The last time the Poppies travelled up to Lancashire for a
game of footy it was on a Tuesday night, it was also the 13th of the
month, and it was in March 2012. In one
of our worst seasons ever we scraped a goalless draw at Southport. Before that
it was yet another Tuesday night up at Fleetwood in November 2011. Some bloke
called Vardy was on the bench, he wasn’t good enough to face the mighty reds. What
it is with Lancashire on Tuesday nights? The PRATS were travelling up on the
team coach, well almost all of us; Parker was still swanning around in Spain
looking for a wicker donkey called Oatey wearing a sombrero. We picked up Pharp
along with a few other relatively unimportant folk at Corley Services and so
the long drive up the M6 continued. With the temperature forecast to drop into
single figures by 9:00pm I thought I’d better dig out the vest, the big coat
and of course my hand knitted Poppies scarf. Mrs Fuggles spotted the scarf and
that was it, “don’t you lose that scarf, it took me months to knit that, you lost
the last one; it took me months to knit that one as well”. On and on this
annual recital goes on and on, I lost count of how many times I said “yes dear”.
I shaped the scarf into a garrotte during this period of numbness, and undid it
quickly when she turned around, “yes dear”. It was around 6:00pm when we
finally arrived at the ground; fortunately Rasputin had arrived before us and
was advising the Bamber Bridge staff where to park the bus. Hopefully the mad monk
was also the chief advisor to the team on bus parking techniques. Actually it’s
not Rasputin, its Topper with a full facial hair down to his knees, still mad
though. Pharp, Citra and Fuggles started the 12 minute (verified by Googlemaps
UK) route march to the Withy Arms.
Entering by the rear smoking veranda, we were greeted by a smart pub with a nice row of hand pumps serving micro-brewery ales. Several Poppies supporters were already in there enjoying the ales. On tap was two ales with WA on the pump clip, Best bitter brewed by Ribble
brewery which is owned by the same people that own the Withy chain of pubs
all based locally, and their own ale WA. But we’re not sure if these are not
the same ale, the young girl behind the bar said they were. The Whatpub website
suggests that the house ale is brewed by Thwaites and comes in at 3.2% whereas
both of those on offer where 3.6%. Even the chalk board above the bar suggested
the ales were different. Either way only
the Best Bitter was available. There were two ales from Wall’s brewing Co of
Nothalllerton, Alventure at 3.8% and Allerton Pale, at 4.5% plus the very
robust 5.7% abv Marston’s Empire, with the 6th pump serving Old
Rosie Scrumpy cider. Pharp went for the
WA Best Bitter, copper coloured ale looked very clear with a good head clinging
to the glass. £2.30 a pint is a good price to pay for ale these days. Citra and
I went for Wall’s Alventure, once again in good condition, pale and tasty with
a good head. We had the last 2 pints as it went off directly after we were
served, considering this; the ale was in good nick. It was replaced by Prospect
Brewery’s Pioneer. By this time both Marshall and Petit Chemise had arrived, as
expected Marshall went for the Pioneer, nice looking chestnut ale, very clear
coming in at 4.0%. More beer, Pharp stayed with the house beer, whilst Citra
and I went for the other Wall’s ale Allerton. A lovely earthy bitter, as before
in very good condition. Citra proclaimed that if he lived in Bamber Bridge, he
would be happy to make the Withy Arms his regular imbibing haunt. All the prices
were very good, even the selection of lagers looked impressive, Peroni,
Warstiener and Estella to name just a few. A very good pub, the menu looked
well balanced and once again very well priced. It was time to trudge back to the ground; we
decided to give the clubhouse a miss until after the game.
The game, well for fear of becoming repetitive, it was a
Tuesday night, we were away, we lost again. Despite playing well for most parts
of the game we once again come away empty handed. It was a classic cup tie, end
to end stuff, goal mouth clearances all the ingredients required for an
entertaining game for the neutral and nerve jangling stuff for both sets of
supporters. Well done Bamber Bridge, hopefully the additional 200 onlookers
more than their usual gate will attend again during the season. Best of luck in
the next round down in the south of our county.
So onto the clubhouse, what a delight,
2 hand pumps. Bradfields Farmers Pale Ale and Bank Top’s Barley To Beer. Pharp went
for the latter thinking it was a dark beer, it wasn’t it was a delightfully light
coloured ale coming in at 3.6%. Unfortunately the beers were served in thin
plastic squeezy glasses. Nevertheless the ale was in excellent condition, it’s
a job to tell if it was pristine as the plastic glass is not clear itself and
the head never really clings to the side. Fuggles and Citra went for the more
robust Farmers Pale Ale coming in at 5.0%. This was lovely, full bodied with a
delightful dry after taste. The ale looked as clear as we could tell, with a reasonable
head. Nice newish looking clubhouse with plenty of space. In fact the whole
ground looked fairly new, clearly some good investment has been made here. That
was it for the night at 10:20pm it was back onto the coach for the long journey
home. On the way back looking through the window the night sky was incredibly
clear once we’d got away from the motorway lighting. I commented that I couldn’t
remember seeing so many stars when I was a kid. Up chirped Citra, “there weren’t,
but they have better telescopes now and they have discovered a lot more”.…….Stunned!
As John McEnroe once said, “you cannot be Sirius”.
Next week it’s Biggleswade, on a bloody Tuesday night.
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