September is here! The most highly anticipated month in the pub ticking calendar as it sees the arrival of the new Good Beer Guide, and I'm ready for the great leap backwards.
43 new pub ticks for the month of August takes me up to a total of 2973, that is 66.07% of the GBG completed. I'm enjoying these dizzying stats while I can!
Though to be honest, I must be 'maturing' because I don't feel the usual sense of trepidation or gloom regarding the large amount of pubs I might lose. I'll laugh it off and be thankful that the BEST HOBBY IN THE WORLD is being prolonged. 2021 Si would never have felt like that!
Gains in nine counties. Let us look at the stats with a bit of commentary, and a photo of my favourite in each.
Glamorgan - 12 new ticks - 62% completion
Thanks for Billy Joel (#PubMan) for forcing me back to glamorous Glamorgan for some bonus ticking in the Cardiff area. Pontypridd is a pub town of the year contender. And I'm hoping to stay in Swansea some time in 2025 to see if I can get a fully green Glam for the first time ever.
Pub of the Month - Wheatsheaf, Llantrisant
Lancashire - 6 ticks (100% completion)
Achievement of the month was my first ever completion of Lancs. only 10.5 years it took me! Big thanks to Ian 'BeyondThePale' Sutton for driving me around those last four micropubs. I'm not hugely arsed about 'filling in the gaps' in 2024/25 but with Hull City at Blackburn AND Preston over Christmas, my sister keen for me to join her at Blackpool's Rebellion punk festival, and Ian already making pre-emptive noises (the best type of noises) about outer Burnley mop ups, I'm sure I'll be back!
Pub of the Month - Wobbler Cobbler, Lancaster
West Midlands - 6 ticks - 77.8% completion
Apologies to Coventry for chopping it off, you'll just have to imagine it if that doesn't pain you too much. Edging closer towards completion, not that I'm really pushing for the 100% with any real ferocity, it'll come naturally one year. Once again, it didn't disappoint, in fact it produced the best pubs and beer of the month. Just so good.
Pub of the Month - Vine, Brierley Hill
North London - 6 new ticks - 84.6% completion
Just the eight ticks needed in North London after Saturday's successful trip to Hampstead - better quality than I'd expected in terms of beer and pubs. Went slightly downhill in Camden and Holloway, but on the whole, a far better day than Hackney a couple of months back.
One of my main aims of the 2024/25 GBG season will be a fully green London - all 5 bits! So watch this space.
Pub of the Month - Holly Bush, Hampstead
Northamptonshire - 4 pubs - 88.9% completion
I'll let you into a little secret. I'm a bit in love with Northants. I really enjoy the challenge and unlike neighbouring Leics, Bucks and Beds, the pub standard has been above the national average.
My Oundle area mop up was a classic #ThirstyThursday with 4 strong contenders.
I'm unlikely to focus on it in 2024/25 but it borders that many other counties, I'm not ruling out the odd tick.
Pub of the Month - Montagu Arms, Barnwell
Cumbria - 3 ticks - 73.6% completion
Still plenty of hard work to do in difficult Cumbs, but as I waited around for micros in Morecambe and Lancaster to open, I strayed into southern climes for my first ticks of 2024. And I'm not ruling out a return before the new GBG 'drops' in 2-3 weeks time.
Pub of the Month - Clarence, Dalton-in-Furness
Norfolk - 3 ticks - 50.48% completion
Terrifying county is Norfolk - I'd rank it even harder than Cumbria. Not as friendly either. Or as good pubs. Or beer. Two holidays here last year (though Suffolk distracted me the second time) and I still find myself only just scraping over the 50% mark (my churn was cruel here), so I could really do with going back in 2024/25 if I don't run out of holidays! I've got a new strategy though in my mind but a kind chauffeur would be even nicer!
Pub of the Month - Crown Hotel, Downham Market
Cambridgeshire - 2 ticks - 71.4% completion
Ah yes, a GBG year wouldn't be complete without a trip to pretty Ely which always manages to pop something new in the GBG which is nice because it is a useful transport interchange. I fully greened Cambs early 2019, thanks largely to RetiredMartin before he left Waterbeach for pastures Sheffield, so I doubt I'll have it this easy again. But not a county on my agenda for 2024/25.
Pub of the Month - West End House, Ely
Lincolnshire - 1 tick - 94.6% completion
No map, because nothing new to report, but only six ticks to do here. One I know is being dropped, one I think SHOULD be dropped. I wonder if 2024/25 will finally be the season I get it fully greened? Lincs churn is always amongst the cruellest, so I'm not making any promises.
Pub of the Month (by default, but decent) - Prior's Oven, Spalding
So, onto September. I wonder when I'll receive the new GBG? Last year, the first sighting 'in the wild' was Wed 13th Sept whilst I was ticking the Ceres Inn up in the Kingdom of Fife, which was amusing because it had been dropped. Maltmeister sent me the Fife & Tayside pages because I was on holiday at the time #Legend
I didn't receive it until the following week on 21st September, will I be luckier this year? Or will it cruelly clash with York Beer Festival?
Cross ticking the 2024 GBG, last September
Whatever, I'm after a minimum of 50 ticks in Sept cos I need to ramp it up a notch after a slowish summer.
My first holiday is coming up too for the first time since Devon in June. I won't say where, but a new county on me, the kinda place which'll make you go "ooh", "aaah", "ouch" and probably the usual "I can't believe you've never been here before Soiiii".
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