43. Nothing on TV so some Wheatley pubs then,
Miraculously,
none of those involved on the previous day’s Witney odyssey had any sort
of hangover the following morning, for example I managed to turn up bright and
early to Elsevier’s 6-1 mauling of the Red Lion Drayton in a Sunday
League cup match, in which I managed to come on with 10 minutes to go and bag a
splendid goal with one of my five or so touches. This called for some liquid
reward at about
Anyway,
during the afternoon, and since we don’t have Sky and terrestrial TV is shite, Dave and I decided to knock off a few more pubs, and
thus validate this day as a crawl even though halves were involved. Wheatley
and its surroundings were the obvious choice. For a Sunday afternoon, the
Railway at Wheatley is quite a kicking place, and we marvelled at it’s dark wood, quite Spartan interior whilst supping
at London Pride (ESB was also on, and Honey Dew had been available earlier).
Lots of lager drinkers were more occupied by the big screen but it was still
OK. This place might also be a venue in the evening for the local populace. A
fine pub that had been recommended is the cricket festooned Bat and Ball at Cuddeston. It’s basically a very foody
establishment, but also has a very well defined bar area for drinkers, with Marston’s Old Empire, a fantastic strong IPA well
worth trying, Pedigree and their own beer, LBW. The beers are however a little
pricey. Good bijou snacks included olives. During Summer times, it may be
possible to take a couple of beers outside and enjoy the view at the rear of
the car park to the rolling Oxfordshire hills.
Wrenching
ourselves away, we left and drove to the Plough at Garsington. We admired the
sights whilst supping on some good halves of London Pride, or was it the Courage Best or IPA. I can't remember. With the
sun setting we went the short distance to Littleworth,
a 'suburb' of Wheatley, and the quiet and very localsy
Cricketers for a spot of pool. Although they only had Adnams
on, they also had jars of cockles which was a major
plus. The bar itself was quite pokey and could have done with a spot of
decorating, and regular drinkers looked up as we entered.
Though fortunately this time we didn't swear our way around
the pool table.
Final
stop was back in Wheatley and to the Sun which was now open. This had one of
the best beer selections of the day, five in all - Hook Norton Best, Flowers
IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Tetleys and Pedigree. The Hen
was in fine form, and there was an abundance of soft perimeter seats for us to
flop onto although for some reason it seemed like a better idea to stand by the
bar and watch the motor racing on the TV. An ideal pub for a
cold day. We could have gone to some other alehouses but they looked
very standard Greene King offerings so we gave them a miss.
Dan Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
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