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rpadam
20-04-2019, 08:46
From the Manchester Evening News: A record-breaking beer fan says he had his best pint EVER in Manchester last week - but there's one problem (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/record-breaking-beer-fan-says-16153697)

Spinko
20-04-2019, 09:31
Cask in Manchester is a hidden gem. When I worked for Gazprom around the corner, I'd often have a couple of pints there on Friday lunch with fish and chips from next door. They are too small to do food so allow your own (actively encouraged it, even.)

aleandhearty
20-04-2019, 10:14
From the Manchester Evening News: A record-breaking beer fan says he had his best pint EVER in Manchester last week - but there's one problem (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/record-breaking-beer-fan-says-16153697)

He definitely deserves an honorary doctorate from the University of Pubs Galore.

Aqualung
20-04-2019, 11:24
He definitely deserves an honorary doctorate from the University of Pubs Galore.

But do the numbers stack up? That's an average of 891 pubs per year over a 58 year period and that includes 2 underage years and it says he didn't start in earnest until 1971. Assuming he got around an average of 150 pubs per year for the first 11 years that leaves 50.000 in just over 37 years, an average of over 1300 a year.

oldboots
20-04-2019, 13:28
But do the numbers stack up? That's an average of 891 pubs per year over a 58 year period and that includes 2 underage years and it says he didn't start in earnest until 1971. Assuming he got around an average of 150 pubs per year for the first 11 years that leaves 50.000 in just over 37 years, an average of over 1300 a year.

I don’t think the late Alan Winfield approached anything like that number and he was an heroic drinker, easily in the Oliver Reed class, however it’s in the paper so it must be true, mustn’t it?

rpadam
20-04-2019, 16:11
I don’t think the late Alan Winfield approached anything like that number and he was an heroic drinker, easily in the Oliver Reed class, however it’s in the paper so it must be true, mustn’t it?
I think Guinness World Records is usually thorough checking claims before they endorse them, and here is certainly on its website from 2014: Most pubs visited (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-pubs-visited)

Tris39
20-04-2019, 18:45
From the Manchester Evening News: A record-breaking beer fan says he had his best pint EVER in Manchester last week - but there's one problem (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/record-breaking-beer-fan-says-16153697)

Now That's What I Call A Proper Pub Crawl! today, but 35 years from now it'll be called Now That's What I Call A Proper Pub Crawl 102!

Tris39
20-04-2019, 19:35
I don’t think the late Alan Winfield approached anything like that number and he was an heroic drinker, easily in the Oliver Reed class, however it’s in the paper so it must be true, mustn’t it?

Yes. On the basis of £40 a week on beer and drinking halves, that's 26 pubs per week based on a half costing around £1.50 x 52 = 1,386 pubs per year. However, he'd have to travel progressively further to find new pubs and I don't really know how he could realistically achieve this and inevitably the number would diminish, and that's before you factor in any hurdles to overcome such as work and a family life - I'm not sure I believe him.

rpadam
20-04-2019, 20:03
I think Guinness World Records is usually thorough checking claims before they endorse them, and here is certainly on its website from 2014: Most pubs visited (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-pubs-visited)
Bruce Masters mails from our Mr Fastard's territory, I think, so I wonder if he knows (or knows of) him?

Aqualung
20-04-2019, 22:22
I think Guinness World Records is usually thorough checking claims before they endorse them, and here is certainly on its website from 2014: Most pubs visited (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-pubs-visited)

I agree, normally they are very thorough but how can they check data going back fifty years? The newspaper article shows him with pints and alludes to him having more than one in some venues. There is no definition of a visit. I "visited" the Druid at Goginan but it was closed. I could argue that I had still "visited" it. It says he came from Hertford, so even that isn't all that convenient for the London pubs. The argument about ever more distant pubs is very true and prior to 1988 he would have had to contend with afternoon closing.

london calling
21-04-2019, 21:31
Th GBR can only look at his records to verify his claim.Does seem a lot to me if using public transport.The guy with the most beer ticks about 8 or 9 years ago announced his 35,000 beer.Some believe him some doubted him.We know when he had his 10,000 th beer so in the next 9 years he had drank 70 new beers a week to get to this figure. Seemed a lot ..When this was pointed out more began to doubt his figures.

bcfczuluarmy
21-04-2019, 23:43
It is bollloks numbers may be close but not exact. So how you keep an accurate record isn't happening.

