17.
More post Geolsoc football match drinking, this time Headington Quarry,
The return of students to
We then set off for the football match,
which was quite eventful although by the end the superior fitness of the freshers against the old [and more likely unfit] men of Geolsoc meant that we had lost 6-1. However, we had thought
that some hard work required some sort of liquid reward, so we cycled off to
the White Hart in Old Headington. This is an
excellent pub for the winter selling reasonably priced Everards
products - Tiger, Beacon, Original and Equinox. There is a very good window
seat too. Moving on, we cycled past the shark to the Butcher's Arms, a fine
Fuller's pub which had four ales on, if a little pricey. Wacey
doesn't like Fullers beers much but was pleasantly surprised by the Honeydew
beer. Quite a few people were there, some having migrated to the covered
garden/patio which they appear to be proud of.
It was nearing the time to watch
Cycling through Wood Farm, we arrived at
the Crown and Thistle on the amusingly named Titup
Hall Drive. Another Morrells pub, this one at least
did IPA and was quite lively with loud lager drinkers getting stuck into the
second half of the football. A short distance away was the Quarry Gate, a pub
that I had not even heard of. This was a reasonably lively estate boozer with
Courage Best and some quite good bar snacks on. A crappy looking band was
limbering up, so we decided to leave, although did comment on the most
interesting Gents toilet ... off to the chippy and
the bank [I can recommend Posh Fish in Headington].
Approaching the end game of the crawl with
renewed enthusiasm after our chips, we made a bee-line for Headington
Quarry, first stop, the Mason's Arms. This is a rather obscurely located pub,
but well worth seeking out. In addition to ubiquitous IPA, they had Spitfire
and 'Welton's Horsham Old Ale' or something. There
was a pub quiz on too, which filled the pub up, and I would have been happy to
have spent an evening there. Also of note was the fine beer garden out back and
a good selection of bar snacks. Fifty yards round the corner is the Chequers which I have been to already this year - it still
has no beer and appears to be a Mr Q's, albeit with
quite a nice frontage. It gets improved marks though, because they were doing
Carling at £1.65.
Not much further away was the Six Bells, a
large foody Morrells pub,
though pleasant enough inside. We elected to have Old Speckled Hen instead of
IPA; there's very little else to write about it. The final pub was the
Ampleforth Arms across the ring road in Risinghurst. When we got there, we had
a sense of foreboding as heavy curtains were drawn and it was in the middle of
an estate. However, on the inside it is much nicer [Dave says that it looks Blackpudlian inside]. All manner of bar snacks were
available, and in addition to IPA we were most surprised to find Maggs Magnificent Mild by the West Berkshire Brewery - most
unexpected in a place such as this. Worthy of mention also is the 'classic'
three-man partitioned Victorian trough in the Gents, and a most venerable TV
set. It's good to see that such heritage toilets as originally installed in
Oxford estate pubs have been preserved in their original condition
...
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 16th October 2002.