Warning : too much Holden's Golden Glow can do this to you
Good evening Friends of the BRAP,
This is my favourite time of year. Bonfires burning bright, pumpkin faces in the night, red and brown leaves are on the path, the new GBG making progress fast.
52 new ticks for the month of October. It actually felt like more. Up to 55.5% Good Beer Guide completion, and I'm currently sitting on 2502 pubs.
Most of the damage was done late on in the West Midlands with 24 new ticks. Up to 59.8% completion there. It is not only a wonderful pub county, but also a very do-able one. Walsall is now officially my new favourite pub town in the UK.
All four Yorkshire quadrants provided most of my other ticks. Finishing South Yorkshire with the help of the always wonderful company of Martin 'RetiredMartin' Taylor was a highlight:
Only 2 left in both West and East. They will both be mopped up in late November all being well. I just need to wait for (a) a cheeky man from Blackburn to become available, and (b) a Hull City home evening game.
North Yorkshire is a bit trickier with 10 to do and all that inevitable creeping ruralness but I'll chip away at it and pick my moments. A bit like crafting a century break in snooker at Terry Griffiths speed.
Four more ticks in Lincolnshire takes me onto 80.4% completion. Spalding was the aim but flooding blocked the train routes so I had to make do with a Lincoln area mop up which was quite pleasing on what proved a difficult day.
I'm not giving up on Lincs, well apart from maybe Surfleet which is debatable as to whether it is even functioning as a pub.
Picking a top five pubs to promote to the BRAPA year end award ceremony has been tough, I've never had such a long list of stuff in 'joint sixth'!
George and Dragon at Barnsley, King & Miller at Deepcar, Manor Arms Rushall, Cafe Metro Bilston, Turner's Old Star Wapping, Shirker's Rest New Cross, Robin Hood Willenhall and pretty much everything in Walsall. I'd be happy to spend a whole day in any of them.
Walsall Cricket Club, the last of nine ticks in the town
But here were the ones that just felt that extra bit special 'on the day'.
Halfway House, Birkenshaw
Plough Inn, Snaith
Pretty Bricks, Walsall
Cambridge Arms, Short Heath
Red Beer'd, Cotteridge
There weren't too many turkeys but if there was one pub I was happy to leave and never return to, it'd be the incredible famous George, Southwark. Dreadful ale, dreadful atmosphere, ropey people, queuing mayhem, a lesson a bit like the Tan Hill last year that just because a pub is famous, it doesn't make it worth visiting.
My blogging is still a month behind despite what at times has been a superhuman effort in 'evening post-work discipline' to keep my blogging head above water, but post West Midlands, I'm drowning in a sea of hazy memories and lost ESB again. Never mind, I'll get there.
Excited for November though. My final holiday of the year takes me to another one of those 'neglected until now' BRAPA counties. The #ThirstyThursdays continue apace as I can remain fairly local. And with further trips to Lincs and the West Midlands on the agenda, we should reconvene in a month's time with another 45-50 pubs under the bulging belt.
Have a great rest of week, and remember to keep it pub.
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