In an effort to boost my 2006 pub tally nearer to the 400s, Dave Wacey and I decided that a quiet crawl on a Tuesday evening was just what the doctor ordered. Taking advantage of the through running of Stagecoach service 7, I boarded in Kidlington and alighted at the Plain and almost immediately found myself consuming a pint of beer in the Port Mahon. I had quite an interesting if a little heavy beer and Dave had a somewhat lighter one although don't ask me what they were because I am writing this six weeks after the event. Nice pub though.

We decided to go across the road to the Duke for one which was quite expensive and I remember having the same again. The Duke, when it is not heaving with people, is actually a very pleasant place to drink and our barman was quite helpful and chatty. A little bit of a walk next to the Cowley Road and the much busier Hobgoblin. The beer selection was a little restricted but we made the best of the Hobgoblin ale, having to stand around at the bar to drink it because there were so many people there, most likely from Brookes.

The James Street Tavern seems to have had a minor facelift since I was last in there and Dave and I occupied a nice window seat and enjoyed a pleasant half of Bombardier. Fortunately there weren't that many people in the pub, and very few of the suspect characters that I have come to expect in this sort of place.

The Temple Bar is always a reasonable boozer although egress around the bar can be difficult when one is in a hurry to go to the toilet as there is a bit of a pinch point there by the quiz machine. Fortunately no spillages of any sort and a reasonable beer was had. We tried to get into the newly relaunched Cape of Good Hope, but alas there was some sort of opening night nonsense going on and in the end we were unable to get served although there did appear to be some Timothy Taylor Landlord on which was encouraging. This meant that we had to round off the evening in the busy Angel and Greyhound, always a good pub selling about the best quality Young’s beers that you will find in Oxford.