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Thread: Pubs Galore 10th Anniversary Crawl

  1. #11
    Waterborne Beer Inspector Bucking Fastard's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
    Taking advantage of the Travelodge offer of a free night's stay I'm booked into Birmingham Bullring hoping for a nice crawl of Digbeth on Thursday night and a trip elsewhere on the Friday, perhaps even to the Bartons in Aston.

    I don't have the original itinerary but according to the photo outside the Batons Arms on the 12th November 2010, the participants were:

    Ale & Hearty
    RPA
    Dave
    Roger Button
    AEM
    Evil Gazebo
    Soup Dragon
    Conrad
    Andy Ven
    Paul of Horsham
    Quinno
    Oggwyn Trench
    Trainman & 3 mates
    Millay
    Halfpint Gill & Ray
    Old Boots
    Having missed the original I'm certainly up for Friday November 13th ,maybe we will just have to be creative and flexible to make it work.Quite like the idea of a delve around Digbeth on the Thursday night too.
    Last edited by Bucking Fastard; 23-07-2020 at 20:13.
    "Good people drink good beer" Hunter S Thompson

  2. #12
    This Space For Hire aleandhearty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
    What are our thoughts on the anniversary crawl to Birmingham in November?
    Quote Originally Posted by sheffield hatter View Post
    I want to do the crawl, but it's going to need a change in the current regime to make it both workable and pleasant. I think there's a fair chance things could be worse by November rather than better...
    Quote Originally Posted by Bucking Fastard View Post
    Having missed the original I'm certainly up for Friday November 13th ,maybe we will just have to be creative and flexible to make it work...
    Certainly up for it in principle, but I think it's too early to tell how things are going to pan out. If it's pencilled in, I'll not book an advanced fare, but just decide at the last minute.
    'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spinko View Post
    Yeah it's all a farce. Most people will be shopping less from Friday, rather than more.
    Went to the supermarket today, pointedly donning mask on entering and no earlier and within about 30 seconds I started to have problems breathing. I had to keep pulling the stupid thing away from my face to catch my breath. About 25% of shoppers weren't even bothering wearing them and the - largely Asian and therefore more vulnerable - staff were hardly leading by example. Crazy.

    Quote Originally Posted by sheffield hatter View Post
    - believe the opposite of what Johnson says and you won't go far wrong.
    Yup.

  4. #14
    Between pubs sheffield hatter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
    I don't have the original itinerary...
    ...but there's a description of the route here:
    Quote Originally Posted by Conrad View Post
    I figured I would try and jot down a quick account of what I remember.


    Me and Dave arrived in Birmingham and strolled round to the Briar Rose, once again I am impressed with Dave's preparation, he has clearly used street view to try and get a feeling for the area, but is somewhat thrown by the lack of people administering first aid down an alley. Moving past this lack of landmark though we successfully find the Briar Rose.

    The Briar Rose is a tidy enough pub, a fairly typical Wetherspoons, slightly haphazard service, food that is so-so, and all nicely cheap. Having lined our stomachs we moved on to try and meet up for the pub crawl.

    Into The Wellington, an interesting pub, a busy bar with a sensible display to show their full selection of 16 real ales. We meet up with everyone and start with a pint of Butty Bach. Strangely Gill proved to be the easiest one to spot and we swiftly realised a large group had already gathered. Trainman had a few friends with him who aren't regular posters to the site which would swiftly lead to some slight confusion. Anyway, we got chatting with Quinno before being accosted by one of the people I had thought was with Trainman. Oh how wrong I was, it swiftly became apparent that this was someone who was unfortunately very drunk and looking to make friends. Strangely this seemed to involve a bemusing string of insults that was a little unexpected whilst sober and at lunch. Happily Quinno proves to be a dab hand at handling this and I am given to understand from Dave that Quinno escorted him to the bar then the exit . As people are introduced the decision to actually make it into a crawl is pushed on and some start the long journey to the next pub.

    Being part of the later group I nervously move on wondering at the size of Birmingham, out of the back door across the alley and into the back door of The Old Joint Stock. Due to my careful timing I successfully fake my way out of a pint in this pub by being a late arrival, but marvel at the decor, palatial is the best description and well worth checking out the internal shot by Walter Dunlop if you have not been there. The decision is made at this point to head to the most distant target to take advantage of our more sober state.

