500 publicans and joy (and agony) to the hardy band of folk who attempt to visit all the pubs in the Guide. Back in the dark days of the second (or was it third ?) Lockdown there… Continue reading WELCOME TO THE GOOD BEER GUIDE 2022 – A TRIUMPH IN ADVERSITY
Month: November 2021
IN WHICH MY YOUNGER SON MAKES THE RIGHT PUB DECISION
I’ve really enjoyed the Marble Arch over the years, and it seems Matthew has as well since moving to Manchester as he suggested it for our pre-match catch up. What good taste he has. One of these says we’ll do the Glamorous. Has anyone been ? Is there Squid? It’s hard to appreciate the Marble… Continue reading IN WHICH MY YOUNGER SON MAKES THE RIGHT PUB DECISION
A SEARCH FOR A PRE-MATCH PINT
While Blackpool Jane, Lee and Karen saw their team snatch a 1-0 at Bramall Lane, I was back in Manchester watching City have a now almost customary capitulation to Crystal Palace. The team looked as knackered as I felt, having got up early to catch the 09:12 from Sheffield after finding the later trains west… Continue reading A SEARCH FOR A PRE-MATCH PINT
TANGERINES IN SHEFFIELD
One of the perks of being a blogger is you get to meet other famous bloggers, like Blackpool legends Jane and Lee who visited Sheffield before their team’s emphatic one nil win at Bramall Lane the other week. I remember (vaguely) when Manchester City matches had a definite result, before they were decided at a… Continue reading TANGERINES IN SHEFFIELD
A STAMFORD INVADER
The danger of being a GBG ticker is that you spend so much time in micropubs, brewery taps and Brunning & Prices that you forget what a real non-Guide pub is. I stopped in Stamford to visit their most famous (OK, only) estate pub. What a pub sign the Danish Invader has. Perspex screens, darts… Continue reading A STAMFORD INVADER
TO THE MOORS
When we look back critically at our first year in The North next month we’ll balance the progress on the hedge and the calories lost walking up Whitehouse Lane against progress on the hedge and a failure to get to grips with the Peak District on our doorstep. Well, the Peak will always be there,… Continue reading TO THE MOORS
YOUR CUT-OUT-AND-KEEP GUIDE TO FINDING BCM IN EVESHAM
There are very few certainties in a pub ticker’s life, but you can be certain that on your travels you will find a hitherto undiscovered Banksy, someone will ask you directions to a pub you’ve never heard of (because it closed in 1989), and the last micropub in a county will proved irritatingly difficult to… Continue reading YOUR CUT-OUT-AND-KEEP GUIDE TO FINDING BCM IN EVESHAM
ENIGMATIC EVESHAM
I’ve too many photos of Evesham to squeeze into one post. Any more than ten and I bore myself, and besides, the pub is my last Worcestershire tick and deserves its own post. I was intrigued to hear that Kidderminster legend (he once ate two Aggborough cottage pies at half time) Life After Football hadn’t… Continue reading ENIGMATIC EVESHAM
TICKING ON THE WYCHAVON WAY
Another day, another late assault on a GBG21 county. I left it quite late to tackle Worcestershire, with a couple of stragglers down south on the Wychavon Way. and a fly. It’s all action on the retiredmartin blog at the moment. What a gorgeous little village, overgrown gardens and folk selling cider from their front… Continue reading TICKING ON THE WYCHAVON WAY
A RACE FOR THE PRIZE IN GREAT SHEFFORD
The last post featured a Berkshire gastropub mercifully free of scatter cushions. No such relief in my final Berks tick, the eponymous Great Shefford, but oddly I’m a fan of clutter and chintz as long as there’s life. Anywhere selling dog ice cream for £3.50 is bound to have life, even if a rather different… Continue reading A RACE FOR THE PRIZE IN GREAT SHEFFORD
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