BRAPA & ..... A CRICK IN THE NECK : COVENTRY NFFD
2 minutes ago
6 min read
Saturday 29th August 2026
Yes it IS still August in BRAPA-land. What of it? Leave me alone! I'm trying my best!
The first thing Daddy BRAPA had said to me on our annual Foxtures Fixtures* day a couple of months previously was "NO". I'd asked him how bothered he was about Coventry away. Fine with me. Having been there lots recently in the Championship, we decided an NFFD (Non Football Football Day**) made more sense.
*Dad and I go to the Fox Inn and discuss the newly released football fixture list. What games we are keen on, which we'll give a miss, which we're away on holiday for anyway. AKA : 'tis really an excuse for a few pints of White Rat in one of York's finest pubs.
**Where we have little intention of attending the match, but still book trains for the general area in the hope of a solid BRAPA day.
"Quack!" says Dudley Duck, excited for a rare mascot outing. Note the out of date BCA 'passport'. And the cob shaped croissant. Yep, you could tell we were Birmingham New St. bound on the dreaded DrossCountry.
With only two weeks left until the new 2027 Good Beer Guide plonks onto my Lionel Ritchie "Hello" doormat (my friend thought it was Peter Sutcliffe - something I've since told the Trick or Treaters) , you could argue that even an NFFD was a mistake.
Actual required BRAPA 2026 ticks in the Brum area were few and far between. West Lancs, Cheshire, Merseyside, East Sussex etc etc. would've made far more sense.
Yes, I'd need pre/post-emptives to make the day more productive. For our base, I chose a town I've come to know quite well .....
So it started in the pissin' rain of Rugby. A MUCH underrated pub town. Knocks spots off the more 'glamourous' Stratford, Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth. But I admit pissin' rain does suit it.
My penultimate Warwickshire 'Spoons was the Rupert Brooke. A decent one which would make the GBG in many towns, but as I say, Rugby has a stronger pub suite than most. Perhaps this is why I've never seen it appear. Still, one day surely all 'Spoons will darken the good book? And no full review from me until it does - them's the rules.
Across town came a real 'how have I not been here before?' pre-emptive. The Raglan Arms. Since I first saw it in a GBG, it has become a Black Country Ales house. Even Daddy BRAPA had been here. On a recent lads day out with his band of David's. Impressive form today, and I HAVE written about this one because it DID make the 2027 GBG. Hooray. It'd be a rare success on this skinny wet day.
With my tummy all full up with excellent Choc Ice Porter from bloody Derby, it was bus time. Into, dun dun dun ..... NORTHAMPTONSHIRE!
Northants is a fine county. Never let's you down pub-wise.
Did I say never? I meant 'rarely'.
The bus ride is bloody weird, Daddy B. can testify. Around the Royal Mail Super Hub. Alien's could definitely be kept in storage out here. It was quite X-Files. But lacking prime 90's Dana Scully. Destination was called Dirft - not Drift as I'd thought. What does that mean?
'Do It Right First Time?' mused Dad. Good call young man.
The Wheatsheaf, Crick (3595 / 6386) was bloody weird too. And like my mascot, a lame duck who by the way was taking to this torrential weather like a duck to , errrrm, a duck to .... no sorry, it's gone. If the pub had any soul, it seemed ready to depart for the afterlife. We'd moved from X-Files to Twin Peaks in 20 quick minutes. And you had to sit in the reception area of their dining area for the WiFi to work. The beer was a Boddington's sticker stuck over another pump clip. Doom Bar and whisky were the other choices. Dad went for the latter. I hoped the Boddies was Boddies. A guy dressed as Rupert Bear's North Face cousin kept coming over, dangling his scarf in my face, and menacingly whispering a few helpful words. He'd left some eggs and bread on the table. No one knew why. Pub was dropped from the GBG. We can't be surprised.
I'll give you a 'fun fact'. The 'local taxi numbers' didn't wanna know, so we nursed our pints/whisky for eternity and caught the next hourly bus to West Haddon. Absolutely sodden to skin by now!
My tongue was whiter than Miley Cyrus's at the peak of her party era after THAT Boddingtons.
The #PubCat was a soggy moggy as I go in search of the loos, which OF COURSE had to be outside because today was rapidly becoming one of those days. Sheaf, West Haddon (3596 / 6387) was a marked improvement on sick Crick. The radiators on full blast, stone flagged floor and jovial landlord help. Not quite sure why my Oakham Bishop's Farewell tasted like a 10% Quadruple IPA in a whisky aged cask brewed by a hairy Belgian, but it did. Can I blame that Boddies again? Sorry Macc Lads, but I prefer John Willie's on recent evidence. The highlight for me is the communal umbrellas. Locals would come in, put them in the stand, then departing locals would take them, with the promise of bringing them back on a drier day. Chinny reckon. Which reminds me, I should check the latest score. 0-0 half time. Oooh. To add to our increased enormous sense of well being (PARKLIFE!), a taxi did come good this time. Dad's looking for a grey Keir. Sorry, Kia. Pub dropped from the '27 GBG? Course it was. CAMRA loves making me churn.
So that was me ticked out already. Warra damp squib! KNEW we shouldda gone to Southport. Only BCA and the satisfaction of stamping my 'passport' could save me now.
On t'road out of Rugby other way, so definitely back into Warwickshire we are dropped at Lawford Arms, Long Lawford. Much more like it. Good character for a BCA (their very first pub!) The winning atmosphere we can put down to a motley selection of 'characters' who Dad reckons gives it a 1970's feel though of course, I'm too young to remember. Their Jubilee IPA drinks astonishingly well and I'm FUMIN' this place hasn't made the cut for the '27 Guide when so many lesser pubs have, and so many BCA's are in the '27 GBG let's be honest. Washed down with a cracking C&O cob. Must be nearly full time in our game? Dare we look? OMG we are only bloody winning 1-0 late on! Cue wild scenes of jubilation to go with my Jubilee, and because the locals were 'extra' anyway, no one bats an eyelid. Oops, I wasn't supposed to write about pre-emptives before they made the cut was I?
And on the final pub leg of our journey, full time is confirmed! Two wins out of two. Champions League here we come !!!! (we haven't won since, but still keep picking up draws and we've never had a better manager in our entire history so that's nice).
Final pub, again BCA. It is in Cov itself so please don't look too happy Daddy B. as they'll all be piling back into town shortly.
Like the Raglan, Nursery Tavern, Coventry was a pub name I was very familiar with from previous GBG's but had never been to, and had very recently been taken over by Black Country Ales. All year, lots of my followers told me I should visit as it was a nailed on pre-emptive for 2027. Well guess what, it wasn't! Maybe CAMRA were offended by the carpet/wallpaper clash? Had to keep adjusting my grin to Greg Downs levels of bald despair. Dad's Plum Porter has a kick, almost Grand Reserve. Glad I went Cosmic. Less memorable than Long Lawford but lack of cob + increasing drunkenness can do that to a man.
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