    Onward to the Bartons Arms. Another impressive pub preceded by an impressive journey. Assured that we should be getting a bus to get there and that the cheapest method would be to 'pair off into groups of 5' (again this confused Dave for a little while). Storming off down the road we all followed Gill who determinedly seemed to know our target, strolling past a bus stop we cluster at the end of the road gazing along it reading bus numbers. I briefly wonder if we have already drunk too much and the list tickers have changed profession to bus spotting, mumblings of dissent and word associations involving 'brewery' can be heard in the background as the fateful bus appears at the end of the road and we rush off towards the bus stop. I suddenly realise that we are choosing the bus stop based on the first bus to appear and all becomes clear . Happily the journey is swift and we arrive at the Bartons Arms which has a good selection of Ales and again is an amazing pub to look round (it is worth looking at rpadam's recent photo additions, spectacular efforts although I am left wondering how he got people to move out of a couple of the shots ). A&H kindly gets me and Dave halves of Inferno that we sup on, drinking these far too swiftly we decide to try out halves of the Aston's MILD in honour of the alleged imminent arrival of Soup Dragon. As we are served the whisper goes round that he is about to walk through the door, and the MILD legend arrives to a round of applause. It is pointed out at this point that we need to get the group photo to remember the day with, a barman is convinced to come outside and Quinno contributes his camera with a brief lesson on how to use it (I would say it isn't rocket science but I would be lying). We all gather up, posing as we receive protestations to smile, anticipation building the barman clicks on the button and the camera switches off . Happily somewhere in amongst it all the excellent photo that is already posted gets taken. Before leaving AEM starts on a pattern that will emerge during the crawl as he successfully convinces the lovely barmaid to wear a PuG t-shirt (GURLS).

    Next target is The Anchor in Digbeth fearfully involving a couple of bus journeys. Sadly they were completely uneventful (well the first was, me and Dave walked the second leg). Walking into the pub we find that Soup has stormed off ahead and got his drink in, we soon find out why - 'What will you have?', 'Soup, what are you having?', 'The MILD', 'We'll have 2 halves of MILD please', 'He's had the last pint', . So Dave orders 2 halves of Mad Goose to which we receive our 2 pints , we decide it must be our mistake and sacrifice ourself to drinking them (as an aside the Mad Goose swiftly ran out leaving AEM with a very cloudy effort that they kindly replaced with another drink). Oh and 'GURLS', AEM strikes again to convince the lovely barmaid to wear a PuG t-shirt.

    On to The White Swan. This one ended up with a small division of the group as some decided to move on to the next stop as there was a limited selection of Real Ales. Me & Dave had halves of the MILD offering whilst sat in the back room chatting to Andy Ven. A lovely little cubby with a coal fire going, very relaxing and a great area to socialise. Strikingly for me it was another pub with grand amounts of tiling, as I pointed out rather vulgarly to Soup later on the crawl the only time I ever see tiles in Bristol is when I go to the toilet, every other pub we went in seemed to be fully tiled.

    Another brief stroll to get to The Lamp Tavern. For some reason I really struggled to remember this one. Dave can't quite remember what he ordered here, apparently there were 2 real ales on, and he couldn't bring himself to order 2 halves of the moustache, so got 2 halves of whatever the other was. It was a very busy pub and we propped up the end of the bar continuing to chat to Andy Ven, whilst hemming some poor soul in against the wall.

    Onwards again this time to The Old Fox. At this point I accepted my defeat and switched to an OJ, Dave had the beer with 3 letters (I ordered it and have no idea what it was). Some lovely stained glass Foxes in this nice big pub. A debate about geography and BCG jabs ensued between Dave, me, Quinno and PaulofHorsham, one vaccination on the way to Quinno for Christmas . Oh yes and 'GUUUURR....', wait a second though, that's a bloke. AEM broke a perfectly good pattern to ensure that the fine young barman was wearing a PuG t-shirt (someone took a photo, so evidence of this one may appear).

    And finally full circle back to the Wellington, following a stumbling (although I still maintain it was a very straight stumbling) RogerB. I believe it was also Roger who kindly got me and Dave a half each of Fire-something, or to put it another way, got Dave a pint of Fire-something (thanks to the purchaser and apologies if it was not Roger). Have to admit to enjoying the Wellington a little less this time as it was a complete crush and constant elbowings to get by as we cluttered up the walkway. Enjoyed a bit of a chat with Soup who agreed to join us in our misery of watching a Bristol City match. Oh and of course 'GURLS' as in a final strike AEM once again gets the barmaid to wear a PuG t-shirt. Realising time was up though we left and met AEM on the platform to travel back to Bristol.

    All in all a fantastic inaugural PuG crawl which seemed to have universal agreement that it must be repeated within the year. I had a fantastic time meeting everyone and it was a genuine pleasure chatting. Faces were put to names, beer was imbibed and the World set to rights.

    Sorry for not saying goodbye to Andy, and apologies to anyone I didn't chat too properly, I would have just spoken rubbish anyway .

    Cheers everyone!

