If I were you I wouldn’t be anywhere near the M5 this next week what with Glasto and by-elections, so good job I did a tricky Somerset tick in Combe Florey a month ago.
Yes, a month ago. But this is the last post before we get onto the Channel Islands, and I know how much you love continental travel blogging.
I know how much you like your “quaint old England” thatched village pubs, too, and the Farmers Arms will tick ALL of your boxes, with a microbrewery tap at a steam railway down the road.
The garden is a delight, with wooden huts dedicated to Taunton legends like Joel Garner (top), Viv Richards and, of, course, Colin Dredge.
My parents would like this place, looks a bit like their own thatched house.
But “Sunnyside” Waterbeach doesn’t have four Brew Dog taps (why ?), or Exmoor Gold on tap.
It’s a cluttered place, typical of the Exmoor taps a few miles west. The staff are young and cheery, discussing their plans for Wimbledon, the customers well-dressed and hungry.
“You look smart !“.
I jump to attention, but the barmaid is talking to the gent at the bar, whose pint of Thatchers is “lively this morning, the pressure levels have dropped in the cellar“. Whatever that means.
Even the gentlefolk aren’t drink the cask these days, and my Exmoor is a bit flat (2.5).
Pubs that open lunchtime don’t sell much beer;
pubs that close lunchtime annoy tickers.
They can’t win, can they ?
retiredmartin 
Is that ‘Sarcasm’ fridge where the Brewdog cans are kept?
Somerset pubs do seem to have a bit more of the interesting things about them, though sadly the beer could be a bit more interesting for my taste. We had a holiday in Dunster (calling at Minehead and Watchet) last year, the food was universally terrible and the pubs slightly underwhelming due to average sweetish malty beer and chronic staff shortages, which of course they can’t be blamed for. I pinked the county when we got home, I feel I’ve done it now…
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“The garden is a delight, with wooden huts dedicated to Taunton legends like Joel Garner (top), Viv Richards and, of, course, Colin Dredge.”
But what about Peter ‘Dasher’ Denning? How quickly they forget.
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My mate Phil and I composed the following, to be sung to the tune of “David Watts” by the Kinks/Jam:
Colin went to Millfield School
Colin is nobody’s fool
And when he’s bowling in the Cup
He keeps it straight and pitches up
And I wish I could be like Colin Dredge…
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More cricket memorabilia. I met Joel Garner once when he was visiting his old mate Collis King, who was playing club cricket for Pontblyddyn CC. Nice bloke. Also saw him playing for Somerset with Ian Botham. Botham’s not a short bloke but Big Bird made him look like a midget.
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The thatched pub looks lovely apart from that intrusive extractor (?) on the side of it
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Colin Dredge, The Demon Of Frome. Always good for 8-2-23-2 in a John Player game. Apparently, there are/were loads of Dredges in Frome. So much so, that occasionally they’d have a Dredge XI playing together.
As for cricketing memories, I once played against future Surrey legend Martin Bicknell in a Colts Cup match, and we managed the not unimpressive feat of being all out for 0! Apart from my beer-drinking and tea-eating exploits, it’s the only notable achievement I ever managed in over 30 years of playing.
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