Sunday 15th April, 2007
Drinkers: Jon (Young Members Contact), Robert, Georgie (Young Member), Nigel, Josie (Young Member), Ted Ted, Keith (Ali G), Rupert (Young Member), JT, Ade, Dave Inskip.
Hello and welcome to my latest report and I am so sorry if you missed a great day. It was so good that for once it did not rain and there was blissful sunshine. There is no need for you guys to fear as there will be plenty more fantastic trips for you to attend. Chelmsford was the venue for the latest trip as it is a stones throw from Colchester by train and it has a great array of pubs.
By now from past reports you should know the format and as usual it was a 12 o’clock meet but this time it was at Chelmsford station even though many of us congregated at North station. On arriving at Chelmsford we all headed for the taxi rank to go to the furthest pub on the list, the Endeavour, in Springfield Road. Now you could easily walk to this pub taking around 20 mins but we were very thirsty and were worried the Old Goat may not keep up, only joking JT. So we arrived at the Endeavour which was a new scratch for me and what a nice pub it is, with a friendly welcome, nice décor and a modest range of beers. It was here where I surprised people with yet another Jon Boy quiz, which was to take place over the next few pubs (See Quiz Sheet). For you guys who do not know the quiz format is 4 multiple-choice questions and 1 random Jon Boy fact question. There was a quiz for 4 of the day’s pubs, with one beginning here. The quiz for this pub was to do with the Endeavour naval boat. I think most people were excited at the quiz but were a little shocked again when they saw the questions.
After supping on a great pint of beer we headed to our next watering hole, which was the Woolpack in Mildmay Road. With pressure on about food it was decided we would stay here for our food stop and what a great place to eat. The sausage menu was extensive and fantastic. The Woolpack purchase there fine sausages from our towns (Colchester) very own Proctors. The Sausages I opted for were rare breed and I am sorry to keep going on but they were fantastic. The only disappointing fact was the beer choice mainly evolved around Greene King and unfortunately that is not a good topic for us. But never the less, a great pub and we managed to suffer two fine pints. After letting our food go down and the second quiz focusing on the pubs name relationship with Emmerdale Farm we headed to pub stop number three which was to be the Cricketers in Moulsham Street.
Now this was again a new scratch for me and again another fine example of a Chelmsford hostelry. Here the pub served great ales and funny enough as the name suggests the pub had memorabilia relating to the fantastic sport of cricket. The ales available included some great beers from the Mighty Oak Brewery. Due to the fantastic weather we opted for the beer garden to top up on our tans or more to savour the weather we don’t normally have on a young person’s trip. We started supping our fine beer when my dad piped up that he had left his jumper in the last pub so off he went to hopefully find it. When he arrived back it was great news that he did indeed find it but being a wolly he had hit his finger in the bar in the pub and was complaining of pain and moaning about the possibility of a broken finger. Now (A) it did not look Broken and (B) what a tart. Still to this day my dad is wearing strapping around it as he tore a tendon but still what a big girl’s blouse. After managing to finish his beer and quiz with a poorly finger, we all headed to the second from last pub the Queens Head in Lower Anchor Street and even though not a new scratch it is a fantastic pub with a huge list of beers.
Here we all settled down and meet up with a great pal of ours, the main man Big Al, who was sat at the bar supping away on some great golden beer as Al does not like the dark side. It was here where the final quiz took place and all evolved around royalty. Once the final paper was in I tallied the score and there was yet another surprising tie. It was between our navigation system Ted Ted and my dad ‘the big girls blouse’ Bennett. The tie break question was from a quote in the pub written by fellow CAMRA member Podge (he does fantastic Belgium pub Crawls). The question was when did Podge write SO MUCH BEER, SO LITTLE TIME. It was Ted Ted who won and out came the envelopes with prizes in and Ted Ted picked the choice of any CAMRA t-shirt at my expense but Ted said he did not really wear t-shirts so a pint would be fine. Well good on you Ted. For a consolation prize my dad got some ice for his broken fingernails and what a shame he’d only painted them earlier in the day (only joking).
After some great beer we headed towards our final pub, which was on the route home and that was the White Horse in Townfield Street. Here we lost a few others who were departing for their Journey home but in reality I feel my dad was heading for a beauty salon, I mean A&E for his injury. A few of us headed for Dixey Chicken to counter our hunger or in my case try to sober up before heading home to our various destinations with mine being Beirut (Clacton-On-Sea).
A big thanks to all those who came along and for there help in making the day a great success and dad thanks for the entertainment and don’t worry I have sympathy and for your next birthday I am getting you a manicure. See you soon guys
Cheers
Jon Boy Bennett
(Young Person Committee Contact)