Ye Olde Express, Merthyr Tydfil

Based on our trip to Merthyr last season in the FA Trophy, we were looking forward to a return to the Park View. Our European Tour started again at Tony's Cafe and another coach journey to the Principality. A few beers were sunk on the long journey to Wales and on arrival set off to the Park View. Once inside the welcome was not quite what it was last time and the beverages available were limited, so we launched the CAMRA app to find an alternative.

The closest to the ground was the Imperial Hotel. On closer inspection it appeared to be shut and in keeping with its surroundings, looked stuck in the 1950s too. Next on the list was a Wetherspoon’s outlet called Dic Penderyn. As time was getting on, we popped in Ye Olde Express instead. They did not have any real ale on draught but had a few decent brews in bottles and had the football on.

Ye Olde Express has been a public house for many years, apart from a brief spell as a Chinese restaurant called the Orient Express. Sufficiently refueled, we headed back up to the ground, which resembled a  building site as the club are building a new clubhouse. Once the turnstiles had been negotiated, we headed straight to the refreshment stand for the famous Merthyr chip cob with curry sauce.

With a 3-1 victory secured we headed back to Ye Olde Express for a quick pint before getting back on the coach to England. Having been given the heads up from Pipeman, that the players were boarding the coach, we returned to the ground and grabbed a couple of tinnies for the long drive home.

Once back in Dunstable, we hit the HQ Bar for a few more drinks to round the day off. We love a European tour!

Maidstone Tour 2015

The FA Cup gives clubs like ours an opportunity to play teams from all over the country, but this season with our two previous rounds being at home, we had yet to have an away day adventure. When the balls finally came out of the velvet bag and paired us with Maidstone United, it was greeted with a cheer from the Regimentals, as it was to be played away from Creasey Park.

Maidstone United play in the National League South and were riding high in the top 6, so this was going to be a huge game for us. The other bonus of the FA Cup is that the home team cover the traveling clubs transport costs, so usually warrants a coach trip.

An away Tour has to start with a decent fry up, to line the stomach for the day, so we met up at Tony's Cafe before boarding the coach to Maidstone. An uneventful drive round the M25, soon had us over the QEII bridge and on the M2 down to Kent and as we pulled into Maidstone, we passed the first pub we would be visiting as we arrived at the ground.

Just a 5 minute walk from the ground is The Flower Pot. A busy pre match pub, a must-visit when in Maidstone. The upper bar has ten hand pumps with the ales coming mainly from microbreweries, as well as ciders and perries, served directly from the container. The lower bar has a pool table and there are video screens showing the beers on offer and the price.

The beer on offer was outstanding and we had flagons of Darkstar's Hophead, Burning Sky's Aurora and a porter from the local Maidstone Brewery called Eight. The Regiment being quite a rowdy bunch, were swollen in number by the lure of an FA Cup upset and set about collating a playlist in the jukebox. When their favoured Andy Williams track came on, they exercised their vocal chords, in preparation for the game. We then witnessed a Maidstone fan rushing from the back bar with a story that the landlord doesn't like singing. We assumed he was taking the piss and carried on.

The landlord never appeared, so it was either a wind up or he liked our singing. We prefer the latter. Off to the match where the Regiment parked themselves in the middle of the Maidstone United fans and set about their repertoire of songs. Some of the locals pointed out that they were all about members of our family, which had escaped our notice until this point. Maidstone's superiority told in the end on their excellent 3G pitch and they ran out 2-0 winners. Had we finished 11 v 11, we may of had a chance, but once Giant Geoff was sent off, it was an up hill battle.

With sore throats and broken hearts, the Regiment went in search of a pub until the players were washed and changed for the return journey. Some went off to the Hare & Hounds, which was full of celebrating Maidstone United fans, so after a swift pint, met up with the remaining members of the Regiment in the Wetherspoon's Society Rooms in Week Street.

A spacious pub on the site of a former local newspaper printing works, situated on the ground floor of a five storey office block. The mainly glass external walls allow panoramic views of the pedestrian shopping street alongside. The name is taken from William Shipley, founder of the Royal Society of Arts and the Maidstone Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, who is buried nearby.

As with many Wetherspoon's the usual suspects were on offer, but we went for the guest ales in the Dorset Brewery's delicious Jurassic Dark, a lovely Dunkelweizen (dark wheat beer) and another dark ale in the shape of Dark Side of the Moose from the Purple Moose Brewery based in Porthmadog, North Wales.

The Fenman, King's Lynn

King's Lynn on a Tuesday evening. The Southern League really do not like us. Anyway, had this been a Saturday fixture The Fenman would have been our first Tour port of call, as it is situated opposite the train station and is only a 10 minute walk from the stadium.

On the way, we received news that Harvest Home landlord and club sponsor, Ray and Dunstable based Lynn fan Matt, were coming on the train so we arranged to meet them in The Fenman. We parked up in the station car park and indulged in a couple of pints of Doom Bar whilst we waited for Ray and Matt to arrive.

The only other ale on offer at the time we visited was GK Abbott, which is the regular ale, and the other pump rotates its offerings.

A couple of games of pool later, we left for the ground which was a short walk through the Walks Park. Once at the ground we had to, bizarrely for this level of football, queue up outside the ground to purchase a ticket and then use the ticket to gain entry to the ground via the turnstiles.

Huntingdon Tour 2015

Cambridge City moving to St Ives Town ground from Histon this season, made for a difficult Tour destination. The nearest station is in Huntingdon, a good taxi ride from St Ives. The Regiment still fancied the day out, so it was done.

As we were leaving via Luton, we met up at the Sicilian Cafe for breakfast and boarded the train to London. The connecting train back out from London to Huntingdon was a little wait away so we jumped in The Parcel Yard, towards the back of King's Cross station. The pub is built inside the old parcel sorting office at King's Cross station by Platform 9 3/4. It stocks Fuller's entire range of cask beers and most of their bottled beers in a very imaginative conversion of an old industrial space across two floors. We sampled the Gale's Seafarer, as well as the guest ale of St Austell's Ruck and Roll,

Once safely in Huntingdon we made our way to The Falcon. This 16th century former coaching inn is said to be the site of Oliver Cromwell's recruiting station and the gates from the Market Square were once the entrance to Huntingdon Prison. We were greeted by what must have been an ex prison officer, a grumpy ginger bird who was disgusted that we had dared ti interrupt her conversation.

We enjoyed  Phipps's Gold Star, an amazing Oyster Stout from Marston's and Buntingford's Highwayman. Once we had been sufficiently refreshed we bundled in a couple of taxis and headed off to St Ives. The game its self was a dull 1-1 draw and we soon found ourselves looking for another watering hole.

Opposite the fish and chimp shop was the Royal Oak, another pub that claimed to be associated with Oliver Cromwell. He certainly got around a bit! Parched from shouting and singing from the football we quaffed pints of Taylors Black Dragon Mild and Claridge's Crystal by Northamtonshire's Nobby's Brewery.

Multiple portions of fish and chimps were secured before the cab ride back to the station. As is our habit, on the return to London, we fancied a top up. We would normally frequent the Euston Tap, but opted to try some other suggestions from the Good Beer Guide. First up was Mabel's Tavern on Mabledon Place, just off the Euston Road and is a Shepheard Neame house so plenty of Spitfire and Whitstable Bay was on show.

A quick pint of Czech Kozel in the Royal George, before a quick trot back to St Pancras for the train home. That was until we bumped into Piano Man, who insisted on playing a song for us as we danced around the concourse.