retiredmartin

October 2024. Leicester.

And this is the problem/joy of having completed the Guide.

Before completion, you break a journey in Leicester, have a rushed weakest half in the new GBG tick, run back to the next train, plan how you’re going to do all four (4) West Midlands newbies before your gig when none (0) of them are on a train line.

After completion, you have a leisurely pint of the Plum Porter, stop to chat weddings and divorces with some lads on a pub crawl, and then amble back to the station, all hopes of a Brum assault long gone.

But how about a revisit ? Leicester has loads of good pubs, though I could only reliably name you a couple in the centre.

The Ale Wagon was closed, which seemed a mortal sin, so the Blue Boar it is.

In 2017 this was the new kid in town, and while I wanted to like it, my notes say “Everyone looked like us though”. I know what I mean by that. I also rather differed on beer quality with our group.

But now, on a Monday mid-afternoon, it was inexplicably packed with all ages, a bit like a smaller Stockport’s Magnet. The young barman/Guvnor was a gem, and explained that the “NO TICKERS” sign above the pumps was aimed at beer bores not Pub Men.

Having resisted a Leicester curry, I now fell for the Leicester cob*.

Not sure if you can read the screen but it’s full of Sam Smith bottles. The bloke in front had a Tynt Meadow,

I stayed loyal to the Lenton Lane, their Noble Deviations a perfectly presented NBSS 3.5 (though nothing will compare with the Lenton Lane of Attenborough).

The cob was even better, packed with (surprise) chunky cheese and onion. Purists will note with disdain the omission of the same flavoured crisps. I apologise, and to my fellow passengers on the 2:34 to Brum.

But what really stood out was the banter. Perhaps the tables were in the perfect configuration to encourage chat, and enabled me to show my complete ignorance of Ken Barlow to the lady opposite.

Can you say you’ve really ticked a pub unless you’ve embarrassed yourself in trivial banter with another pubgoer ?

Wonderful stuff, though I forgot to stop at the famous market to buy Alpaca flavoured crisps,

but did pause to admire the statue of Thomas Cook, who founded the company that took CAMRA members on chaotic pub crawls of Loughborough micros in the 1840s,

a time when CAMRA still allowed the term “pub crawl” to be used.

*Bread cake/roll/bap….