Important research

According to The Publican Morning Advertiser - the pub world's weekly bible - people watching cricket in pubs consume on average 2.6 pints. I think I might be having someone else'e share!

Pubs at cricket grounds

 

The lovely picture we all have in our heads of a cricket green next to a pub is rarer than you'd think. The famous one is at Tilford - the Barley Mow and if you see a picture in a paper or magazine it's usually that one. Most burblers know the Red Lion at Woodcote and, stretching visibility a little the Bell at Aldworth.Several also know the Six Bells at Warborough and The Case is Altered at Eastcote.
In fact Eastcote is special ( in addition to its excellent teas - worth it for the stuffing we always seem to get on the pitch) in that it has two pubs. the other is the recently re-opened Woodman. But you can't see both pubs from any position on the ground, nor either from the other.

Yesterday I found the best option. Meopham in Kent has two inter-visible pubs, both good too. The Cricketers and The King's Arms.

Is Meopham unique ?

Contrast - just like the old days

The advent and proliferation of league cricket has meant that we no longer, or rarely, play the one team village sides we used to, but we got a lovely reminder on Sunday. Looked as if we had enough to run a an extra side and, as the old man who's been to most local grounds I got an e-mail on Thursday - did I know Old Berkeley CC? I didn't but, since their ground directions referred to a pub 50 yards away and the pub got a good write up on beer in the evening, we agreed it was a good fixture and I suddenly became available.

So Sunday, I got there first and found the pub - barely touched for 30 years, but that's not always a good thing, and met the publican and his mate who told me that about 50 years ago Captain Courage (of Brewery fame) gave them the land and they (the publican and his mate) laid it out and created the ground. I was also involved in conversations about rabbit hutches and ferret boxes but baulked a bit at his answer to a request for food from another customer 'doesn't your wife know how to cook?' - that was called 'common sense'.

At the ground we found that both teams had been a bit optimistic and it ended up as 9.5 v 8. The half player was theirs - the big house that had been Captain Courage's included a son down from Eton who was inveigled into playing, which involved sitting on a deck chair between the house and the ground until his (brief but unlucky) innings and then returning to it until he had to come over and explain to his team mates that he couldn't field as he had a train to catch.

The house was straight behind the bowlers arm and closer than the similarly placed one at Mill Hill Village. 'Has anyone ever broken a window?' 'No, but someone once hit the heliocopter parked in front of it - stupid place to park a helicopter'.

We lost but it didn't seem to matter much and it was all back to Horace's (the publican who'd bought it from Aylesbury Brewery Company, soon after building the cricket ground).

And I was the last to leave since I had to have a bowl in the net in the pub garden.

Pre-tour research

Posts on Cricket Burble may come without images over the next week as several of us will be on Thames Tour based in Goring-upon-Thames (so I'll be posting via the phone rather than laptop). Tuesday sees us take on Aldworth who play right next to one of the best pubs in the country - The Bell. That being the case, several of us took it upon ourselves to do some careful preparation for the Aldworth match during the winter....ensuring that we're comfortable with our surroundings on the big day....

Hampshire cricketing pubs

Poor old Michelle got taken round various Hampshire pubs on Sunday - most of them with a cricketing theme! Perhaps Cricket Burble can start to feature pubs with a cricketing theme in future....in between the superbly insightful cricketing comments! Here's a few photos...

The Bush Inn, Ovington - no cricketing theme - just nice!

On the wall at The Cricketers

Outside the Thomas Lord in West Meon (sounds like outer space!) with Allan

Broadhalfpenny Down were Broadhalfpenny Brigands CC play

Beautiful setting it is too...

The sign outside the Bat and Ball in Hambledon

Allan outside the pub

Me next to the Hambledon Cricket Club monument.

All pubs well worth a visit if you're in the area - superb....