41. Mopping up operation in Oxford, bored on a Sunday evening, Sunday 21st September 2003

I had got somewhat drunk on wine the previous night, but as there was no football for me after all, Dave and I decided that it might be a good idea to have a bit of hair-of-the-dog treatment and have a couple of pints whilst watching the crap match that was Man U v. Arsenal, livened up only by some excellent scenes of Horse Face van Nistelrooy being berated by some Arse players. The selected pub was the Anchor in Walton Manor and once again it did not disappoint, with a fine line-up of ales, namely Wadworth Malt and Hops, 6X, Old Speckled Hen, and Henry’s IPA. But we have rated this pub already, so I’ll move on.

With Dave due to start work the next day, instead of being sensible, we decided to knock off a few halves in pubs that we hadn’t done yet, and the first stop was the Eagle and Child. I hadn’t been in here since having a most rank pint of Burtons early in 2002, so it was with trepidation that we entered. It was looking up, though much of the Sunday tea-time clientele consisted of Yanks who were drinking coffee. We opted for Hancocks HB (weak) and Batemans XXXX (heavy), neither of which were particularly special. Perhaps the Bass or Old Hooky were better? It’s still a pretty overrated pub though. On leaving, we headed to the Wig and Pen, only to find that its name had changed to Copa, and the prices had doubled. This was on account of the fact that all the beers were high quality continental lagers, and very nice they were too, served by some sort of person you might find on a Calvin Klein or Benneton advert. But at £2.25 a half it’s a bit steep even though there are about 10 draught beers on, including Cherry beer, Bitburger, Hoegaarden and some others. Apart from this it’s still the same inside.

Moving swiftly on and a visit to the deathly quiet Hobgoblin on St. Aldates. It’s a shame really as it’s a very good pub with no frills doing some fine beer, and on our visit it was West Berks Mr Chubb ‘Lunchtime Ale’, Hobgoblin, Black Wych and Buttes Original or something. We had the latter two and found them to be agreeable. A re-rating is to be carried out later this year, perhaps when the place is crawling with posh people from Christchurch. There were a couple of dopey sods when we went in. More decisions took us to the Wheatsheaf, which used to do real ale from barrels in a rack behind the bar. Now there are just two pumps, doing Bass and a guest which on our visit was SA that was on the turn. Décor is a little like All Bar One, and there is an unfortunate emphasis on wine. They also seemed unwilling to have staff behind the bar. Not an improvement.

To validate the crawl, we visited the Bear, a fine old pub with a very cramped interior covered in old school ties and sometimes heaving with rugby Tossers from Oriel. It being Sunday tea time though, the pub was again very quiet and we could relax in the back room. A surprisingly good half of Bombardier was served up, though a little pricey (but what do you expect from this place), which was complemented by 6X, Hancocks HB and Pedigree. This is the sort of pub that deserves a visit on a wintry day, though if everyone is wearing coats it might be unpleasant. Final stop was the Mitre (the Turl having been walked into and out of and Bar Oz ignored totally). Although foody, it did a very good drop of Boddingtons as well as offering Flowers IPA and Bass. We sat in some excellent Old Bastards chairs which were exceptionally comfortable and made the restaurantness of the pub considerably more bearable.

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Dan Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com

Last updated 26th September 2003.