    ...and another one here:

    Quote Originally Posted by Millay View Post
    I'm a bit late on parade with this (taking advantage of the final two days of the Spoons festival) but I'll add my thanks to everyone who was there on Friday for an enjoyable day's drinking. I think Conrad wins the 'best memory' award for his excellent summing up of the day but I'll add my own personal memories.

    On nervously entering the Wellington I was lucky (I think that's the word) to be faced with the only PuG member that I knew, a_e_m, aka Father Jack, so was put at ease and also had a quick chat with Quinno who was at the bar before joining the main group who were 8 at that point. The next hour was spent on a succession of introductions as others arrived to join the party. I did note that Conrad and Dave sneaked in and stood at the back for a while before we spotted them. With all the chatter going on we were perhaps getting a bit loud for a lunchtime in the Welly and moved off in three waves to the Joint Stock, just a hop skip and a jump away. Had an excellent Titanic Iceberg in here which RogerB insisted hadn't been on 10 minutes earlier.

    It was here that Gill, along with self-proclaimed 'silent partner' Ray, showed how seriously this crawl was being taken by producing maps of the city marked up with the location of the best pubs. On deciding to go to the Bartons Arms next a number of others got out notebooks and scraps of paper to check pre-researched bus numbers and routes - I felt a little under prepared. Local knowledge bought us to the bus stop, or more correctly equidistant between two bus stops with the instruction "if it's a number XX we have to run to that stop over there and if it's a number XX we run to the one round the corner". Two usages of the word 'run' in one sentance was a bit of a shock but just as I was looking around for the youngest and fittest member of the group (probably Quinno) to undertake this task a bus came around the corner and with a shout of "It's a 51" Gill set off like a greyhound from the slips with us all following in her wake. Here a_e_m's infamous knowledge of the transport ticketing system of the whole UK came in handy but the, now equally infamous, instruction to 'pair off into fives' didn't help the general chaos of fifteen or more drunkards trying to get on the bus - I suspect the driver was longing for the relative sanity of the school run.

    The Bartons Arms (the lack of apostrophe will no doubt get it's very own thread) was a wonderfully decorative pub with good beers to match, most from Oakham. I got chatting to a guy from Worcester here and handing him a card suggesting he searches for this thread and introduces himself. No sign yet but we may get a new member. A couple more bus trips amongst startled locals takes us to the Anchor, where it becomes apparent that 15+ people walking into a pub with one barman and ordering drinks seperately probably isn't the best idea. Next a stroll to the White Swan where I think I had something called Huffink. Next was a epic trek through the industral areas of Digbeth that Scott of the Antarctic would have been proud of. I felt quite safe following Old Boots who was striding out ahead, but a little concerned when he turned around and asked "are we going the right way?"

    Eventually we arrived at the Lamp Tavern and I recall drinking Acorn Blonde whilst discussing the merits of the bags of cockles being sold at the bar with EG, a_e_m and I think PoH. The Old Fox next and a double pinter, an excellent stout from the Malvern Hills Brewery. I think it was called Trevor's and was my beer of the day. Quick pint at the Welly before catching the 20:10 train back. I managed to wake up at Watford where I saw Trainman just as I was getting off, no doubt Roger had his foot up somewhere. Finished off the evening with a pint of Guinness while waiting for a take-away curry.

    All in all a very enjoyable day and great to meet up with you all.
    Or here's an actual list:
    The Briar Rose
    The Wellington
    The Old Joint Stock
    Bartons Arms
    The Anchor
    The White Swan
    The Lamp Tavern
    The Old Fox
    Come On You Hatters!

  5. #15
    It wasn't me Quinno's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
    Taking advantage of the Travelodge offer of a free night's stay I'm booked into Birmingham Bullring hoping for a nice crawl of Digbeth on Thursday night and a trip elsewhere on the Friday, perhaps even to the Bartons in Aston.
    Ohhh that's a good idea! Assuming I can get that day off I might join you...

  6. #16
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    I'm certainly up for 13 Nov, circumstances permitting. I think the one certainty is that rules and practices will be different by then: whether better or worse is a matter of conjecture at this stage.
    On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement

  7. #17
    Still about Mobyduck's Avatar
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    I would hazard a guess this is on the postponed list?
    "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
    -W.C.Fields

  8. #18
    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mobyduck View Post
    I would hazard a guess this is on the postponed list?
    We should be in lockdown 2 by then so it’s a fair guess. You never know of course, it depends on the brown trouser level about the economic damage.

  9. #19
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    I think the decision on this one has been made for us.

  10. #20
    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by oldboots View Post
    We should be in lockdown 2 by then so it’s a fair guess. You never know of course, it depends on the brown trouser level about the economic damage.
    told you so!

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