It’s
a long journey down to Weymouth today 23rd January, exactly 3 months
until the end of the season. Dorset will be playing a big part in the play offs
this season, especially if Poole blows up again and allow Chippenham or maybe
Hitchin to sneak to the top. With Poole, Dorchester and todays opponents
Weymouth all in and around the play-off spots and hopefully us, we could be
down this neck of the woods a few times come April. We are already down at
Dorchester on the last Saturday of the season.
We
left Fuggles Hall at around 8:00am and made our way to pick up Pharp in Rushden,
Pharp was wearing his Kettering Tyres shirt. A couple of hours later of clear
roads yet quite misty in places we arrived at the Little Chef just south of
Newbury. It didn’t take long for the awesome foursome of elite athletes with
their fine honed physiques to go for the Olympic breakfast, 2 rashers, a
sausage, 2 eggs; fried of course, no toast for us we much prefer the healthy
option, fried bread it is, mushrooms, beans and a large portion of fried sliced
potatoes, all washed down with a pot of tea, marvellous.
Suitably stuffed we drove on and arrived at
our first watering hole The
Royal Standard in Upwey just after midday. As we entered the bar we were
greeted by the vision of a Kettering Tyres replica shirt worn by Dave Tailby,
what a lovely sight, the shirt not DT. Unfortunately that was the only DT we
was going to get today. The Royal Standard is home to the DT brewery; sadly
they weren’t serving any of their ales, they were all at the bottling plant,
what a big disappointment. Never mind they had 5 other ales available, local
brewers Sunny Republic’s Red Bus, Wadworth’s Dray Bells and Yeovil Ales Star
Gazer, also available from the cellar was St Austell’s Tribute and Proper Job. The
temptation to go for Proper Job, but no, we must try the local brews, so Citra
and Fuggles went for Yeovil Ales Star Gazer, a pleasant copper coloured
standard bitter coming in at 4.0%, it was in decent nick but not a shop
stopper. The pump clip for Star Gazer is the same colour green as our old
rivals the Glovers. Every time I see anything related to Yeovil I’m reminded of
the time they came to Rockingham Rd in the early 70’s. Yeovil were pushing for
promotion to the football league through the annual voting system. On this
occasion the Yeovil team came out of the player’s tunnel each with a letter,
they lined up to spell ‘VOTE YEOVIL’. Big Ron Atkinson ran out of the tunnel
leading the Poppies and promptly blasted a ball at the lined up Glovers, they
immediately scattered like pigeons, much to the amusement of the Poppies
faithful, happy days. Enough nostalgia, Parker and Pharp had a pint of Wadworth’s
Dray Bells, this sounds like a Christmas ale still doing the rounds. This is a
typical type of ale for both Parker and Pharp, mid-amber colour, 4.0% strength
with the usual seasonal tastes, also in good condition. Next up for Fuggles is
Sunny Republic’s Red Bus, a red IPA strong ale coming in at 4.8%, sadly this
was a cloudy as pigswill so Proper Job it was, Citra had the same. Always a
favourite, very bitter premium ale, citrusy with a strength of 4.5%. This was
drawn straight from the barrel so the head was quite loose and struggled to
hang on to the sides of the glass, nevertheless it was still delicious. Pharp
went for the Yeovil Star Gazer. By now Marshall and Petit Chemise had arrived,
we had 3 Kettering Tyres shirts in the bar including Pharp’s, hopefully we’ll
see a few more in the ground. Time to move on into Weymouth, we parked up
around 1:30pm and trudged for a couple of minutes to our next destination. As
we turned onto the quayside we were greeted a bus load of Poppies supporters
enjoying fish and chips, before we had a chance to walk into the Royal Oak the Poppies travelling horde broke
out singing the PRATS chorus.
We pretended we didn’t know
them. A sign above the door said Brewery Tap, surely not another one? What a
great pub, a proper pub with low painted beams, very busy. On the bar was 4
hand pumps all serving Dorset Brewery ales, they also give 20% discount for CAMRA
card carrying members, good old Citra brought his with him. Available was Frosted
Jack, Jurassic, Flashmans Clout and Portland Porter. Citra and Fuggles went for
Frosted Jack, a pleasant hoppy pale ale with a fresh taste but a little sweet
our usual palate, easy dinking at 4.3%. Pharp went for Jurassic, a crisp golden
ale at 4.2%, slightly more citrus hops than the Frosted Jack, Citra and Fuggles
followed up with Jurassic. It was time to go to the ground.
Nice set up at the Bob Lucas stadium, covered terracing on
3 sides and a large main-stand down the fourth. The old Pannacotta army seem to
have been in more financial scrapes over the past decade than we have, both of
us have been rolled over, by George we have.
The game, well the Poppies looked resplendent in the
Kettering Tyres commemorative shirts, our first game for 3 weeks and it showed,
we were slow out of the blocks and Weymouth took advantage by scoring after
just a couple of minutes. We lost our goalie, off to hospital to have eight
stitches in a nasty gash. A clash of heads had also seen a Weymouth player taken
off as well. Hopefully both will be back in the game soon. With no goalie on
the bench it was up to a Poppies stalwart to protect the net. After about 25
minutes play, the Poppies woke up and scored twice. Dominating the game either
side of half-time it looked as though we would go on to claim a great victory,
but unfortunately we ran out of steam, conceding 2 late goals eventually going
down 3-2. Excellent game, sadly we were on the losing side.
Time to go home, after 2 hours driving we arrived in
Abingdon on Thames, by the time we’d parked up outside the Brewery Tap a car adorning the Poppies flag was
already in the car park. Marshall and Petit Chemise were in the bar enjoying
some local tipple. There were six hand-pumps on the bar in this very busy pub,
Everards Beacon, Adnams Old, Shepard Neame Amber Ale Winter Warmer, Morlands
Original and Loose Cannon’s Abingdon Bridge. Citra, Fuggles and Pharp went for
the latter, this is brewed just under a mile away in Abingdon and is sold regularly
here. A standard malty session ale at 4.1%, light bitterness, it was Ok but not
a show stopper. Next up was the Shepard Neame Amber Ale, this had a bit going
for it in the taste stakes, quite fresh with a good finish. All the ales were
in very good condition; beautifully clear with a good tight head clinging to
the glass all the way down. Time to head for home, however, a slight change of
travelling plans, Mrs Fuggles was in Kidlington just up the road, so we met up
at Brackley, Parker and Pharp went off home on their merry way whilst Citra,
Fuggles and Mrs Fuggles travelled separately. However, as we approached the
outskirts of Towcester; Fuggles had a sudden urge to use the latrine;
fortunately they had one at the Towcester Mill brewery tap. It would have been
rude to use their facilities and just walk out, so we stayed a while. The place
was packed to the rafters, nowhere for Mrs Fuggles to park the backside, never
mind we stayed anyway. First up was Mill Race, a delightful hoppy pale ale,
followed up with the very nice Naylor’s brewery Resolution Blonde. What marvellously
pale blonde citrusy ale, 4.4% of delicious bitterness. It was 10:00pm time to
go home. A good day out was had by all, next up Hungerford, this will see the
PRATS go through the 4000 miles barrier, we must be mad. Where do we play our
home games, I’ve forgotten?
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