22.
Alternative
I had in actual fact kicked off the day
with a cheeky lunchtime pint of King and Barnes Festive ale at the pleasant
Plough in Leigh, a good solid olde worlde pub, before agreeing to some evening stupidity. K
and B Festive was joined by K and B Sussex, Badger Best and Tanglefoot,
and three random [though probably K and B standard] lagers. Meeting Mr Bradshaw for a glass of Adnams
at his flat in Sutton whilst watching the Simpsons,
we found out that we should rendezvous with Mr
Matthew Oliver atop a 213 bound for
A helpful man served us with either Old
Speckled Hen or Courage best at the Kingston Tup, a
mediocre former Firkin type establishment, from where we plotted a route down a
side street to the Six Bells, a lively pub which happened to be hosting a
locals' disco at the time which added to the atmosphere. Beer consisted of
reasonably priced London Pride and Fullers Snowdon
which didn't taste too bad.
The Bricklayers Arms is a reasonably quiet
pub inside which I was forced to drink. There are some fine seats in the back
part, and we decided that it was actually quite nice if all you wanted to do
was sit down for a few ales. The Newt and Ferret along the road was much
livelier, and contained the King and Barnes ales (Sussex and Festive) as well
as Badger Best and Tanglefoot. There is a TV in the
toilet which when we were there was showing Smack the Pony. The
Cricketers is very close by, but is the poor relation of the pair, though the
Courage Best and London Pride was acceptable. The slightly Cockney street
urchin atmosphere of the pub was contributed to by the bar maids.
A pub that has gone down the toilet
recently is the Cocoanut, down a side street. This once proud Fullers pub
appears to be run by some sort of dodgy looking geezers who look like they are
partial to a bit of dope and not shaving (chill out man). The London Pride was
off when I arrived and there was absolutely no bitter alternative. We didn't
like the attitude of the bar staff so bolted our lagers and left. At the end of
the side street was the Swan, a long thin pub which hasn't been spoilt and has
a feeling of being a real local. It caters for a slightly older crowd - punters
were dribbling
A quick gallivant across a bridge by the
back of the university took us to the Spring Grove, a very ordinary wooden panelled Young's pub which did an OK bit of Special.
Finally we pegged it to the Kelly Arms which had a good selection of beers
[can't remember what they were but something from the Cottage Brewery was on
offer]. The bar snacks were also very good. However our stay was marred by a
very anally retentive bar man who, even though it was a back street pub that
people really should have better things to do than check up that it obeys the
licensing laws, insisted that we drink up and go even though it was just 11.20.
And he did last orders early. Despite this, we walked straight onto a 213 [nice
one Red Ken], and we sped to Mr Bradshaw's house
where I sampled the delights of a homemade Melon Ball. Splendid!
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 13th January 2003.