I was down on a sporting trip to the South East this last weekend, staying with local Deeside CAMRA member Dave Williamson, who is now working in Reading. We managed to get tickets for Wimbledon in the ballot so that's where we went on Thursday, whilst it was back to Lord's for the final ODI against the Aussies on Saturday. We even managed to squeeze in a trip to Henley to snigger at the Hoorays at the Regatta on Friday.
There was a fair bit of travel involved over the 3 days, which included visits to former haunts and a number of new ones. Starting with SW19, it probably comes as no shock that there was no ale inside the Wimbledon grounds - all we could manage was some fizzy Grolsch. One was enough so we thought - when in Rome - let's try the Pimm's. It was served on draught everywhere - with lemonade - and was an eye-watering £6.70 per tumbler - probably a pint, but mostly filled with ice.
When we left the tennis we made our way back to Southfields tube station and sought out a quick pint before we headed back in to the West End. We spotted the Grid Inn and the adjacent Old Garage, randomly choosing the former, whereupon we discovered it was a Wetherspoon's. Never mind, as ever, the beer was good - we had Wandle from Sambrook's, but they were also serving Merlin's Revenge, Abbot and They Think it's All Over.
Our next beer was an even more tasteless than we had imagined Tuborg from a (plastic) bottle at the Serpentine Sessions - horrid. Thankfully, we made it back to Reading before closing time for a proper pint at the very quirky Hobgoblin, which is still racking up the number of ales it has served over the last 17 years:
They are very supportive of CAMRA's Locale campaign and, amongst the 8 ales they were offering, 4 of them had the CAMRA Locale pump clip on them. Two of them were from the West Berkshire brewery - Brick Kiln Bitter and Full Circle, which carried the Champion Beer of Britain (Best Bitter) 2003 badge. An excellent place for a pit stop if you're ever in the area.
More to follow.
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