Cobblers Frozen Off

The Saturday before Christmas is not generally one of the better times to be travelling as it tends to be the day a lot of people go home for the break but King's Cross was very quiet considering.

Meanwhile, just over the road at St Pancras it was all tears and disappointment as all the Eurostar services had been cancelled and the place was packed with disgruntled travellers.

Despite the wintry weather conditions affecting the chunnel and the rest of the country, the trains on the east coast all looked to be running on time. Martin and I joined John and Bev in coach G.

They'd come armed with bags of cards and stamps as they attempted to make good use of their time on-board. It was interesting to see just how fractious such an innocent past-time could become. The Transport Police were put on standby...

Of course we were well aware of the 9am inspection for today's game and we'd not long pulled out of Peterborough station when Chris rang through with the news we'd been expecting - the game was off.

Unfortunately for Martin this meant waiting until we reached Doncaster before he could get off and get a train back south, hopefully without incurring further expense.

Liz rang - Rotherham's home game had also bitten the dust following a pitch inspection but since the London Millers leave London relatively late, they'd not even reached Stevenage and so were all returning back to London without a great deal of inconvenience.

I was happy to continue northwards safe in the knowledge that there'd be a few DAFTS in Darlo happy to go drinking instead. Given the recent run of results and the injuries we have, it would be nice to know we weren't going to lose this weekend.

On arrival at Bank Top I left John and Bev and headed straight into town - a quick stop for pies in the covered market and then over to the QuakerHouse.

Now as far as some of we brave casketeers (© Viz) are concerned, the problem with this time of year is the huge number of Christmas ales that are produced, all with a regulation humorous name and jolly pump clip.

And it's all a bit of a lottery as to what sort of pint you're going to get - will it taste of Christmas pud, all fruity and rich - which is not my idea of beer - or be a cinnamon bomb that more resembles a joss stick?

(left) Neil's festive egg and twiglet combo

I generally avoid them but today in the Quaker it seemed everything but the stout (Black As Owt from Ferryhill's Yard of Ale brewery) was a festive-themed ale.

We had Jingle Fells (Hawkshead), Three Kings (York), Rudolph's Ruin (Springhead) and Winter's Yard (Yard of Ale) and Christmas Carol (forgotten the brewery) . To be fair I tried the Three Kings and it was OK. The Rudolph's Ruin was more or less an ordinary beer in the usual Springhead style.

It wasn't long before I was joined by Tony and Brian - and then Neil came in after he'd finished Harry's Xmas shopping. And then finally John and Bev completed today's little group of Darlo-ness having posted their cards.

We had a good try of most of the beers - at one point Milton Dioynosus was put on which is a very quaffable beer from Cambridgeshire.

Neil then went for a pickled egg and with the addition of two twiglets produced a festive reindeer-shaped snack. He's been in Norway too long...

Next stop was Number Twenty-2 which was busy with festive shoppers. It was good to see that they had Westoe's IPA from the Jarrow brewery - an excellent beer like most of their stable, nice and hoppy - the beer of the day for me.

(left) Please, can I have some more?

Tony then got us all some stout for the next round - there is always a decent stout in No 22 and today it was Goose Eye's Over and Stout.

Unfortunately we found it to be disappointing - not the type of stout we normally like and in the end I didn't finish it and went straight back onto the IPA.

And then the final port of call was up to the Brittania - I only ever seem to come here when games have been postponed which is a shame but I'm just too lazy to do three pubs pre-match under normal circumstances

(left) Neil with yet another snack

I only had time for a pint and then I had to get back to Bank Top for my train home.

On walking through the market square to the station, large heavy snowflakes were starting to fall - a good time to get out of town...