Christmas Pub Crawl

20th December 2011

It was a cold evening with the threat of rain to come when a surprisingly large crowd of members and friends gathered at the Prince of Wales for the start of the Christmas Pub Crawl through Hinckley. This gave Katie the new landlady a chance to meet many of the members for the first time.

Next stop for most was the Sportsmans, which is virtually next door and was already quite busy. Although there was only one real ale (Marstons Burton Bitter) on offer, it was in fine form.

My next stop was the Baron, our local Wetherspoons outlet. Not everyone chose to call here which was a shame because amonst the usual big choice were a couple of beers from Byatt's Brewery, a new brewery in Coventry.

The Queens Head was the next call. The throng had increased in size now with more members joining in. There were beers from Courage, Adnams & Abbeydale on offer here.

Although some went straight to the New Plough from here a fair few of us called at the Weavers Arms on the way where Kevin had his usual two Marstons beers plus Hobgoblin and Oxford Gold on offer.

Last pub of the evening with the promise of hot food, was the New Plough, our PotY for 2011, so a fitting place to finish at. Louise had her usual two Marstons plus two guests available. We arrived just after 10pm and it was already full with 'Rocket Ron' and his band doing a gig in aid of the Wooden Spoon charity. A noisy evening followed with Ron playing lots of familiar songs allowing lots of singing. Just as the pub was starting to thin out a bit, we were joined by a crowd of Blues Brothers look-a-likes and the evening finished with carol singing round the piano.

Our thanks to all the landlords and ladies for some excellent beers, to Louise for the tasty hot food and to Robin for organising it all.

Words by Alan
Photos byy Alan & David Miller