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
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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
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.)
He definitely deserves an honorary doctorate from the University of Pubs Galore.Quote:
Originally Posted by rpadam
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by aleandhearty
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?Quote:
Originally Posted by Aqualung
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 visitedQuote:
Originally Posted by oldboots
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!Quote:
Originally Posted by rpadam
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by oldboots
Bruce Masters mails from our Mr Fastard's territory, I think, so I wonder if he knows (or knows of) him?Quote:
Originally Posted by rpadam
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by rpadam
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.
It is bollloks numbers may be close but not exact. So how you keep an accurate record isn't happening.
£40.00 is closer to a days beer money than a week's in London nowadays.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by london calling
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.
Sadly this is rapidly approaching the truth.:nishelypished:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobyduck
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by bcfczuluarmy
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:
"Here he shares 50 of his favourite boozers from his epic tour"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/893274...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.Quote:
Originally Posted by hondo
15/50 for me. Certainly some good ones there.Quote:
Originally Posted by hondo
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.
Sadly the article is in The S*n so I couldn't give a toss.Quote:
Originally Posted by hondo
..and just 6 for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by hondo
Quote:
Originally Posted by hondo
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by aleandhearty
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.
Six for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by hondo
And Six for me.
50,000 my arse, physically impossible
Initially, I took it all at face value, without thinking about it too much. However, it does seem increasingly far fetched.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tris39
Well said.Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Bundy
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 squaresQuote:
Originally Posted by Delboy20
:D Ditto the Daily Mail.Quote:
Originally Posted by oldboots
Seven for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobyduck
Twelve.Quote:
Originally Posted by ETA
Or the Codsall Station and the King and Castle at Kidderminster. I'm happy, one of my 12 is the Great Western.Quote:
Originally Posted by aleandhearty
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aqualung
Correction, it's 13 for me and I've found a major error. The Plough at Wistanstow 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.
But was it his error - perhaps one of the Sun's sub-editors made the mistake (perish the thought)?Quote:
Originally Posted by Aqualung
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by rpadam
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:
Another less relevant point with his top 50 is that the Dronfield Three Tuns closed nearly 18 months ago.