A third and hopefully final ticking trip to “saucy St. Andrews“. No, the TIC doesn’t actually call it that put “frightfully upmarket” wouldn’t work well as a slogan. We arrived just before the 150th Golf Open, thereby annoying those annoying Americans who shout “In the hole !” before every shot (instead getting a Yank who… Continue reading A SAUNTER IN ST. ANDREWS
Tag: Greene King IPA
THE ONLY CHOICE YOU NEED
Back into That Cheshire next, for a pub I completely overlooked, having accidentally pinked it in on the GBG map. Hale ? Seen it on the map, but it’s a pub wasteland down there between Penny Lane and Halton, isn’t it ? Come to think of it, Widnes is a wasteland, but at least Simon… Continue reading THE ONLY CHOICE YOU NEED
JUST CHAMPION
You left me at 21:30 outside the Champion of the Thames on Cambridge’s once-mighty King Street, hoping I might nab a table and ensure BRAPA could have a pint in the city’s most proper of Proper Pubs, Is there anything more gorgeous than the light from within a Proper Pub ? Someone came out, I… Continue reading JUST CHAMPION
HITCHIN, HURTS
More local pubbing. Well, Hitchin is only an area away, next door to where I drop James off for his driving lessons. Covid-19 has just cancelled his driving test, AGAIN; perhaps they’ll give him a licence anyway if it happens a 3rd time and he can drive me to a pub. We lived here for… Continue reading HITCHIN, HURTS
“SINK THAT PINT LAD”
If ever there was A Year To Be Generous To Your Children (they pick your care home), then I guess 2020 is it. Not that moving Matt and his flatmates’ stuff from Salford Quays to a giant metal box (not the Public Image Ltd. one) on Ashton Old Road in six goes was FUN. Here’s… Continue reading “SINK THAT PINT LAD”
SERVICE AT THE HATCH
Pub Curmudgeon has recently written how Covid safe pubs can seem very welcoming, or otherwise, on their return. “And customers will remember where they were welcomed, and where they were treated like something the cat dragged in“. My particular bugbear is the blanket exclusion of drinkers from the pub itself, seen in a significant minority… Continue reading SERVICE AT THE HATCH
MORE TERRY JACKS
At the “Official Amber Valley Pub Tickers Convention” yesterday I was discussing with BRAPA the signs of a good pub while comparing notes on Whitley Bay with Mark, who had kindly foregone his train ticking weekend to join us in his local pubs. “Dire Straits is always the sign of a good pub” said Si,… Continue reading MORE TERRY JACKS
BAR-BOUR LAND
While BeerMat presses on with west Leicestershire and its old coal mining town boozers, I get gastro pubs in the land of Barbour and Branston pickle. It’s about time the Saddle got into the Guide; it’s a virtual Beer guide desert in the famous A607/A606/A47 triangle. Quite hilly around John O’ Gaunt, and I gave… Continue reading BAR-BOUR LAND
THE GBG PILGRIM’S PROGRESS TO PAVENHAM
“Oh deep joy, another Bedfordshire pub” said no-one ever. But this was my last one (see lovely pinked page 36 above) from a meagre four newbies, none of which will have BRAPA wishing he’d returned to Beds this year. But Pavenham has it’s merits. A few miles north of the county town, in the… Continue reading THE GBG PILGRIM’S PROGRESS TO PAVENHAM
STOTFOLD – STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Sometimes I have to go to a plain pub with plain people in a plain village and give you nothing except the joy of knowing that I’m one tiny step closer to completing the Guide. But the real point of ticking is discovering or re-discovering the gems of the UK. Like Stotfold in beautiful Bedfordshire*.… Continue reading STOTFOLD – STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
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