A 3rd SOUTH YORKSHIRE SAM SMITHS REOPENING IN A YEAR. WHAT’S OCCURRING?

July 2024. Sheffield.

14th July, in fact. England in the final of a football tournament (again, yawn). Our lads are getting blasé about winning. A reminder of my youth watching England.

1974 FAILED to qualify

1976 FAILED to qualify

1978 FAILED to qualify

1984 FAILED to qualify

1994 FAILED to qualify

You get the picture.

Sheffield looked a picture, and every pub was gearing up for big screens and lager thrown in the air that evening.

Well, not the Sam Smiths, obviously.

Those Rieker shoes need a clean. Or perhaps a new pair.

The Brown Bear has just reopened in the heart of the city, a third reopening under a new management couple in quick succession,

joining the revived Cow & Calf in Grenoside and Royal Oak in Ulley as Sam’s success stories.

Nothing has changed,

the OBB was as good as ever,

the tables a little too far apart for casual conversation.

The obligatory chat is about the final.

“When’s the big screen arriving ?”

“We’ll be dancing on the tables tonight !”

“Don’t let Humphrey catch us“

“Humphrey will turn up wearing an England shirt“

The day Humphrey turns up in a 3 Lions shirt is the day England actually win again.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

16 thoughts on “A 3rd SOUTH YORKSHIRE SAM SMITHS REOPENING IN A YEAR. WHAT’S OCCURRING?”

  2. I watched the final in a sports bar in Keswick. On any other night, I would have preferred the Brown Bear. I still have fond memories of a field trip to Sheffield more than 20 years ago when we accidentally walked in there. It’s good to see it is still going strong.

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      1. As I remember, it involved visiting the tram depot in Sheffield and a motorway control centre, but days like that always ended up in a pub anyway.

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      1. Yes the Crown, what is Humphrey up to!

        Help save High Peak branch, vote in the Regional Review Poll on Discourse. CAMRA HQ in there wisdom have decided that branches cannot cross regional branches, in effect this splits our branch. The proposal is to have a new branch based in Buxton which comprises of the Derbyshire portion of our branch, plus the Hope Valley (Sheffield CAMRA) and the Bakewell area.

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      1. And the lager was better when they still had an agreement to brew Ayinger.

        I find OBB to be very variable in taste, not just quality. Allegedly they shop around for cheapest ingredients which helps price but not consistency.

        However, my father worked for JS, so I might be biased, lol.

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  5. The active membership of the branch is fairly evenly split between the Greater Manchester part of the branch and the High Peak area of Derbyshire. The committee of which I was part of until half of us resigned all reside in GM, nobody is interested in forming a branch in “Buxton”. Most of the active members in Derbyshire are resident in the Glossop area where it is far easier to travel to pubs in Greater Manchester. We are or were a thriving branch, many CAMRA branches are struggling we are not. The Buxton branch is not viable, due to lack of interest, lack of numbers and transport problems. The Tameside and (Stockport )Marple part of the branch will have fewer members and difficulty finding a committee.

    The saddest part of the news we received at the end of our recent AGM was the impact on founder members who were planning events for the branches 50th anniversary next year.

    I have resigned from the committee and would find it difficult to sever my links with CAMRA, perhaps I should pack it all in and concentrate on ticking!

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  6. Word is that Humphrey has taken on a retail operations manager, like Sams used to have some 20 years ago, in advance of his impending retirement, and from what has been said his task is to get the closed pubs back open.

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