BRAPA in .... KENILWORTH ODE : THE DAWNING OF THE NEW FOOTBALL SEASON

Saturday 9th August 2025

With an air of inevitability, I was back on the Dross Country trains sitting miles away from Daddy BRAPA despite us having booked our tickets together. It had been the story of our entire pubby summer. And after this, I won't see the great man until the end of September.

Coventry was our destination, and the downside of away games in this early part of the football season is that you don't have a new Good Beer Guide to tell you what new exciting stuff Cov has to offer. So I started looking Warwickshire-wards to places like Kenilworth, Leamington Spa, Warwick and Bedworth.

Like last season, it was a 12:30pm kick off (cheers EFL!) so pre-match saw a revisit to the 'walkable from the ground' brewery tap at Byatt's which is a decent gaff .....

Weird IPA and a tasty accidental fizzy can follows, plus a guest appearance from BRAPA's favourite Sky Blue, Dan Underwood, a lovely fellow.

It has been a summer of two halves at Hull City. Surprise sacking of Ruben Selles & transfer restrictions due to dodgy dealings of our owner, the Turkish Simon Cowell, meant all was doom & gloom until the end of June. But a great new manager, some amazing freebies and a good pre-season meant there was a renewed buzz in the air by August. But Cov are one of the best teams in the division, so ya know, still fearing the worst.

I'd even picked my Fantasy Premier League team with a Hull City old boys theme, if we pretend we released Haaland as a youngster which is the kinda thing Hull City would do .....

So imagine my surprise when we scraped a 0-0 draw which felt like a 5-0 win! Hughes and Semi were amazing in central defence, rock solid, there was no way through. "As long as they play every game all season, we''ll finish mid table easy!" I crow to Dad on the way out. Not a comment that has aged particularly well since.

Our joy was short lived. Cov Arena is a bastard of a ground to escape from at the best of times. Especially by train despite having a 'handy' railway station next door, but they don't put any extra trains on match days, and they are only hourly! How stupid is that? And when there's a problem, like today, it is carnage!

At one point, I'm giving live Trainline updates to half the queue (well, the mass ruck jostling for position on the platform to Cov, Kenilworth et al). Your best bet normally would be to start walking, and hope the traffic clears enough for you to pick up a bus.

The train on the other side is fouled up too, but not quite as badly, so we cross t'other side, which proves a good move, despite zero air in the carriage. Hot dogs die in cars but do Hot pub tickers die on trains? .... I need Bedworth 'Spoons so all good.

"We'll stay here 'til it all blows over" I tell Dad suddenly sounding very Shaun of the Dead. Welcome to Bear & Ragged Staff, Bedworth (3280 / 5766), pronounced 'Bed'urth someone tells me. And it was a 'ragged' experience. Dad immediately goes to find a seat, leaving me to deal with a post match 'Spoons onslaught. "I can't see where goals are gunna come from this season" moan two moody Bed-sores next to me. "Look, we just defended amazingly, I honestly think you'll be fine" I chirp, and this is a comment which HAS aged well. One of the Bed-wetters perks up at this, and asks the staff if he can have 'half an ice cube' in his whisky. Thinks he's hilarious, turning around to see if we're all laughing but this ain't the time or the place mate and barmaid rolls her eyes. I'm served surprisingly quickly. "TWOPINTSJAIPUR!" I scream, but it is off (yep, another sign that the death knell is sounding on the wondrous Wetherspoons/Jaipur partnership), and under pressure, order two dark obscure things. I know Dad'll hate it cos he only loves 6.2% Hazy IPA's these days #HipsterDad but although he snarls at it, (a) he should be bloody grateful I've got served when I have and (b) he grows into it and finds it nice n smoove. We find a decent booth but this is a below par 'Spoons. Scuzzy, sticky, 5.5/10 carpet, Dad asks me THREE times if this is actually in the GBG! (He's confused cos I mentioned a pre-emptive new one at Kenilworth). If was neck our smooth obscure darks, the next train to Kenilworth, now running to time, is onnnnn.....

'And that was the last time BRAPA would see Jaipur in a Wetherspoons' (narrator)

"Where's thi goawls cummin' from bab?"

We have to dash for the train, doors close about ten seconds after we hop on .... not helped by me leaving my phone on the table in 'Spoons (it was stuck to it) and Dad rushed back for it! No one had nicked it cos Bed'urth folk are in the top 7% for honesty in the UK #BRAPAFact

Kenilworth has three ticks for me, plus a brand new pre-emptive 'Spoons, but time had gotten away from us and as there was still some walking involved, I work out we only have time for two pubs before the train back to Brum to make our York connection.

I'd normally be unhappy with just three pubs in the day, but with a North Oxon epic weekend on the horizon, plus he previous Thursday's Kinver heroics, I could afford for once in my sad little life to feel pretty peachy about the whole thing.

Kenilworth is a cute leafy sorta place once you get off the main drag, and Old Bakery (3281 / 5767) encapsulates it well, in micro form. Both our pub of the day, not that there were many, certainly the 'locale' pale from Orkney is pint of the day by a country mile. The same beer had just been turned around in Tardebigge a week earlier #BoringBRAPAFact . We've both been feeling a bit stuffy and airless since we landed in Cov all those hours ago, Bedworth didn't help, but Kenilworth had fresh clean tasting air, so we retire to the little beer garden full of green plant life where oxygen and carbon dioxide combine like Little & Large in their heyday. Despite the plant life, no chance Daddy BRAPA would be repeating his Emmer Green escapades here. I really hope RetiredMartin awards him the prestigious 'PlantPotting of the Year' award in December. The ready salted crisps were an 8.5/10, but we needed to dash just to ensure pub three wasn't a rush!

With the Engine pub in totally the wrong direction (it is named after a pumping engine for a forge and nothing to do with trains, says the GBG, trying to be helpful), we decided to head back in the direction we'd come from, skirting around the big green area of land, into what seemed to be the main shopping area for our final tick.

Ale Rooms & Gin Bar, Kenilworth (3282 / 5768) is depressingly empty for one so central late on a summer Saturday afternoon - it wasn't bad, but didn't have the 'gentle warm embrace' of the Old Bakery. Our host is a canny lad in his mid 80's George Michael Wham Last Christmas chunky jumper and F.Mercury 'tache and asks if we've had a great day in a vaguely homo-erotic undercurrent. He's heard of 'Hull', possibly on Crimewatch or that episode of Only Fools and Horses. But he's never been to Spiders. Dad instructs me to pick him the palest beer so Wye Valley HPA is my choice. Sometimes great, in fact it starts off well but tastes strange later on - not off, just unlike HPA. Dad swears the barman rushed through to next door and cut someone's hair as soon as he'd finished serving us, reminding me of that funny place in Birkenhead. Hairballs in yer pint? Yummy! Because we're still stuffy and the interior is a poor man's Scale & Feather in 'Ull, we attempt some #KenilworthKafeKulture, and enjoy our drinks overlooking the handsome clock tower. New 'Spoons is agonisingly just around the corner, but no time, even to whip in a quick half! Gah. And that's having worked out a shortcut back to the station. Kenilworth, I will be back!

So it was back to Brum then via Cov, and more train delay pain meant it was all on just to get our York connection. No Kilder, no Craven Arms, do not pass go, do not collect £200, it really had been a tough pub day.

Not to worry though, three ticks and a good football outcome wasn't terrible I reflect as we bomb on through Derby and Cheaterfiddle, and of course I had Banbury coming up which I'll endeavour to start telling you about on Thursday.

Sleep well, and keep it pub (even in your dreams / nightmares),

Si