If you've been following my exploits on X/Bluesky over the past week and a half, you won't be too surprised to learn I've broken the monthly BRAPA ticking record with 77 Good Beer Guide pubs visited in the month of June.
Preparing to start Day 4 of 11 in Tewkesbury
This beats my previous record of 75 set in April 2023, and equalled in June 2024. It moves me (or 'moved', because we've also had a day of July ticking since) onto 3234 / 4500, that's 71.9% completion.
Eleven consecutive days ticking also marks a BRAPA record, beating the previous record of nine. I can't tell you how delighted I am to back in my cool air York home living off strong tea and cheese & cucumber sandwiches, doing boring stuff like washing and ironing!
Morning snacks at Cheltenham Spa Tesco Express became my daily routine!
It had actually been a pathetic start to June ticking, with a mere 14 ticks from the first 18 days.
It began in the grey damp of Spalding surrounded by old men and an acceptable Bass in the reassuring Red Lion Hotel ....
.... and it ended in the suntrap Mousetrap at Bourton-on-the-Water, 32 degree heat beating down on the back of my neck as a lady Snapchats her mates pretending she's on a date with r Jezza .....
For the rest of this liver-shattering blog, we'll go county by county to see which 'seats' I've made 'gains' in like a boozy election night special, concluding with a few thoughts for the future, but sadly no swingometer.
Only 12 counties boast more GBG entries than Glos & Bristol so it was a great area to get stuck into, having only ticked five previously, all on historic away trips to Bristol City / Rovers circa 2002-08.
The origin story for this BRAPPIEST of holidays was rooted deep in rural Kent a year ago, when Paul G. was driving me around Pluckley or something spooky, and casually mentions he'll be staying at his sister's pile in the Cotswolds and he'd be happy to take my around some awkward pubs - the exact same two weeks as my summer holiday. Suddenly, my original North Devon plan is shelved and I'm all in on Glos.
And in the run up to my holiday, another lovely chap, Martyn 'The Family Rug', a QPR train driver based in Gwent, offers me a day driving around those Forest of Dean buggers to the west. Parkend let us down with sketchy, and quite ridiculous Sunday hrs, but one fail all week ain't a bad outcome.
Sometimes, being the most transparent pub ticker on social media has its benefits! Hugely grateful to both guys, they were great days out, and I had solo days around Cheltenham (where I stayed), Gloucester, Stroud, and beautiful Tewkesbury (my favourite place of the hol) with decent numbers of GBG pubs available.
I won't tell you my favourite and most hated pubs just yet, as I'm going to do a series of 'countdown' blogs, but considering the extreme temperatures, I'd like to put on record how impressed I was by the quality of the beer on the whole - history tells me in some parts of the UK, it could've been a horror show.
46 remaining pubs might sound a lot but 32 are in the Bristol 'inset' section ... and that sounds easier than say, a bus to Wotton-under-Edge and Dursley.
Bell, Avening - one of my most satisfying ticks of the weeks because it is first alphabetically in Glos
Cheltenham was northerly enough to find my straying into Worcs on occasion, especially on my Tewkesbury days.
And I was impressed. Of the half dozen ticked, four I'd rank above average, one average, one utter shite. Again, my countdown blogs will reveal all.
As you can tell by my map / completion rate, Worcs isn't a county I've ever had a decent stab at, but this little flurry, plus a great recent Worcester/Malvern day have me thinking some may be possible on random Saturday's. Warwickshire is in much the same boat, and it is quite pleasing to think although I'm 72% through the Guide, there's plenty of these fairly low hanging fruit towns still to be BRAP'd!
Fleece, Bretforton - Colin 'wooden settle' for anything less (THANKS!)
This blog has been far too feel good so far. So let's come down by talking abysmal Lincs for a couple of mins. I love to hate it. I wonder how the quality of their Doom Bar, FAB and Bateman's on those bogswamp pubs off the A15 fared this past week?
