47 ticks for the month of May keeps me on track for a record-breaking year, I am 1 whole pub ahead of where I was this time last year!
62.8% of the GBG completed (that is 2824/4500), these are heady times in the world of BRAPA and with summer (sort of) here, I'm ready to push on towards the 3,000 mark before the 2025 GBG plops on my doormat with all the force of a baby elephant.
Good news on the 2025 Good Beer Guide front. A little birdie has told me that it is reverting to alphabetical county order, which I think will be a relief to many of us - personally I've never got to grips with the difficult location of the counties when flicking through.
May was a high quality month. Pubs generally a lot better than April, not many turkeys, cask a bit variable when the weather heated up to approx 25 degrees, but good on the whole.
How it started .....
... how it's going
So like a good 90's DJ, let's break it down break it down. We'll look at the six counties I've made progress in with a favourite pub, and a few notes on how it is going. Word!
I've coloured in the breweries to make Devon look a bit better, but in truth my 21ticks (plus 4 pretty strong pre-emptives) were mainly in the Exeter area after a nice mini-break at the beginning of the month.
I can't tell you my exact percentage complete (23 I think) because I can't get in Jim's all-seeing pub ticker spreadsheet due to changing mobile phones and Microsoft Authenticator not sending me two digit access codes. Spent hours trying everything to resolve but no joy, grrr!
But Devon was great, weather was amazing, people were friendly, met a couple of #Pubmen and a #Pubwoman definitely from Truro and not Redruth or Cambourne, and the pubs were slightly above the national average though not up there with the top counties. And even better, I'll be back down there sooner rather than later so watch this space.
Pub of the month - Poachers Inn, Ide.
Honorable mentions : Bridge Inn & Exeter Inn Topsham, Cannon Inn, Newton Poppleford, Maltings Newton Abbot, Hour Glass Exeter.
A couple o' nights in clammy Prestwich a week after Devon helped me get the 11 ticks I needed to finish off the middle bit of Greater Manchester - just four to do, so I'm hoping to make this my fifth county completion (after Merseyside + East, West and South Yorkshire) soon. Still want to get Lancs done this summer too, where I've had six remaining for far too long now! Cheshire I'm thinking more 2024/25 season.
Pub of the month - Star Inn, Higher Broughton
Honourable mentions : King's Head Bolton & Royal Oak Didsbury.
Six rare 2024 ticks in the always brilliant but hard to complete Kent, only my second trip to the county this season but it is looking pretty green which I'm happy about.
And breaking news, I've been told the Secret Cask in Edenbridge never did reopen in it's new premises so you can mentally cross that out. Think that leaves me with 18 if we don't include Dartford where I have two I'm sure I can combine easily from LON.
What's more, a nice chap I've not met in person before called Paul G is taking me and Daddy B around some of the harder to reach around the rim middle county pubs in July.
AND extra breaking news, he now writes to say he's committed to helping me complete the damn thing on a series of follow up trips, providing we get on famously of course! Though I reckon the 2025 GBG and the famous KKK (Kent Kruel Khurn) will have a role to play in all that too. What excitement here.
Pub of the month - Royston, Broadstairs
Honourable Mentions - Fez, Margate / Ramsgate in general!
Fake bookcase errrm, cushions! Yet still great!
Not been arsed with Nottinghamshire (a poor man's Derbyshire? You'd never hear me say that!) but the genius of a Daddy BRAPA chauffeur day (despite Notts probably being one of the easier East Mids counties to get around on public transport) has really improved the situation with five generally tricky tickies.
Summer Thirsty Thursdays? It has certainly got me thinking. And Kimberley is in the bag for the summer. Hey ho, let's go! (That was supposed to sound Robin Hood, but it came out all Ramones).
Pub of the month - Black Boy, Retford / Brew Brothers, Fernwood (joint award)
Just the three ticks in delightful Derbyshire this month in that blurry NW part of the county, but all good progress innit?
A nice chap is helping me with Hilcote down to Heanor in August, and with the surprise news that Derby County will be joining us in the Championship next season, it is probably worth waiting for the fixture list before I commit myself to any Long Eaton / Sawley / Willington / Melbourne nonsense. Though I am sawley tempted (thanks).
Rosliston is the bugger because it is Staffs really. Only really achievable from Burton is what I'm trying to say. Buses exist but not many. So if I was to do that, I'd need a bit more in that area to pair with it as things stand, unless I go round all the old Burton classics and get pissed again.
10:30pm, July 2019, Coopers Tavern, Burton
Pub of the month - Old Hall Hotel, Hope
Just the one tick but it leaves me with just three, and you know before my epic Leicester Easter break, I hated the fact my progress in the awkward county of Leicestershire was so sketchy, so I'm delighted.
Would I have a go at a Thirsty Thursday mopping up those three? Not sure! On Saturday in Margate, Daddy BRAPA was looking at my GBG and said "How come you haven't done Barkby yet?" like it simply wasn't good enough!
Pub of the month - Anchor Inn, Nether Broughton (by default, but a good pub!)
Beermats in coal scuttle, it is the new mobility scooter parked outside
But I don't want to 'bottle' my selection of a Shittest Pub of the Month, though with nothing quite as dreadful as April's Buxton Cellar Bar, it isn't so easy.
First I thought of the Half Moon, Clyst St Mary in Devon. A textbook example of to ruin what was almost certainly a once traditional pub. A shell of a pub inside, and no warning on the approach makes it worse! I could sense the ghosts of former Devon 'men-of-the-land' weeping into their tankards. But, the staff were really nice (guv'nor even enquires about my health!) and the ale was sturdy. So not that one.
Margate's 'Spoons, the Mechanical Elephant, was messy chaos, but great carpet, funny, and I don't want to be accused of being anti-Ghanaian so we'll swerve that. Royal Oak Prestwich was rough as Bodger's arse, certainly the most stabbable pub of the month, but landlady was great and I felt 'alive' here - which I suppose is a weird sort of synergy. Proper furry beer though.
So that leaves the Scotsman's Pack, Hathersage. Dreadfully maintained hours, Facebook the only place I could see anything, 11am, but pub still shut at 11:45am. Ok so she let me in, but I didn't like her, and knives and forks on every table of a huge 'pub' but not one other customer was a depressing way for my new Google Pixel 8a to make its ticking debut. Good pint of Pedi though. But overall, that's my winner / loser!
Shit / Shut Pub Alert
So there we go, bravely into June we tread.
47 ticks again needed to break even, sometimes that'd be tricky but with my main summer holiday on the horizon and hopefully my working Thursdays at an end, I think it could be a very productive June - in fact I'll say it now, my liver will be groaning when we're sat here doing the June review.
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