retiredmartin

November 2024. Burton Latimer.

Ooh, a topical blog. Sort of.

The Poppies of Kettering achieved the most notable of results in the 1st round of the FA Cup, a once great sporting competition.

A comeback win against your near neighbours from three divisions higher, to set up a glamour tie against Doncaster Rovers, has seen Kettering fans flocking to their ground in, er, Burton Latimer for cup tickets.

Playing your home games in a small town four miles from your historic home is tough, but at least Burton Latimer had two (2) GBG pubs now, and looked a picture as kick off approached.

Yes, Northamptonshire is an autumnal county, the home of conker world championships and golden hues,

and while “Lats”, as the youth call it, is a workday light industrial place famed for Weetabix and shoes,

I’d say the parish church of St Mary and stately cemetery place it 3 places above Desborough in my finely contested table of Northants towns.

Our new Guide pub is heaving, presumably with folk unable to get a ticket to Kettering v Redditch,

and the interior is very “classy, but unfussy dining pub“, in sharp contrast to the rough and ready Duke’s Head with its Nicole single stuck to the wall.

Just look at the soundtrack;

Amy and The Kooks serenade a dining room nibbling on Brixworth Pate and Salt and Pepper Squid,

which is the way to live.

There’s a fair but of beer trade, but you can guess how much of it is cask.

Oh look, that Nene Valley beer in a smart dining pub. Again.

I feel I must give the 2004 Bitter of the Year a try, though, and take it through to the drinkers side. It’s a bit overchilled, masking those subtle flavours (hop pellets ?) I always miss in a pint. An easy NBSS 3, but no more.

Suddenly, I realise that everyone else in the “drinkers side” is eating, including the chap in Hi-Vis and a girl at the bar who wants chicken nuggets.

And she GETS chicken nuggets, from the Children’s (not “Kid’s”) Menu.

And because they let a grown woman order from the Children’s Menu, it gets the thumbs up from me.