12.
A pleasant Sunday afternoon in the Charlbury
area,
After a few beers at Laura Robinson and
Lisa Hall's house on the Saturday evening, David Wacey
and myself decided that it would be a rather fun idea
to blow the cobwebs away with a brisk cycle ride around the Charlbury
area drinking halves. Meeting at midday at the Kite, we kicked off with what I
would call is the best sample of Oxford Blue that I have ever tasted in quite a
nice, if localsy pub with an old man sitting on his
own. Having said that I suppose it was only midday...
We went to the station to intercept the
12.53 train which would take us to Charlbury, and on
arrival decided to investigate a few pubs. The Rose and Crown was the first
port of call, and it had an array of interesting guest ales - Archers,
something from a Nottinghamshire brewery and a couple of others. Quite a nice
pub although we got a few stares. Over the road was the Bell Hotel which had
IPA, Abbott and creamflow Ruddles.
They also do rather nice sandwiches, and for a hotel the surroundings are quite
nice. Hoegaarden is available on tap. Our plan was to
go to Chadlington across some fields. I sustained a
puncture and we got lost and it was a good hour before we arrived at Chadlington which to our dismay appeared to have no pub. Gits.
Pressing on, we went through some more fields on revitalised
bikes and managed to get last orders at the Swan (closed 5 till 7 on a Sunday),
which wasn't a particularly nice pub and had some lush people hustling on the
pool table and drinking Bud. The beer was served in warm glasses (Hook Norton
Best, London Pride, Morrells
perhaps). Another long cycle leg followed, during which I briefly managed 37 m.p.h., as many pubs were noted to be shut before we arrived
at only our 5th pub, the Mill and Old Swan at Minster Lovell. Fine pints of
Hook Norton ensued in what was actually quite a nice place for essentially a
very hotelly/foody pub. The time now was ~6pm.
A short but steep cycle took us to the
main road whence we found the White Hart Inn at Little Minster. Mr. Wacey opted for some Tim Taylor’s ale, but I elected
to have the Piddle in the Hole which was on offer, and for a reason. Proper
pork scratchings helped numb the palate. Razzing
along the main road to
Pub number nine was reached at about 7pm
[note, the train was due to leave Charlbury at 9.50].
This was the Lamb and Flag in Hailey which wasn't particularly inspiring. It
has been done up as some sort of cod all bar one clone inside and had some
moderate Adnams or somesuch.
A couple of local teens were using the swings. Outside toilets were a slight
plus point. A rapid cycle was undertaken to the Bird in Hand at Whiteoak Green which looked like it should be a popular foody pub but which was empty apart from a couple of mingers at the time we went in. A couple of uninspired real
ales were bolted. The pub has an air of Yorkshire Moors about it. The pace was
quickened as we sped along the Roman Road to the royal
Oak in Ramsden. This pub is one of Wacey's favourites on account of
the tasty food and serving wenches and we were not disappointed on this
occasion. Sadly we could not wait but a least sampled their 'Summer Ale' in
preference to the two more well known ones on offer.
The dozenth pub
was the Plough at Finstock which we managed to find
across some field. Our camp barman had three real ales on, and we decided to go
for a half of Yaffle beer in the garden (the other
options were something like Adnams). Wacey also elected to piss here. With less than an hour
remaining (I think it was 9.15 that we left there), we nipped up the road to
the Crown for a bolted couple of halves of mediocre Morrells
ale in what by all accounts, was a mediocre pub. With twilight closing in on us
and twenty minutes to spare, we hared down the hill to Charlbury
where we envisaged having a take-out for the train from one of the pubs on the
way. In the event, we managed to arrive at the disturbingly localsy
Farmers at 9.40 at which point a few halves of Morland
Original were ordered. These didn't touch the sides.
Leaving the Farmers at 9.44, we hurtled to
the station and arrived at 9.47, three minutes before the train left, bang on
time! On the train whilst sitting behind some sort of biochemist, we resolved
to quaff some more in Oxenford. Leaving the train, I
suggested the Osney Arms - after all, when the hell
are we likely to go back in there? This pub was rather quiet and had some
locals with little life, though there was a rather cute Russian girl playing
pool. The toilets rated rather better than the middling halves of probably IPA
that we had. At 10.27 we decided that there was just enough time to round off
the day with a quick pint at Walter Mittey's on Osney Island. Not only is there an Oxford Monopoly board
painted on the ceiling, there was also a rather god barmaid. Can't remember the
ales we had - we were more engrossed in the evening's offering of Big Brother -
it was probably something inoffensive like Brakespears
or Adnams, certainly nothing too visionary.
We resoundingly voted the crawl a success
after consuming shit food from Ahmed's kebabs in the University Botanical
Gardens, then pissed off to our separate homes for sleep before waking up
smelling of roses on the Monday ... [I presume Dave also did]
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 26th July 2002.