Jolly Cricketers, Seer Green

 

Following recent postponements due to heavy rain, we left for Beaconsfield in the knowledge that the game would probably be called off. The decision to drive was made after a number of unsuccessful attempts at train journeys to matches and decided that our pit stop venue would be the Jolly Cricketers in Seer Green. Having already been to a couple a locals two seasons ago when we played Slough and Beaconsfield in the space of four days, we opted for a pub on the way.

The Cricketers is an award winning free house, set in the heart of Seer Green Village near Beaconsfield. A fine locals pub and was very busy on our visit on a Saturday afternoon. Cricket memorabilia adorns the walls and ceiling and the house beer Tavernier’s, brewed by Marlow's Rebellion Brewery, reflects this pub’s strong cricket history link with very friendly, busy staff. Excellent, if expensive food and snacks are available.

   

As well as the usual local Rebellion beers on offer they also had the excellent Czech Urquell Pilsner and a bitter brewed by The Little Beer Corporation with hops from down under called Little Haka.

Once we had received confirmation from Pipeman of the starting XI and that the game was on, we set off for Beaconsfield. On arrival at the ground we spotted the catering van that Kettering fans had been moaning about the week before. They had given it their usual "big club" bullshit that they should have laid on more food as Kettering were in town!

As we have travelled around the grounds this season, we have noticed that Kettering's fans have delusions of grandeur and believe that they are some sort of special case, that little clubs should bow down and thank them for helping them out. They don't seem to be endearing themselves to many clubs.

In the lashing rain and losing 1-0 with minutes to go, we wished the game had been rained off. This maybe our last visit to Beaconsfield for a while, as Slough are destined to move to a new stadium for next season. A potential Tour venue, a new ground and new pubs. This game was quickly forgotten, as we planned next season’s assault on Slough.

Kettering Tour 2016

With match day being preceded by a few days of rain, this game was always in doubt, due to the fact that Kettering Town play on a cabbage patch in a park. With that in mind we met in the Sicilian Café for breakfast and received the news that the game was on, via the Kettering Town Twitter account. Crack on, polish off breakfast and jump on the party train to Ketamine.

We arrived in Kettering about 12:30 to some light drizzle. This soon stopped and by the time we arrived at the Alexandra Arms, the sun was poking out. We grabbed few beers and settled down to watch the enthralling 0-0 on the TV between Hull City and Arsenal. What ever happened to their cup exploits? (Come on you Horns!)

The Alex is a traditional town centre street corner local where you always find a beer from an unknown brewery. The landlord takes great pride in searching out new beers and breweries all the time on the 14 hand pumps split over two bars. We sampled the P51, a chocolate porter from the Kings Cliffe Brewery and Phipps’ IPA. Both were outstanding and with the sun streaming through the windows, we were on our way to a decent day out.

   

Then the bad news arrived. Kettering claimed at 14:00 that the referee had called the match off, as it had been raining for two hours. As we had been shielding our eyes from the sun to see the TV, this was some kind of bad joke. Depressed and slightly tipsy, we decided to stay in Kettering for a while and visit the Three Cocks, no not the Kettering Supporters Club, but a well-stocked free house on the outskirts of the town centre.

Here we quaffed many flagons of the superb Belhaven Black, a dark Scottish stout. We remained here for some time as we played several games of dominoes, the rules of which were alien to all of us, as well as a few games of skittles before boarding the train home.

Once back in Dunstable, we popped in to the Wheatsheaf to have our hearing impaired by The Lash, a local rock covers band. Surprisingly, they had some real ale on, in the shape of Lock Keeper's Launch Ale from the local Berkhamstead brewery, Haresfoot. Despite there being no football, another great day out.

Chesham Tour 2016

With the away match before Christmas at Redditch having been postponed, we looked at the match at Chesham as a banker. The pitch itself is sloped and is also raised, so any drainage issues should not have endangered the game. Especially with the use of the BBC weather app, any idiot should be able to predict if a game is going to off. That was until we realised that this particular corner of Buckinghamshire is slap bang in the middle of monsoon season.

When leaving from Luton Airport Parkway, we normally meet at the Sicilian Café for breakfast. We arrived to find that the café was shut, so boarded the train bound for London. With two cafés bookmarked, we set off with our tummies rumbling. At this point, we realised that Saturday 2nd January must be a national holiday for café owners as the two establishments we visited were also shut and decided to head for Chesham and sacrifice a small child at Marylebone station.

We pulled into the picturesque Chalfont & Latimer station with a short wait for the connecting train to Chesham. On arrival we found a café, which defied the national holiday and we tucked into large amounts of saturated fat before our visit to the Chesham Brewery Shop.

   

The Chesham Brewery Shop is the brewery tap for the local Red Squirrel Brewery. It has 8 draft beer lines, 2 draft cider lines and over 150 of the best bottled & canned craft beers and ciders. First off was Chocolata from the Bristol based Arbor Ales. A rich chocolaty porter with a hint of orange zest, was followed by a couple of Red Squirrel ales. The Mad Squirrel’s American Pale Ale, and the Flying Squirrel, which is a delightful 4.4% premium pilsner.

On the short stroll across the road to the Red Lion, we heard the news that the game had been postponed and downed a couple of pints of Doom Bar whilst we hatched our alternative plan for the afternoon. The consensus was to head back to Dunstable. We would normally have slipped in the Euston Tap, Mabel’s Tavern or the Royal George on the way back via London, but decided to save our livers for the Leamington away game!