To be fair, Holbeach's Crown was superb. In fact, I enjoyed my Spalding day. And the two Daddy BRAPA helped me with, Swayfield and Marton proper 'howl at the moon' but sort of enjoyable.
Of the four left, two ain't actually hard to reach (Skeggy and Stamford) but Halton Holegate (silly hours, walk from a bus stop near Raithby) and Louth's annual GBG debutant flimsy sounding micro. are having me frantically waving my cricket bat towards the dressing room - I'll probably declare on 96.3 not out this year!
9/10 carpet action compliments my Converse, at the Royal Oak, Swayfield.
Nottinghamshire -5 ticks, 1 remaining sort of (98.63% completion)
It has been a happy BRAPA year for Notts - though laced with plenty of reminders why it ain't fit to lace Derbyshire's boots pub-wise, but if we ignore Mapperley which you might remember was unexpectedly closed / couldn't be arsed to open a couple months back, I'm done done done!
Thanks to Daddy B. re Cromwell and Misson, and my annual trip to Mansfield was exciting as always with the year's first murder pub out in Huthwaite, but at least the ale was good.
I heard a whisper that North Notts is sticking loads of exciting new stuff in the 2026 edition, though no further clues sadly, so I'll 'eagerly' await that little bundle of fun.
The heroic Daddy BRAPA brings us to the awkward White Horse Inn, Misson. So good, it is Yorkshire in disguise
North Yorkshire - 3 ticks. 5 remaining, 96.5% completion
My home county is harder to complete than some others300 miles away, such is the varied terrain of North Yorkshire. And only Greater Manchester and Kent have more GBG entries.
So I was very grateful to the month's 4th BRAPA chauffeur hero, Ian 'Beyond The Pale' Sutton, for leaving his East Lancs comfort zone to cross the cruel border into White Rose country for a great little three tick Thursday just before my Glos epic.
That leaves five, and two of them I've been foiled by unexpected shutness. Not ruling out couple of others on a Daddy BRAPA summer car day, but they'd have to pair with Cumbria or Northumberland.
As for Guisborough, just a case of motivation as it has limited hours and I don't have anything else to pair it with around Teesside so may be best left til '26.
Sensational pint of Craven at the majestic Victoria Inn at Kirkby Malham
Rutland - 2 ticks. 0 remaining, 100% completion
Just the two Rutland newbies to mop up this year, but it ended up paring lovely with a Notts/Lincs border day. Oakham's Wheatsheaf produced the nicest pint of Everard's Tiger I've had in years, and I mean 20 years (Luton Bricklayers). And Uppingham was a yellow cave of joy and nasal accents.
When the new GBG plops on my doormat in September, I'll make Rutland the first county I cross tick and see if it gives an indication of the churn to come.
Exeter Arms, Uppingham. Underrated.
Gwent - 2 ticks. 13 remaining, 66.67% completion
Look, I couldn't even be bothered to colour the map in. That was how unlikely I thought any Gwent ticks this year, but when Parkend fails us, Martyn says 'we're that close to the Welsh border, we may as well' and I certainly wasn't complaining when I saw the location/quality of Trellach Grange's Fountain. Tintern was decent too in a 'resented us being there at 6pm opening time' kinda decency.
And after my 2022 holiday staying in lovely Abergavenny where I foolishly missed the now GBG 'Spoons, pretty much all of the remaining 13 are low hanging fruit. Shame Cardiff got relegated like, but then again, I've done Glamorgan to death recently.
There was also a tick apiece at Herefordshire and Wiltshire, which I'll review as part of my countdown, but I've wittered on long enough so I'll leave it there for tonight.
I have half an eye on the 2026 GBG now. July will be a quiet month by recent standards (just as well!), August won't be huge either as I've only one weekend away and the football season resumes to complicate matters. There will however be a flurry of activity early September.
The aim from here is to remain above 3,000 when I've finished cross-ticking the new book in September. I'm suspecting a tough churn again, so it could be touch and go. I think I'll need to reach 3,330 bare minimum (I'm 3,240 at the time of writing) to stand any chance so we'll see!
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