The Great Inter-County Pub Crawl

[Millay]

Well this thing is going ahead this Saturday, the Great Escape tickets have been bought and I’ve even convinced a mate to join me on this mad venture. The idea is to get the first train North and visit as many counties/pubs on just the one ticket. Hours of trawling through timetables and the PuG site has resulted in the following aspirational route.

05:53 - Watford Junction
06:40 Milton Keynes - Bucks
Wetherspoons (assuming they actually open at 7am)
07:23 MK
08:04 Rugby - Warks
Wetherspoons if we can make it
08:37 Rugby
09:16 Brum
Breakfast (?)
09:49 Brum
10:29 Worcester - Worcs
Spoons/Dragon Inn
11:02 Worcester
11:31 Cheltenham - Gloucester
Midland Hotel (quick splash and dash)
11:48 Cheltenham
12:17 Worcester
12:29 Worcester
12:49 Colwall - Herefordshire
Crown & a bit of lunch
14:04 Colwall
14:33 Droitwich - West Midlands
Some pubs
15:33 Droitwich
16:11 Brum
16:33 Brum
17:34 Northampton - Northants
Malt & Shovel
18:31 Northampton
19:15 Berkhamsted - Herts
Crystal Palace/Rising Sun
20:15 Berkhamsted
20:27 Watford Junction

All of this of course depends on a number of things all happening,

a) me having a relatively dry day on Friday (unlikely given that it is a mate’s 50th Birthday)
b) us both getting the first train
c) every train being on time (there is no contingency plan for missed connections)
d) us not deciding “sod it, lets stay here for another pint”

I reckon we should be able to make six counties, if we do all eight I’ll be amazed, and probably pissed.

Wish us luck. I’ll be taking a notebook and if I can read my notes I’ll report back.

[Conrad]

I have nothing to add but felt the need to put in a

[RogerB]

Brilliant, although you do realise you won't get a beer in 'Spoons before 9am.

My own plans to do Brum (as well as everything else I had planned this weekend) have all gone A over T for varying reasons so I can only marvel in jealousy at your efforts and await a full report.

[hopwas]

Brilliant, although you do realise you won't get a beer in 'Spoons before 9am.

My own plans to do Brum (as well as everything else I had planned this weekend) have all gone A over T for varying reasons so I can only marvel in jealousy at your efforts and await a full report.

I had a crafty pint at Silk Kite BEFORE 9am. Barmaid took pity on me after pleading with her..

[Millay]

Right, I suppose it’s about time I reported back on this, I’ve had a day for both my body to recover and for my mind to remember what happened. I now just need to decipher my scrawled notes.

The day started at 05:15 when I left home and tested out the claim that McDonalds open at 5am. Well they do but they when I eventually spotted a member of staff they seemed pretty surprised that they actually had a customer at that time of the morning. I did consider ordering a Whammy Burger in the style of Michael Douglas in Falling Down but thought the comedy nuance probably wouldn’t be appreciated, so settled for a Sausage & Egg McMuffin and an orange juice. Despite the early hour I was pleased to see that the McDonalds indoctrination process was still effective as I was asked ‘do you want a hash brown with that’.

On to the train station and I find to my horror that the 05:53 train is not showing on the departure screens, is this thing going to fail at the first hurdle? There is a special timetable in place today (when isn’t there) but I’d checked and that train was definitely on there. I ask a member of London Midland staff if the train is running and he says “I hope so, I’m catching that one myself, they‘ve probably just screwed the screens up”. With spirits slightly lifted I head for the platform where I think it would arrive and it duly does - the Great Inter County Pub Crawl is on timetable.

We reach Hemel Hempstead where I am due to meet Peter, my crawling companion for the day. I don’t see him on the platform, which is a bit worrying. Just as we’re pulling out and I’m looking through the timetable for a train that Peter might be able to get to catch me up somewhere my phone rings and rather breathless Peter asks me which carriage I’m in. When he finds me and gets his breath back he tells me that he dragged his wife out of bed, drove like a madman to the station, jumped out of the car leaving her in the passenger seat in her nightclothes and with a Herculean effort hurled himself onto the train just as the doors were closing. Welcome to the pub crawl mate, I never said it would be easy!!

[Millay]

The journey to Milton Keynes gives Peter time to recover and we arrive in the land of the concrete cows on time at 06:40. This allows us to take a leisurely stroll up the concrete and glass thoroughfare that is Midsummer Boulevard and we arrive at some sort of glass and metal structure, rather reminiscent of the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh, that turns out to be Wetherspoons. We sit outside for a while and enter dead on 7am, where they seem just as surprised to see us as the guy at McDonalds did. Our request for a couple of halves of Salem Porter were politely refused as they informed us they didn’t serve alcohol until 9am, so we settled for an orange juice and a coke. Left at 07:10 to walk back down to the station where we just caught the 07:23 (the fact that these Great Escape tickets don’t work at electronic barriers needs to be factored into the planning for any similar endeavours). The first county Buckinghamshire had been successfully negotiated.

[trainman]

An ambitious day of travel but maybe the timetable has led to a less ambitious choice of pubs? nb. The 'spoons may be open early, but I thought they didn't serve alcohol until 09:00?
In Berko, I presume you included the Crystal Palace for geographical reasons? (You reviewed it before with avg rating). You can walk to the Rising Sun along the canal towpath from the station and you may want to play a joker there, otherwise you also pass the Boat, which may be an alternative to CP if you haven't been before.

May the rails rise up to meet you....

[Grailhunter]

Good luck sir. I hope everything runs smoothly but, if not, I'm sure you'll take it in your stride and invoke a contingency plan.

[Gann]

And good luck from me as well although I think you are completely mad !

I will be thinking of you tomorrow, especially at 5.30PM when I take my expensive seat at Twickenham to watch my beloved Sarries, with the knowledge that I will probably achieve more beers with a zone 1 to 6 travel card on Saturday including the entertainment of a visit to The Barmy Arms to see if the alledged resident nutcase Landlord puts in an appearance.

[Oggwyn Trench]

Good Luck with the day , sounds a bit knackering for me , i will make do with the 55 bus to Oakengates and the Station beer festival