retiredmartin

1st December 2022.

We should have called this little Sheffield pub crawl of unsung boozers something memorable like “Tipsy Thursday Trio” or “West Street Wobble” or whatever but then we’d breach CAMRA’s stringent rules on not taking the tutored tasting of ale and cultured exploration of public houses seriously and Mrs RM would be struck off.

A mere two minutes walk from the (New) Red Deer is the Dog & Partridge, which you’ll know as the home of my favourite pub seat.

What do you know ? It had a big “Reserved” sign on the door so we had to find a seat round the back.

Never mind, still a decent pub room with bench seating to enjoy a gingerbread milk stout.

No, I’m sorry, you don’t enjoy a gingerbread milk stout.

Look at Will’s expression as Mrs RM tells him for the 87th time that she “likes her beer to taste like beer“.

Actually, Will was debating the merits of Hemel Hempstead’s magic roundabout.

It is actually called the Magic Roundabout, and it’s hellish. That’s why cars avoid it by driving to Bovingdon via Glasgow.

It’s another little Sheffield cracker, with a great soundtrack.

But we were determined to catch the exciting denouement of the World Cup action, and finished the night in the Church House, coincidentally set by the (big) church.

It’s a live music pub, recent winner of a Sheffield CAMRA award for “most tat on the stairs to a loo (cask pub)“, and another typical Sheffield beer range.

Belgian Blue is the official Sheffield Beer of Christmas, Plum Porter (NBSS 3.5) the official beer of all decent boozers, and Trooper the official beer of the pub with guitars on the wall. It all made sense.

A busy pub with the sort of middle-aged people enjoying a night out on the beer you wouldn’t see in Cambridge on a Thursday night.

20:16. What a time to be alive as Japan somehow keep the ball in and squeeze past Germany. Surely England will win the World Cup now ?

Lovely evening, great company from Will (bar the Hemel roundabout opinions) and a lightshow at the Cathedral while we waited for the tram.

Yes, I let Mrs RM take the tram back too. I am going soft.