Back in Sunny Dunny, we popped into the First & Last for some Hardys & Hansons Rocking Rudolph, a fruity Christmas ale from Greene King. It was here that we bumped into Kevin Kitt, the son of our old chairman, the late Bill Kitt. He was slightly worse for wear, but still managed to wipe the floor with most of us on the pool table. At this time of night, Scottie was having more joy with the fat end of the cue than the thin end, but was crying into his beer after Man City had turned over the Hornets and ruined his weekly acca. Better luck next week loser!

Birmingham Tour 2016

The day began, as usual, in Tony’s Café about 09:45 for a slap up breakfast to see us on our way to Redditch, via Leighton Buzzard. The Regiment traveled to Redditch last season on the train and were looking forward to another interesting day out.

Redditch United had postponed a game on their pitch the previous Monday, so there was some doubt among the Regiment as to whether the match would be on. As we approached Milton Keynes, the sun was shining and phones started chirping that there was a pitch inspection due at 11:00. As we pulled into Rugby, it was clear the game was off and a back-up plan needed plotting. Connor Calcutt’s father, informed us of a German market in Victoria Square in the city centre. Now this sounded like a plan!

 

We had already sourced a new pub to try near to Birmingham New Street for the journey home, so made our way towards the Post Office Vaults on New Street, literally a two minute walk from the station. A pub for real ale connoisseurs, it has an excellent range of eight real ales, with 10 ciders and perries and hundreds of bottled beers from around the world.

   

We sampled The Titanic Stout, Bateman’s Mocha and the excellent homemade mulled cider. We then ventured into the German market, where we had some excellent German pilsner in proper glass steins. We were slightly glad the game was postponed at this point.

A stroll round the market to eat two foot German sausages and cheese stuffed pretzels was followed by a visit to the Wellington on Bennett’s Hill. The pub was packed and once served we found ourselves a table and raised our glasses in our normal salute. “TO THE REGIMENT” we cried, when from a rather sozzled lady on the next table came the reply “I WISH I WAS THERE” as half the pub erupted in a huge cheer. The Regiment keeping a low profile, as always.

With 16 hand pumps there was plenty of choose from and we had the Left Hand Brewery’s Black Jack Porter, the excellent Wye Valley H.P.A. and Oakham Citra.

Once back in Dunstable, we met with a few more Regimentals in the Wheatsheaf, where we rocked into the wee small hours of Sunday with a great band and a few more beers. Football was long forgotten, as was the trip to Redditch on a Monday night in February.

Paulton Tour 2015

The day started with an early start at Tony’s Café for breakfast and had the supporters waiting for the arrival of a coach and players at 09:30 at Creasey Park, our designated departure time. Eventually, the players arrived, one by one, then the coach, before the manager and physio made a stylish late arrival.

We were looking forward to our return to Paulton after last season’s trip, but the Red Lion was a little disappointing this time. We were spoilt last season, as they had a BBQ and a live band, but even without those the closure of the skittle alley really bought the mood down. They still sold beer so all was not lost.

The amazing Butcombe Bitter is brewed less than 15 miles from Paulton, in the Somerset village of Wrington. It’s clean dry taste has won it many awards, including the Bronze Medal at the Great British Beer Festival in 2013. It was accompanied by the reliable Doom Bar from the Cornish brewery Sharp’s.

Clearly not learning from our visit last season the only thing screwed down in the pub was the huge parrot cage, which Kevin tried befriending. This only served as a distraction as we released a Christmas reindeer from their festive display. It was clearly being held against its will, so it would be deemed a mercy mission.

It was decided, on the walk up the hill towards to ground, to name the poor chap after our first goal scorer and was subsequently named STEEEEEEEVE after Steve Wales’ goal direct from the corner just before half time. With a goal from Connor Calcutt in the second half we also came home with all three points and another successful day out was almost complete.

On the way home, we have a stop at Hemel Hempstead, to drop off some of our players. Whilst we were there, the driver informed us that due to his magical mystery tour out of Somerset, he was out of driving hours and could not continue back to Dunstable.

So we were stuck in a lay-by in Hemel waiting for a driver to finish the journey. Fortunately, this was not on the scale of the famous Tolpuddle take over on the way home from Weymouth and before too long were back in the Bird in Hand for a couple of liveners.

Old Road Tavern, Chippenham

Having visited this pub earlier in the year, we knew what to expect. Nothing fancy, but very good beer. What we did not expect was cheap and cheerful grub too. Parking around the pub is terrible, owing to the fact it is on a one way street and near the town's railway station.

Having left Dunstable without eating many of the Regimentals tucked into full English breakfasts and bacon sandwiches, as well as indulging in the reliable Otter Bitter and the Wye Valley Brewery's HPA.

Another foul day, weather wise, as well as football wise, as the Blues capitulated to a 4-1 defeat.

Pembroke Arms, Biggleswade

On a foul night in November, a stop off in a lovely pub is ideal, until you remember you have to go and stand in the wind and the rain for two hours to watch football. With the wind making any kind of football a lottery, maybe staying in the Pembroke Arms in front of the fire would have been a better idea.

The pub, formerly known as the Brown Bear, has recently reopened after an extensive refit. The layout is largely unchanged, with one large L shaped bar sporting six handpumps. The interior decoration is modern and airy and benefits on cold days like this one, from two open fires. Guest ales from Marston's group often feature Banks, Jennings, Ringwood, & Wychwood.

We sloshed down the Hobgoblin and a smashing stout called Lord Barker by Gun Dog Ales, before heading out into the elements. Once across the Biggleswade Town car park, which resembles the surface of the moon, we experienced a match controlled by the conditions.

A fair result on the night of a 3-3 draw, left us hoping for the opportunity of a return to Biggleswade on a Saturday, so we can try a few more pubs out in the town.