A very good point, I wasn't really inviting a direct comparison between the two but I suspect that London Calling's comparison is generally on the money. The worst part of the whole episode for me was the man from Nicholson's blatantly giving his own pub a rating of 10!
I was underwhelmed by the 3 West Midlands Spoons I visited on Saturday. I would have expected in an area where there is good cheap local beer readily available for them to up their game but that didn't seem to be the case at all. I can't speak too much for the Wolverhampton one as it was rammed and I was tired and hungry so just ordered a curry and went for the nearest guest to go with it. They were also more expensive than some of the Outer London ones.