Here
we go again, back on the road: this time down to Hungerford, new territory for
the Poppies and the PRATS. A 10:00am start from Maison du Fuggles, but not
before Parker and Citra got out of the Pratsmobile to admire the new feature on
Fuggles auto, an enormous dent in the side as a result of some bloke deciding
not to stop when entering a roundabout. The exchange of dialogue between Parker
and Citra, was sounding a bit like Dudley Moore and Michael Caine having a bit
of a chinwag. “Nice dent that “said Citra, he continued, “If I was in the
market for a dent, that is the type of dent I would aspire to possess”. “It’s
the striations that do it for me” chirped up Parker. “Nail, head, hit, on the” replied
Citra. Parker added “Any bloke with a smidgeon of ambition would yearn for a
dent like that”. “I’m in a state of overwhelming yearnment right now” said
Citra “Now let’s get on the bloody road pronto Tonto”.
Pharp
was gathered in at around 10:30am and at around midday we arrived at a CAMRA
national pub of the year finalist the Five Bells in Wickham. A lovely thatched roof
pub, looking every bit quintessentially English.
Once inside we were greeted by
a the IVIF, the Inbred Village Idiots Faction, Dave Tailby and co playing a
game of cards, Happy Families by the look of it. A nice looking pub, low
ceiling with 100’s of used pump clips adorning a considerably large area of the
ceiling. It was a single long room, looks very much like several rooms knocked
in to one. A nice long row of hand pumps along the bar, with 3 serving the
house brews from the Innformal brewery at the back of the pub. Inn Deep
chocolate stout, SanFrinnsicso west coast IPA and a Red ale, also on the bar
was 360 Degrees brewery 360 Pale ale, Red Squirrel’s Scottish Ale, Windsor
& Eton’s Guardsman, Hop Stuff’s Arsenal pale ale, plus another ale called
Maltz, we’ve forgotten the name of the brewer. Fuggles and Citra started with
the 360 pale ale, very nice and tasty, it started with a good head but
disappeared very quickly. 3.9% pleasant enough but not a show stopper. Pharp
went for INNformal Red ale, a good creamy head with a rich colour, the head
once again fell away after a few sups, but it didn’t affect the taste. Parker had
the Red Squirrel Scottish ale, a nice looking chestnut red, with roasted malt
flavour coming in at 4.3%. Next up Pharp and surprisingly Citra went for the
chocolate stout, a rather robust 5.0% dark chocolate flavoured ale. A creamy
head clingling on loosely to the glass, packed with flavour lingering on the
palate well after the gulp. Fuggles went for the Guardsman, quite nice tasty
and tangy, coppered colour ale coming in at 4.2% a loose head generally hanging
on until the end. Our third and final pint here, Pharp went for another strong
ale the Maltz, sadly we didn’t note the brewer, but this was a deep brown ale
coming at 4.7%, Pharp was getting g quite talkative with all the strong ales.
Fuggles and Citra went for Hop Stuff’s Arsenal Pale ale; looking at it you’d
think this was a wheat beer, slightly hazy yellow/orange ale, quite bitter and
citrusy, nice and refreshing at 3.8%. Parker went for a milky coffee, very
nice. That was it for this lovely pub, quite a few dining, including the IVIF,
the prices seemed quite high with a burger and chips at around £15.00. The food
did look very nice and plentiful.
We now moved onto the next pub just a few miles up the
road to the Tally Ho
in Hungerford Newton. The car park was almost full just once space thankfully.
A full car park generally means a full pub and so it was, it’s good to see a
Community pub doing well, the Tally Ho is owned by around 160 of the villagers,
helping to keep the village local going. This former Wadworths pub was doomed
to become flats. But the villagers rallied round and bought the place plus
further investments to install the bar and kitchen. Mostly staffed by volunteers
the pub is now quite busy with diners and drinkers. 4 ales on hand-pump, local
brews included Ramsbury Gold, West Berkshire’s Good Old Boy, Binghams Twyford
Tipple and from slightly further away Hook Norton’s Hooky. Fuggles started with
Ramsbury Gold, refreshing 4.5% golden ale, quite pleasant easy drinking served
in excellent condition, Pharp and Citra went for West Berkshire Good Old Boy, a
fairly standard brown bitter at 4.0%, in decent nick, malty taste but not really
setting the world on fire. Next up for us all was Binghams Twyford Tipple, another
easy drinking ale at just 3.7%, malty with some citrus coming through late on,
very pleasant and in good condition. That was it for this delightful pub and
very friendly staff. The toilets were so smart you would expect to find them in
an upper class hotel. All in all a good experience and we look forward to
coming back here in the future. It was time to move on to the ground just 10
minutes away quite close to Hungerford town centre.
The
game, well like most games the PRATS have travelled away to watch this season
the result was once again disappointing. Our away results this season is
bordering on relegation form, it’s enough to turn a man to drink. We huffed and
puffed, but were wasteful and at times disorganised. Unlike the Crusaders when
even down to 10 men for most of the second half never gave up running and
chasing giving us very little time on the ball. We could have come away with a
decent draw but in the end an unfortunate handball resulting in a well taken
penalty determined where the points would be going. Hungerford will be in and
around the play offs come the end of the season. Best of luck to them, but if
they don’t get promoted the PRATS will be looking forward to coming down this
way again next season.
Time
to go home, Parker had to be home early this evening so it was straight back to
Kettering, sadly missing out on going to the Mason’s Arms in Headington,
Oxford. Never mind we are travelling down to Chippenham in two weeks, another
tough game, but it gives us an opportunity to get to the Masons. Next up is a rather
short trip to Rothwell in the Northants Senior cup next Tuesday, we take on
Rowell Corinthians, can we get a win?
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