Mobyduck
22-04-2019, 08:10
£40.00 is closer to a days beer money than a week's in London nowadays.

Tris39
22-04-2019, 18:59
Th GBR can only look at his records to verify his claim.Does seem a lot to me if using public transport.The guy with the most beer ticks about 8 or 9 years ago announced his 35,000 beer.Some believe him some doubted him.We know when he had his 10,000 th beer so in the next 9 years he had drank 70 new beers a week to get to this figure. Seemed a lot ..When this was pointed out more began to doubt his figures.

I would imagine that the GBR would need a more accurate source than scruffy notes compiled by his own hand. I can't imagine that on the 6th May 1954 at Oxford's Iffley Road running track that Bannister would have been believed that he had run a sub-four-minute mile just 'cos he said so. The McWhirters (GBR founders) were there to time him.
I don't think this bloke has visited 50k pubs - the last 50-odd years would have been spent on the road. Perhaps he means that he has been to a pub, 50,000 times.


£40.00 is closer to a days beer money than a week's in London nowadays.

Sadly this is rapidly approaching the truth.:nishelypished:

bcfczuluarmy
22-04-2019, 22:09
If he worked for the railways then free train travel for a period over a year is till death for husband and wife as my Dad and Mum have, I lost my 1st class free travel after uni, not sure what if made redundant happens but obviously once pensionable age you get your free bus pass. A fair few years while employed on railways will have facilitated cheap/free travel around the country within the period of his claim of travelling.

I used to be able to go anywhere for a £1 return in 1st class as a child in the country, shame I hadn't decided to start doing pubs back then.

Aqualung
22-04-2019, 22:51
If he worked for the railways then free train travel for a period over a year is till death for husband and wife as my Dad and Mum have, I lost my 1st class free travel after uni, not sure what if made redundant happens but obviously once pensionable age you get your free bus pass. A fair few years while employed on railways will have facilitated cheap/free travel around the country within the period of his claim of travelling.

I used to be able to go anywhere for a £1 return in 1st class as a child in the country, shame I hadn't decided to start doing pubs back then.

Assuming he travelled by rail you can still get around with the cheap advance tickets, although I'm not sure when they were first introduced. More relevantly is the time spent traveling. The main reason I haven't left London is because a day trip to anywhere in England with the exception of Northumberland and Cornwall is viable. I did actually have a day in Carlisle as I didn't think it warranted a stay.

Pangolin
23-04-2019, 11:44
Even without quibbling over exact numbers (and possibly his definition of pub - theme park bars??), its quite some achievement. I've only managed to top 1000 new pubs in a year once and that was many years ago when I had vast unvisited areas to cover - much more difficult when trying to 'fill in the gaps'. However the guy was awarded the official GBR record back in 2014, so he must have had reasonable documentation.

I can certainly confirm the helpfulness of free rail travel though... :cool:

hondo
25-04-2019, 11:41
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8932740/top-50-pubs-in-britain-bruce-masters/

just 3/50 visited

sheffield hatter
25-04-2019, 12:33
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8932740/top-50-pubs-in-britain-bruce-masters/

just 3/50 visited

On a quick look through I reckon at least 11 - and with plans to visit one more next week.

Pangolin
25-04-2019, 12:34
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8932740/top-50-pubs-in-britain-bruce-masters/


15/50 for me. Certainly some good ones there.

oldboots
25-04-2019, 12:45
9/50 for me and yes there are some good pubs but what on earth is the Crooked House at Himley doing there? Utter dreadful beer, just the novelty value I guess.

