After our first win on a Scottie Tour, we were full of optimism for the trip to Redditch for the first Tour of 2015. Breakfast was taken at Gary Cooper’s in Dunstable, before boarding a cab to Leighton Buzzard, for the journey via Birmingham New Street, past Cadbury World and on to Redditch. Ray, the landlord of the Harvest Home and new sponsor was coming on his first Tour and was on a mission, it has to be said.
Redditch is “famous” for many things. It’s the birthplace of Led Zep drummer Jon Bonham, home to the young Rik Mayall and most famously the birthplace of the Royal Enfield motorcycle. The Redditch factory closed in 1967 before production moved to Bradford on Avon. Now, when you see a pub called the Royal Enfield in the Good Beer Guide and it is in Redditch, you would assume that it had some connection with the factory. No. It’s an old cinema. Don’t you just love Wetherspoon’s. It does contain some Royal Enfield memorabilia such as a full scale motorcycle, but as the random model of Gary Cooper in the Dunstable outlet proves, the link can be quiet tenuous. The former cinema has a circular bar which offers up to eight real ales including a local ale and a guest cider. The balcony-style seating at the front of the pub allows smokers to watch the world go by.
As Ray and Kev had missed breakfast at Cooper’s, they steamed in on the lunchtime menu and ordered a couple of massive burgers. We started off on the Devil’s Backbone, which is an American IPA brewed specifically for Wetherspoon’s and is a bit pokey at 5.2%. Next up was a Spanish craft beer, again brewed for Wetherspoon’s, slightly weaker golden ale which is brewed in the country by Adnams and has sherry oak added during the ageing process to complement the citrus aromas.
Not a bad start so far, a brisk walk back past the station and the ground to try out the Queens Head on Bromsgrove Road. A small two roomed pub, once we have all piled in, there was not much room left, but with a roaring open fire and the ever reliable Doom Bar on draught, it was a welcome stop until kick off.
On arrival at the ground we were greeted by some rather agitated locals who were spouting some rubbish about how much they paid to get in at our “shithole”. Now Creasey Park is much better than it was, although soul less, it is quite smart. A “shit hole” it ain’t. Then we remembered that the game at Creasey Park was one of the matches were the increase in ticket price was trialled, and thankfully shelved. Whilst I can understand being slightly peeved at paying over a tenner at this level of football, they should perhaps look around them, at their quintessential shit hole, before opening their little spotty mouths.
Being 1-0 down at half time was not a surprise to us for a Scottie Tour, but Scot Davies raised our hopes of maybe a point in the second half before Ben Herd brought us crashing back down to earth with what was a spectacular own goal, although I’m pretty sure he’ll blame Luke Chambers. So once again, we set off home on a Scottie Tour without any points, but we did see a Dunstable Town goal and that was enough to spur us on for a post drink in the Golden Cross.
Now this was a strange place. A search on the internet will tell you that this was once a nice pub, with a carvery and real ale. It certainly no longer does the last two and some of the locals probably would not fall into the nice category, but to be fair it is going to be your usual Saturday early evening rabble anyway. With no real ale, Ray slipped into cocktail mode and that never ends well.
Combined with the two bombs for a fiver deal, we kept the barman busy enough to be pouring the next round straightaway, in an attempt to keep up. Kev took it upon himself to represent Dunstable Town on the pool table and he is convinced his opponent made attempted to woo his affections. We think he was just trying to put him off.
An incident free journey home, with the exception of Scottie watering the front of a stationary train at Birmingham New Street, brought another great day out to a close, with plans for the next Tour to be Banbury in February.
