Heading towards the finish line of Wales GBG ticks in August, but with a hurdle in front of us. Would I survive the gentrification and pashmina overload of Solva, the broadsheet readers’ favourite. Well, the creek was a bit Swallows & Amazons, but the Cambrian was just a well-run bistro dining pub with good local… Continue reading PAPER PUMPCLIPS = PROPER PUBS IN CROES-GOCH
Month: October 2022
TOP 100 PUBS – CRESSELLY ARMS, WEST WALES
In 2019 Duncan expressed surprise I’d never been to the Cresselly Arms in, er, Cresselly, and on my mad dash this Summer to the GBG finish line I wondered if I’d bump into any “classics that I really ought to have done already”. I guess the Mansel Arms in Porthyrhyd, Farmers in St Ouen, and… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – CRESSELLY ARMS, WEST WALES
“Please do not approach the bar”. Saundersfoot lays down the law.
Summer by the seaside. Can’t beat it. Unless you’re a ticker when a wet winter Wednesday in Wednesfield is wonderful. Saundersfoot isn’t quite Tenby, but it looked pretty special on the descent to the beach. If Tenby is the Welsh Whitby, then Saundersfoot is its Filey, I guess. Nowt wrong with Filey, as Richard Coldwell… Continue reading “Please do not approach the bar”. Saundersfoot lays down the law.
MY PLANS FOR WELSH GBG DOMINATION COME TO RUINS IN NARBERTH
“How are you getting on with the blog ?” shouts Mrs RM, in-between demands for more coffee and breakfast in bed. Note she hasn’t asked how I’m getting on with cross-checking the new GBG I think she thinks I’m not doing it anymore. Well, Mrs RM, I’m in Wales in mid-August, about to tick a… Continue reading MY PLANS FOR WELSH GBG DOMINATION COME TO RUINS IN NARBERTH
ARRIVING BY TRACTOR AT TEGRYN
Every year’s Good Beer Guide has a handful of “Signature Ticks”, the pubs with odd opening hours, require two ferries from the mainland, or have absolutely no social media presence. The completist targets these ones early in the year, and holds their breath. So it was with the Butchers Arms in tiny Tegryn in August.… Continue reading ARRIVING BY TRACTOR AT TEGRYN
THE PUB TICKERS FEAR OF TICKING THE WRONG WELSH PUB
Once I’d triumphantly completed the GBG on 10 September there was a period of intense worry, similar to the one experienced by Ben Curtis after winning the British Open in 2003. Have I signed the card correctly ? Did I miss the 17th hole out completely ? Back home from the Taversoe (which sadly failed… Continue reading THE PUB TICKERS FEAR OF TICKING THE WRONG WELSH PUB
EVERYTHING’S GONE GREEN – LLANDEILO LICKED
It seems odd to be writing about Summer with November approaching, but it was 20 degrees in Waterbeach yesterday, and as I headed to a fateful rendezvous with the Pubmeister in Haverfordwest to complete Wales, the sun was shining on the righteous. Look ! #NoFilter This was Llandeilo (pop. 1,795), a smart little Carmarthenshire town… Continue reading EVERYTHING’S GONE GREEN – LLANDEILO LICKED
WELCOME TO THE 2023 GOOD BEER GUIDE, A TRIUMPH
You can set your watch by some things. Liverpool’s title challenge will end on 20 October. Retired Martin’s birthday will always be on 22 December (it’s marked in your diaries, I hope), and the post welcoming the new Good Beer Guide will appear on the 3rd Thursday in September. Except that since 2020, for spurious… Continue reading WELCOME TO THE 2023 GOOD BEER GUIDE, A TRIUMPH
ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE. WELL, HINTON BLEWITT, ANYWAY
Somerset and the Mendips has a fine collection of venerated old pubs. Names like Clapton in Gordano, Huish Episcopi and Faulkland (Tucker’s Grave) resonate with all serious pubgoers. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t been to the Ring O Bells in Hinton Blewitt; I’d definitely have remembered it, surely ? Perhaps it was in the Guide… Continue reading ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE. WELL, HINTON BLEWITT, ANYWAY
WONDERFUL WELLS
I’d never quite got Wells before. “it’s a scruffy town, with rundown shops and not much cutting-edge creativity, Prosecco Pong apart” I wrote in 2018, perhaps influenced by the dour micropub and dreich weather. I was wrong. I seem to have missed the beauty of the approach to the Cathedral from the north, joining a… Continue reading WONDERFUL WELLS
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