REINDEERS AT THE CAMBRIDGE BLUE

December 2025. Cambridge.

I barely spent an hour at the Mill Road Winter Fair, enough for a couple of pubs, a couple of carols (is “Get Lucky” a carol ?), an ounce of regret I’d already had lunch (Tesco Meal Deal) and was meeting Curry Charles later for, er, curry as I surveyed dozens of food carts.

Onward to the packed streets of Gwydir Street, lined with mobility scooters pushchairs.

I’ve never seen so many young children in pubs, isn’t it great ?

A particular beneficiary was the Cambridge Blue,

drawing in the toddlers with the promise of flat Bass Father Christmas and his reindeers.

OIder punters were perhaps more impressed by Tally Ho,

but I’m a man impressed by “Staff Favourite”, “Legendary” dishes, and Brian J from Rhode Island, which I assume is a suburb of Waterbeach.

I like a man who declares “This, this is what a bitter should be” and scores it 5 on Untappd (not CAMRA, scoring a 5 on CAMRA carries a lifetime expulsion).

Well, Brian (and the lovely lady behind the bar who said “That’s great”) is right. Squadron Scramble is a daft name for a beer, even for a brewery whose flagship is “Side Pocket For A Toad“.

Apparently “this ale is characterised by a debonair medium light colour and a dare-devil maltiness that compliments a courageous hop aroma from the best Mount Hood hops“. It was gorgeous, the sort of beer the Blue still does best.

Back on Mill Road, the Sally Army band were playing the hits.

How many hits can you name which feature a Salvation Army band ?

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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.

42 thoughts on “REINDEERS AT THE CAMBRIDGE BLUE”

  1. Not the Sally Army and not hits, but brass bands and quality:
    When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease, Roy Harper
    I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, Richard & Linda Thompson
    Indian Queens, Nick Lowe
    Our Darkness, Richard Hawley

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  3. “and was meeting Curry Charles later for, er, curry”

    (slow golf clap)

    “I’ve never seen so many young children in pubs, isn’t it great ?”

    You need to get ’em young these days, in order to keep ’em.

    “drawing in the toddlers with the promise of (flat Bass) Father Christmas and his reindeers.”

    Sigh. Even Kris Kringle has had to downsize.

    “OIder punters were perhaps more impressed by Tally Ho,”

    (looks down)
    Heh, extra strong barley wine. I can see why.

    “and Brian J from Rhode Island, which I assume is a suburb of Waterbeach.”

    While it may have water (the Fens?), it certainly has no ‘beach’ so ya; having Rhode Island nearby Waterbeach makes sense. 😉

    “I like a man who declares “This, this is what a bitter should be” and scores it 5 on Untappd”

    Oof. I am usually leery of giving anything a 5.

    “(not CAMRA, scoring a 5 on CAMRA carries a lifetime expulsion).”

    See! 😎

    “Well, Brian (and the lovely lady behind the bar who said “That’s great”) is right.”

    Blimey!

    “Squadron Scramble is a daft name for a beer”

    Pfft. It evokes the Battle of Britain, that does.

    “How many hits can you name which feature a Salvation Army band ?”

    Onward Christian Soldiers?

    Cheers

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      3. And certainly not one of the oldest American music genres in the city that’s the administrative centre of Lancashire !

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  4. “scores it 5 on Untappd (not CAMRA, scoring a 5 on CAMRA carries a lifetime expulsion)”.
    I thought that was being a “drain” life member and then admitting to not having bought a GBG for several years.

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      1. Thanks Martin, and if you believed that you’ll believe that “The term micropub was originally devised by the Campaign for Real Ale, in the 1976 edition of its Good Beer Guide” when in fact the truth is on pages 20 and 21 here – hos.camra.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/beer-at-heart-43.pdf

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    1. They could possibly manage a discussion about the club I used today where the cask beers were Robinsons Dizzy Blond and Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbodys ( revived for Christmas ) both of which are likely to be on the banned-from-our-beer-festivals(because-someone-might-be-offended) list but I don’t know because the list is secret !

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  8. Totally off topic but I heard my first Christmas song of the season today (as opposed to carols and that). Only trouble was it was A Spaceman Came Travelling by Chris De F***ing Burgh 🤮🤮🤮. Normally, I would just leave the room or possibly the building but I was in a taxi so there was no escape.

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      1. I quite like Stop The Cavalry too (not that cavalry was used much in WW1, says the Old Pedant)

        The bloke who did the band arrangement on Cricketer, David Bedford, actually lived round the back from me in Bristol. Only found this out after he died.

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      4. Cavalry wasn’t much use on the Western Front due to the static nature of the warfare, trenches, mud, shell holes, machine guns etc. Much more use in Palestine/Mesopotamia owing to flat, dry terrain making the war more mobile.

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      7. But there were some horses Bill, hence my grandfather noting the “fearful stench from dead horses & men” five weeks before he was gassed and sent home.

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      1. Your grandad was right, there were loads of horses, used for pulling guns, waggons, ambulances, you name it. What they weren’t used for was charging at things, except at the start of the war before the trench system properly became embedded. Cavalrymen were often used dismounted as infantry.

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