Friday 27th October, 11:21am
Word up! After two of the consistantly strongest pub days in BRAPA history, it was time to head north out of Birmingham once more on this sunny Friday morning to mop up that hairy northerly West Midlands / Walsall area.
Bloxwich (which I'd always thought was called Bloixwich) was up first ......
Bloxwich Showman, Bloxwich (2491 / 4649)
Sucking down a cornershop Capri Sun on arrival, this eye-catching fairground themed Art Deco former cinema was my favourite 'Spoons of the week. What a cheerful bunch those Bloxwichians are, up there with their Walsall counterparts, or perhaps it was simply that Friday feeling. So many smiles, head strokes, chin tickles, back rubs going on, I felt like a cat. Barmaid laughs at me as I struggle to get my mouth round the word 'Leviathan'. An old lady marches her granddaughter (or random child she's nicked off street) through the pub singing a song which goes "we are climbing up this big 'ill". Were they looking for the 'Spoons loos? Perky start to day three, even if my photo doesn'treflect it.
A short bus ride into Walsall for the first of my final 4 pubs in the town would've been straightforward, if the driver had actually stopped when I pressed the button and not sped onto the next stop, loser.
Tucked away in the backstreets, I've got Daddy BRAPA on speed dial because I think I might just have found our mystery 2004 pub ..... see part one.
Pretty Bricks, Walsall (2492 / 4650)
I didn't think Wednesday's Walsall quintet could be topped but seriously think this might be the best of the lot! BCA again too, for a fourth time in fourteen pubs. The place is a delightful cacophony of bookcases, carpet and bench seating, and at 5.5% my Yorkshire Heart Scarbados is a beer of the week contender. A local CAMRA beer scorer is making friends with the personable young gent behind the bar who must be quite new cos beer scorer asks his name. Both lovely chaps, I muscle into the chat obviously. Then I explore the back bar, convinced this will prove to be the 2004 room we sat in. But the layout / bar area is all wrong. Darn, back to the drawing board on that one, but whadda pub!
A short walk through town leads me to today's third pub, any my second Wetherspoons.
St Matthew's Hall, Walsall (2493 / 4651)
Stately from the outside, but appearances are deceptive as the bar is immediately upon you to the right in a squashy shallow space, and herein lies the reason that this became my first unenjoyable pub tick of the holidays. Granted, the staff were friendly and helpful, Jodie W. even called me 'Bab', a personal highlight of my life. Upstairs, innocent men are dotted around tiny tables for one. Downstairs, it's even worse. Mobility scooter after mobility scooter, jostling for position where there is none. One old boy wheels over to my table, he doesn't ask. But we get chatting. He likes my Pumpkin! My 4% Nut Brown rides like a 6%er. But I must say I was delighted to leave, shambolic use of space.
A short walk slightly off centre brings me to my penultimate Walsall tick, I was doing rather too well for time as my next two didn't open til 5 +6pm respectively.
Fountain Inn, Walsall (2494 / 4652)
A shame I couldn't linger in splendour here, whiling away the afternoon. Poor decision making on my part, plus some bad luck, made for another below par pub experience - a shame because my spidey senses told me that I could come in here 9/10 times and enjoy it. It all started when I opted for left hand bar, rather than the cosier tiger clad lounge room to the right. My Green Duck beer tasted far too 'green', funnily enough, I normally love their stuff, suspect it had been put on too soon? And this silent bloke on a table next to me just sits, staring, doing nothing, proper unnerving. A grim 47 minute stop, but I couldn't spin it out any longer!
Next up, a bus to Brownhills where I had a micropub of classically awkward opening hours, 5pm even on a Friday, how cruelio is that? So I decide to base myself in a coffee shop along the same street for the next hour.
Morgan's or Costa is the choice. Gotta support the independents, right? Well sadly not as they tell me they're closing early and send me away. Costa meanwhile, are doing a steady trade. Have to stay for two, washed down with jammie dodgers and ginger nuts and a bit of punk rock on my headphones.
Colin's mate Todd the Toad even puts in an appearance.
4:57pm and it is time to start applying a bit of pressure to the micro, I'd waited long enough.
Jiggers Whistle, Brownhills (2495 / 4653)
Marvellous Maple Mild from the miserable Essex outpost of Brentwood was the perfect pint to follow two Costa coffees, in a micro presided over by an equally marvellous, mild and probably maple flavoured couple, who were so homely, I could no longer begrudge their meanie opening hours. After much BRAPA chatter, in which I bemoan the price of a York-Birmingham train ticket, they wheel out their 'Transport Solutions Expert' (all good micropubs should have one), this elderly woman, possibly called 'Mother', she pulls up a pew, and starts tapping away at National Express and Megabus alternatives. Really got me thinking. How marvellous.
A bus back into Walsall and then a meandering walk south into atmospheric damp spongy leafy autumnal climes brings me to our final tick of day three.
This one only opened at 6pm on a Friday, and to arrive only quarter of an hour later shows I'd made good use of my time ......
Walsall Cricket Club, Walsall (2496 / 4654)
The potential variables are terrifying, but hit the GBG club experience right, and it is so much more rewarding than your average pub, and that's what happened here, a fitting end to wondrous Walsall. Meg pulls me a Wye Valley HPA, a beer I drink a lot, but I've never had it this well kept. Stunning A* on the NBSS, beer of the week. Chief Hallowe'en decoration putter-upper Sabina (not a teenage witch) ropes me in, and is quick to notice my half arsed attempts but I'd rather drink, relax and be a 'guest'. I bond with schoolteacher Simon on how uncool the name Simon is in 2023. Some Bluenoses arrive and start moaning but even they can't bring down the mood. I manage to sneak out as Sabina and Meg leave the room to look for some sticky tape or scissors or what not. Great stuff.
I've picked up a bit of man-flu (possibly swine flu, I oinked earlier) so have cancelled my #ThirstyThursday in favour of honey, lemon and Nurofen. But at least that means I should be able to bang a blog out. Month end or Part 4, hmm, we'll see.
Thanks for your patience, Si
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