“How are you getting on with the blog ?” shouts Mrs RM, in-between demands for more coffee and breakfast in bed. Note she hasn’t asked how I’m getting on with cross-checking the new GBG I think she thinks I’m not doing it anymore. Well, Mrs RM, I’m in Wales in mid-August, about to tick a… Continue reading MY PLANS FOR WELSH GBG DOMINATION COME TO RUINS IN NARBERTH
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ARRIVING BY TRACTOR AT TEGRYN
Every year’s Good Beer Guide has a handful of “Signature Ticks”, the pubs with odd opening hours, require two ferries from the mainland, or have absolutely no social media presence. The completist targets these ones early in the year, and holds their breath. So it was with the Butchers Arms in tiny Tegryn in August.… Continue reading ARRIVING BY TRACTOR AT TEGRYN
THE PUB TICKERS FEAR OF TICKING THE WRONG WELSH PUB
Once I’d triumphantly completed the GBG on 10 September there was a period of intense worry, similar to the one experienced by Ben Curtis after winning the British Open in 2003. Have I signed the card correctly ? Did I miss the 17th hole out completely ? Back home from the Taversoe (which sadly failed… Continue reading THE PUB TICKERS FEAR OF TICKING THE WRONG WELSH PUB
EVERYTHING’S GONE GREEN – LLANDEILO LICKED
It seems odd to be writing about Summer with November approaching, but it was 20 degrees in Waterbeach yesterday, and as I headed to a fateful rendezvous with the Pubmeister in Haverfordwest to complete Wales, the sun was shining on the righteous. Look ! #NoFilter This was Llandeilo (pop. 1,795), a smart little Carmarthenshire town… Continue reading EVERYTHING’S GONE GREEN – LLANDEILO LICKED
WELCOME TO THE 2023 GOOD BEER GUIDE, A TRIUMPH
You can set your watch by some things. Liverpool’s title challenge will end on 20 October. Retired Martin’s birthday will always be on 22 December (it’s marked in your diaries, I hope), and the post welcoming the new Good Beer Guide will appear on the 3rd Thursday in September. Except that since 2020, for spurious… Continue reading WELCOME TO THE 2023 GOOD BEER GUIDE, A TRIUMPH
ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE. WELL, HINTON BLEWITT, ANYWAY
Somerset and the Mendips has a fine collection of venerated old pubs. Names like Clapton in Gordano, Huish Episcopi and Faulkland (Tucker’s Grave) resonate with all serious pubgoers. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t been to the Ring O Bells in Hinton Blewitt; I’d definitely have remembered it, surely ? Perhaps it was in the Guide… Continue reading ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE. WELL, HINTON BLEWITT, ANYWAY
WONDERFUL WELLS
I’d never quite got Wells before. “it’s a scruffy town, with rundown shops and not much cutting-edge creativity, Prosecco Pong apart” I wrote in 2018, perhaps influenced by the dour micropub and dreich weather. I was wrong. I seem to have missed the beauty of the approach to the Cathedral from the north, joining a… Continue reading WONDERFUL WELLS
SUPERIOR TOILET SECURITY IN THE SOMERSET LEVELS
NO. I still haven’t got the new Good Beer Guide. And NO, I therefore don’t know whether I’ll attempt to repeat the feat in 2022-23. Back to mid-August, or as the Scots call it, “Winter”. After a few days “off” in Sheffield, it was back to work completing the Good Beer Guide. Yes, just Somerset… Continue reading SUPERIOR TOILET SECURITY IN THE SOMERSET LEVELS
AND A NIGHT OUT IN SHEFFIELD (SNUFF AND GREASY CHIP BUTTY FREE EDITION)
Obviously Will is my top drinking companion in Sheffield, but on those occasions when the Sheffield Hatter is otherwise engaged on his day job taking photos for Pubs Galore I’ll often persuade Mrs RM out on a tour of the fine hostelries in Kelham Island. It’s possible you might have heard of some of them.… Continue reading AND A NIGHT OUT IN SHEFFIELD (SNUFF AND GREASY CHIP BUTTY FREE EDITION)
BURNS’ FAVOURITE HOWFF
One final tick in Dumfries & Galloway, and in the county town, on a gorgeous Summer day. Dumfries looked splendid, if quiet, as I scrambled around looking for the Globe (High Street), distracted by the street art with its metaphorical depiction of the stormy waters in which GBG completists sail their ticking ships. Or something.… Continue reading BURNS’ FAVOURITE HOWFF
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