75.
Ed Lewis and Phil Cooper come to play rude scrabble one weekend, Friday 17th
and
As Ed Lewis was in town, we decided to
knock off a few pubs one weekend. After work on a Friday, I nipped down to the
Turnpike at Yarnton, an uninspired foody pub with Bass as 'cask ale', yippee, to start off
before Ed's arrival. One of the few decent things about the Turnpike is that it
at least carries a few barmaids.
When Ed arrived, we made our way by foot
down to Jericho for a Friday evening warm up, pausing at the Woodstock Arms for
a swift half. It's a pleasant enough boozer, though there wasn't any
interesting beer on when we ventured in. Further on, just before hitting
Jericho itself, we paid a visit to the Gardeners' Arms on North Parade, and
were not disappointed with the snug little set of chairs we had down the back
by the piano amid lots of Christmas decorations. This is a pub in which you
could certainly settle, and I believe that we might have enjoyed a nice half of
Gales HSB, for they do the odd guest down here.
Across to Jericho and the Radcliffe Arms where there is always decent cheap food and
a good selection of beer. They had Deuchars IPA,
Oxford White Horse, XB, Courage and Old Speckled Hen which is a good selection
for a pub so small. The White Horse was not quite as fantastic as the pint of
it I'd had a few days before in the Eagle and Child. We nipped round the corner
to see what the Bookbinders Arms had, and the selection was as I recall quite
good though I have not written it down. I think they had HSB and Reverend James
perhaps. Finally, in preparation for the next day, we strolled into the Harcount Arms which was up to its usual high standards and
had Jack Frost, Chiswick, London Pride and ESB. There
was even a very bored looking barmaid serving, helping out the barman who is
always there.
*******************
The following day we had bacon and egg sarnies for brekkie and had a
gentle stroll into town to catch the second half of Reading v QPR in the Radcliffe
Arms. The beer selection was the same as the day before, only this time we had
the Deuchars which was excellent - in fact we had a
couple of pints before lunch and then waddled out for the next pub. Jude the
Obscure was chosen, with some hesitance as in recent weeks the ale selection
had been disappointing. We were lucky and they had a few good ones on - Good Elf,
Jack Frost, IPA and Oh Be Joyful - so we had a decent half whilst
waiting for the Harcourt to open.
At 5.30, we entered the Harcourt Arms
again, and bagged a table and Scrabble set and settled down for a nice
leisurely few pints. Phil Cooper joined us and added his own brand of rudeness
to the proceedings. Then a band of minstrels, the Ancient Men, arrived to
perform a playlet of loose Christmas significance,
which Smiley had much joy in laughing at. Time to leave the Harcourt, and as it
was pissing down, we sheltered for a swift one in Jude again before finishing
up in the basement toilet that is the Purple Turtle. We left somewhat
prematurely, surprising Mr Cooper, because the Turtle
is an intolerable place doing vile keg lager which we could not be bothered to
drink. So bad in fact that a kebab from the vendor in Summertown actually did a
little to lift the spirits on the way back ...
Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 10th January 2005.