Al Bundy
25-04-2019, 15:33
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8932740/top-50-pubs-in-britain-bruce-masters/

just 3/50 visited

Sadly the article is in The S*n so I couldn't give a toss.

Bucking Fastard
25-04-2019, 15:49
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8932740/top-50-pubs-in-britain-bruce-masters/

just 3/50 visited

..and just 6 for me.

aleandhearty
25-04-2019, 18:56
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8932740/top-50-pubs-in-britain-bruce-masters/


Just three for me. I quite like the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, Sowerby Bridge, but if he's as well travelled as he says he is, I'm puzzled as to why he chose it over Stalybridge Buffet Bar, or the West Riding Licensed Refreshment Rooms, Dewsbury.

Tris39
25-04-2019, 19:24
Just three for me. I quite like the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, Sowerby Bridge, but if he's as well travelled as he says he is, I'm puzzled as to why he chose it over Stalybridge Buffet Bar, or the West Riding Licensed Refreshment Rooms, Dewsbury.

Two or maybe three if you include both versions of the Gun.

I still don't believe he could average 1,000 new pubs a year for 50 years though, unless he had no job and no personal relationship.

Wittenden
25-04-2019, 19:50
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8932740/top-50-pubs-in-britain-bruce-masters/

just 3/50 visited

Six for me.

Mobyduck
25-04-2019, 20:18
And Six for me.

Quinno
26-04-2019, 00:36
50,000 my arse, physically impossible

aleandhearty
26-04-2019, 12:04
I still don't believe he could average 1,000 new pubs a year for 50 years though, unless he had no job and no personal relationship.

Initially, I took it all at face value, without thinking about it too much. However, it does seem increasingly far fetched.

Delboy20
26-04-2019, 22:30
Sadly the article is in The S*n so I couldn't give a toss.

Well said.

I won't even click on any link to that rag....

oldboots
27-04-2019, 09:18
Well said.

I won't even click on any link to that rag....

Of course the online version is unsuitable for the S@n’s proper purpose as it cannot be cut into squares

aleandhearty
27-04-2019, 16:11
Of course the online version is unsuitable for the S@n’s proper purpose as it cannot be cut into squares

:D Ditto the Daily Mail.

ETA
27-04-2019, 22:11
And Six for me.

Seven for me.

rpadam
28-04-2019, 15:40
Seven for me.
Twelve.

Aqualung
28-04-2019, 17:15
Just three for me. I quite like the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, Sowerby Bridge, but if he's as well travelled as he says he is, I'm puzzled as to why he chose it over Stalybridge Buffet Bar, or the West Riding Licensed Refreshment Rooms, Dewsbury.

Or the Codsall Station and the King and Castle at Kidderminster. I'm happy, one of my 12 is the Great Western.

Aqualung
28-04-2019, 17:44
Or the Codsall Station and the King and Castle at Kidderminster. I'm happy, one of my 12 is the Great Western.



Correction, it's 13 for me and I've found a major error. The Plough at Wistanstow (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/56797/) is in deepest Shropshire and nowhere near Staffs. It's been the Woods Brewery Tap since they started brewing and certainly was when I darkened its door in the early 1980s. It doesn't disprove his claim of 50,000 pubs but it is a very basic error.

rpadam
28-04-2019, 19:02
It doesn't disprove his claim of 50,000 pubs but it is a very basic error.
But was it his error - perhaps one of the Sun's sub-editors made the mistake (perish the thought)?

Aqualung
28-04-2019, 19:55
But was it his error - perhaps one of the Sun's sub-editors made the mistake (perish the thought)?

Possibly getting the county wrong but the bit about it having become the Wood's Brewery Tap since his visit in 2006 sound like his words and is completely wrong.

ROBCamra
06-05-2019, 15:39
10 for me. I thought it was going to be more as I'd visited 10 of the first 20, the it all went a bit "tits up". :cheers:

Aqualung
06-05-2019, 22:10
Another less relevant point with his top 50 is that the Dronfield Three Tuns closed nearly 18 months ago.