Young Members Colchester Pub Crawl.Sunday 4th March, 2007 (... or "Who drank all the Carling?")Drinkers: Jon (Young Members Contact), Robert, Georgie (Young Member), Nigel, Josie (Young Member), Ted Ted, Graham (Young Member), Rupert (Young Member), Edmund (Young Member), Graham and Sue, JT, Rich, Robin, Dave Inskip, Adam (young member), Emma (young member), Tom (Young Member) and of course, Keith. Welcome to my latest report and if you were unable to attended, you missed a great day but do not fear there will be plenty more. Why pick Colchester town for a crawl? Well simply it’s our hometown, with great GBG choice and everything within walking distance. The day began with people meeting at Town Station just before 12ish ready for a hill walk up to our first pub of the day, the British Grenadier, owned by a great mate of mine, Simon. I must add it is also the current Town Pub of the year and runner-up overall. GO! (game on). Unfortunately as we began our ascent to the Grennie, it decided to start raining, but we were not going to allow some drops of water to spoil or dampen our spirits. I must add that when Dave and I left from Clacton to meet every one, I was pleasantly surprised to see Graham (young member) who’s first trip was recently with us to Norwich and even better was that he had brought along a mate of his, Rupert, who was a Trip Virgin (sorry Rupert). So hello and a warm welcome to Rupert. We arrived at the Grennie just after 12 where Simon was in full flow of serving some of his usual great beers. Most opted for one of the two guest ales on offer. I went for a lovely pint of Brains Bread of Heaven. It was the first pub of the day so talk was sensible and everyone was catching up, until I put a slight spanner in the works and introduced my quiz for the day. The quiz had 4 multiple choice questions and 1 random Jon Boy fact question. There was a quiz for 4 of the day’s pubs. JT got very excited about going to the Grennie as he says it has the best array of duke box songs in Colchester, so before he took part in the drinking and the quiz he put a pound in the juke box and the pub reverberated to Bruce Springsteen and Police tracks. 
After our first pint we headed back out into the rain and 10 minutes down the road to watering hole two, the Odd One Out on Mersea Road. This pub is one of my favourites with its welcoming environment and a great range of beer that is forever changing. I opted for a pint of local beer called Frog Bitter from The Railway tavern at Brightlingsea. It was very distinct in its taste but never the less a good beer. While supping on a fine pint I handed out quiz number two which involved multiple choice questions on which was the odd one out (see quiz link). I felt the last question was the best……, the category was Jon’s fun question about myself. For those who are wondering the answer was {Spoiler - section omitted – do the quiz first – webmaster!} (well I think it is). After the quiz we sat back and had another pint of beer whilst pointing out to newcomers and other Odd One Out virgins that the steam train picture above the fireplace is one of Malcolm Roots who is the father of young members and regular drinkers Jo and Georgie and also a great friend of mine. A bit of History for you guys, the Odd One Out got its name due to being Colchester’s first regular haunt for real ale. 
From here we headed towards number three and a new pub to Colchester, the Fat Cat in Butt Road. This pub is owned by James, whose dad runs Fat Cat in Ipswich and who’s Uncle started it all with the Fat Cat in Norwich (visited on a previous trip). The Fat Cat in Colchester used to be called the Royal which was less well known to CAMRA but then James and his mate Ross came along and turned it into a fine real ale pub with great character, beer choice and atmosphere. This was our lunch stop for the day and we were joined by a few more people for some fine grub. With such a great choice of beer I cannot remember what I opted for but I had 3 great pints but not all at once as I had quiz three to hand out and mark. This quiz was all about Big Cats with the last question referring to what is my favourite kind of cat and the answer to that is {Spoiler - section omitted – do the quiz first – webmaster!}. We ate our Roast which had parsnips roasted in Fat Cat Honey Ale and drunk up ready for our next pub. 
 
The Hospital Arms has recently had a change of landlord and this was the first time many of us have been in since the take over. It is still an Adnams pub of which this happened to be the only choice available on the day. The barman also seemed a little out of sorts………although……being suddenly invaded by 20 CAMRA members must seem a little daunting! On a positive note the beer we ended up with was a great drop of beer and hopefully they continue to stock more and continually support real ale and CAMRA’s efforts. By now a few people began to pull away from others in the quiz table. After papers were in and marks tallied it was time for results. To my amazement there was a tie break between Jo/Georgie (team 1) and Keith (team 2) and I must admit I was not prepared for this so I quickly looked around the pub and made a tie break question up. The question was, Aspells Strong Cider has what Alcoholic abv %. No one hit the answer on the head but Jo and Georgie were the closest so they were the winners and the prize was their Fat Cat Sunday Roast being paid for. But being very kind natured young ladies they opted for putting the money in a local Charity box (well done girls). 
From here we headed on to the Fox and Fiddler. This is a regular place for us before football games, so we are used to the changing beers. The owner is Jeff and he is a landlord with a great sense of humour but unfortunately he was not there on this particular day. We had a great pint of beer and started placing money in the quiz machine, which ends up being very addictive. 
After some laughs and a couple of fine pints we headed to the day’s last venue the Foresters, which is situated behind our historic castle ruins. The Foresters is a great back street pub and is one of the only pubs in Colchester where you can get a quality pint of Nethergates fine ales. Here we had a few drinks and chat before getting ready to Part Company. 
Thanks to all those that came along and keep you ears and eyes open for future trips, until then, be safe and campaign for the future. Cheers Jon Boy (Young Person Committee Contact) |