A record breaking January with 47 ticks means I've really hit the ground running in 2024.
And with only one day of annual leave taken, it just shows what can be achieved if you makes the most of #ThirstyThursdays. 58.3% of the GBG complete at time of writing.
40 pubs back in 2022 was my previous best, the monthly average remains a modest 29.6. How you visit 0.6 of a pub I don't know, but I'm sure it is possible. Signal Box in Cleethorpes?
Big credit must go to the pubs and punters themselves. Those (mainly micropubs) who said they were closing to go to Torremolinos for a couple of weeks made it clear on social media, and I also found most pubs busy. Two things that haven't always been the case in previous years.
I've made gains in a whopping EIGHT counties. Let's take a look at how it's going and what the BRAPA future might hold for them ......
COUNTY OF THE MONTH - MERSEYSIDE (24 TICKS)
Apologies for the patchy green highlighting resembling a 3G football pitch. This is what happens when you switch from Stabilo to Staedtler halfway through the season.
Merseyside has been THE county. I now know my way out of Lime St station blindfolded. Never thought I'd say that.
Only 9 remain. I'm determined to cracke most of them in the first half of Feb. Whiston has become a bit of an outlier on the evil Merseyrail line but with three of the nine in Waterloo, most look nicely do-able. Just a shame most open late!
Pub of the Month - Coach & Horses, Greasby
RUNNER UP - KENT (9 TICKS)
Much neater!
I had zero intention of doing any Kent in 2024 after flogging it like a dead south eastern horse in the 2022/23 season and reaching 90% completion.
But a long standing Premier Inn booking in Absolute Bobbings on the outskirts of Shittingbourne, yes that is the correct spelling, which I'd re-booked three times, had to finally be honoured. I booked a day off and spent a couple of nights daaahn here.
Richard Pitcher is the hero who chauffeured me around, and with this equally lovely chap called Paul Godden threatening to do the same for me in the coming months, plus Daddy BRAPA's enthusiasm at an easy Thanet train day, not to mention a possible return to the village where Grandpa BRAPA convalesced from bronchitis, I can see a bit more surprise Kent in 2024.
Amazing pub county. Should've known it'd lure me back in.
Joint Pubs of the Month - Butcher's Arms, Herne / Red Lion, Milstead
THIRD PLACE - Leicestershire (4 ticks)
Shambolic! I shake my head in disgust when I think how I've laboured on my Leics ticking over the past nine months. Very 'pregnancy', probably.
A massive Leics GBG churn in September didn't help either, and with a couple of lovely lads enticing me back to rural Derbyshire (which I fully greened back in 2018), I refuse to dodge Leics any longer and could really do with spending some quality time here. Locations + opening hours aren't helpful.
Enter heroic chauffeur 2, Daddy BRAPA, on Saturday just gone, who drove me round four of the more difficult entries.
Remember how Lincs was a very 'driven' place for me last year? Well DB seems to think that maybe Leics could be its natural successor, though a lot of it is still attainable on buses/trains. In any case, it continues to live rent free in my head.
Pub of the Month - Stilton Cheese, Somerby
Daddy Daddy, get us a drink!
And now for the best of the rest.
In Central London, I ticked three, very much enjoying Liverpool St's Lord Aberconway and Aldgate's Craft Beer Co.
In North London, I did two astonishing Kilburn's though once I'd got over the novelty factor in both cases, they fell a little London flat.
Two apiece in County Durham and Tyne & Wear. I'm down to just the one tick in Co. Durham up at awkward Edmundbyers which might pair best with a Northumberland summertime jaunt.
Three remain in Tyne & Wear, Whitburn I'll likely leave til 2024/25 but I hope to have a stab at Newcastle bus duo, Old Ryton Village & Newburn.
Honourable mention for Notts, just the one tick, up in Lound, but it was excellent. And if you wondered, I have visited other Notts pubs but can't be arsed to waste valuable Staedtler ink on it in 2024 but that could change!
Let's hear it for Daddy BRAPA's excellent highlighting of Lound
In other news, I'm hoping a new mascot will arrive just before the Pub Ticker Transfer Deadline Day Window slams firmly shut tomorrow night, on its way from BlackpoolJane F.C. Can we get the paperwork done on time? Will the fax machine jam at 11pm?
And a new upstart pub ticker has been in touch with me, asking for hints and tips on getting started / how to best organise / spreadsheets etc. LOVE helping out newcomers, though part of me wants to say 'save yourself now, before you get hooked!'
As for Feb, Hull City have mostly home games, so like Wham before me, I'll be mainly ticking solo. Expect a lot of North Western trips, and my first official holiday is at the end of the month so I'm looking to book a county I've only dabbled my toes in so far.
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