24.
Abingdon, managing to reach there this time,
Finally we managed to get Abingdon done
with the first cycle pub crawl of the year! In a day of wonderful spontaneity,
I watched Dr Wacey and the rest of Worcester College
MCR play out a workmanlike 3-1 defeat in MCR Cuppers football final (at the
time of writing I still have Dave's runner up trophy). The previous day I had
had a bit of beer at Hertford College in a bop and still had the taste so
elected to kill 10 minutes with a gassy pint of keg John Smiths at the
Christchurch Sports Pavilion, where the football final was held.
After the match and deciding that it was
such a nice day, we investigated the possibility of cycling to Abingdon for a
couple of jars before returning to
On reaching Abingdon we first went to a
low quality chippy in the precinct before kicking off
in the Nag's Head. This pub is excellently situated and affords great views
over the river and the adjoining meadow, but must be seriously packed during
summer - we gave it 4½ for atmosphere. They let themselves down a bit though by
not having Castle Eden on tap which was most disappointing, instead we opted
for Bass in preference to Boddingtons. Along the road was the rather anaemic Broad Face which used to be quite a good old man's
pub; it's now got pine tables and stuff and looks to be the sort of place where
well-to-do 30 somethings would drink expensive lagers
whilst wearing leather jackets and admiring designer things. The Morland wasn't very good and I'm sure that the Abbot wasn't
much cop either.
After briefly pausing to gawp at the
miniature train ride associated with the model railway exhibition, we mooched
into the many roomed and courtyarded Crown and
Thistle where we had Guinness. I thought that this was because it was on offer
but actually it was because there was no other beer on. Not a lot else going
for it really, though there was a very good big screen which we saw the half
times on. Finally, we made it to a decent pub, the Punchbowl on the Market
Square which had some excellent Morland ales on.
Original and XX Mild were on hand pumps. The bar snacks collection was also the
best of the day, including jarred cockles though the day turned out to be
generally poor in terms of snacks. The bar was populated by a collection of
very pissed looking locals, and the proprietor fitted in well with them. The lounge
bar was also quite nice. Deciding to get to a pub with a TV for the football
scores, we went in the King's Head and Bell, another old pub with a courtyard
and wooden beams where we had excellent halves of Broadside, though Deuchars IPA and something like Original were on. We agreed
that it was one of the better pubs before we pressed on to the White Horse
which was less pleasant. A fat barmaid poured us a brace of halves of IPA;
Abbot and Old Spekled Hen were also on. It was
another one of these kid friendly pubs and didn't really have anything
distinctive about it, but at least it didn't ming.
After a couple of cheeseburgers at the
McDonalds up the road, we gave the Ock Mill a miss
and returned to the Old Anchor which was now open; this was a good move, for
this was the best pub of the day, the pints of Bateman’s that we had being
excellent. Morland Original and Abbot were also on.
Being early, we managed to nestle in a couple of Old Man's leather chairs.
Splendid! A very good atmosphere, good jukebox and flagstone floored toilet all
ensured it a good score, though it has to be said that the beer was on the
pricey side.
It was getting dark as we were leaving, so
we started on our way back to Oxford. We paused at the Flowing Well at Sunningwell, which last year we had panned. This time it
was much better and livelier, the bar staff weren't too bad and a kindly punter
gave us directions to get us back to Oxford quicker. Beer range, IPA and Abbot,
was standard, but the Abbot tasted quite nice. A good pub this
time. Steaming through the backstreets of Kennington,
we navigated to the Abingdon Road, and paused at the Berkshire and were again
pleasantly surprised. Yet again the choice was IPA, Abbot and Hen, but it
tasted good and the atmosphere was OK. A very large range of crisps and nuts is
available.
That's where the ratings ceased for the
day, and we made our way to the King's Arms where we met up at 8.50 with many
from the Geology Department. There being a Guinness offer on we had a couple of
pints of Guinness and were rewarded with silly hats and drums. We passed up the
normal range of KA Young's Beer, Bristol IPA etc which may have been a little
foolish. Dave Wacey became progressively more pissed
and started to look like JK from Jamiroquois when
wearing his free Guinness bonnet, Harry was wearing the drum and looked like a
sailor. Rob Simpson suggested a trip to St Cross at the end of the proceedings,
so me, Harry, Rob, and Nick Gardiner set off. Wacey held back, saying that he had to pick up Jenny Brett
from Heathrow the next day, but somehow his arm was twisted and he ended up
going in there with us. The other four settled on the pool table for what was
to prove to be an hour - on the other hand I settled on a comfy seat with a
Newcastle Brown and fell asleep for that hour, though mysteriously my beer
still managed to get consumed. We left at about
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 17th March 2003.