E Numbers

I'd made the decision to not travel to Torquay more or less at the start of the season - a lot of my fellow fans like this trip for an away weekend but personally I don't think the pubs there warrant the travelling.

So instead I'm hooking up with my London Miller chum, Chris, to try out a few pubs in sunny east London.

The first point of call for the day is the King William IV in Leyton - a pub Steve Duffy and I tried out a few years ago before a midweek game against Orient.

(left) King William IV

In those days it was OK but nothing special.

These days though it's a high profile pub in the area as it's home to Brodie's Beers which is run by Jamie and Lizzie, the brother and sister brewing team that operate from the old Sweet William brewery at the rear of the pub (which coincidentally was run by John Wilson's chum Eddie).

It's a big old pub, quite dark inside with two big rooms - the rear having an enormous buffalo head on the wall (as you do).

There was a pretty impressive array of pumps on display, all serving a myriad of Brodie's beers along with a cider and perry on hand pump.

Also impressive is the cost of a pint - £1.99 for all their own beers which includes the Romanov Empress stout, a 12% monster of a beer. Perfect prices for these recessionary times (but don't tell the prohibitionist lobby).

The TVs in the front room are turned on for the Sky match - which turns out to be the less-than-exciting Stoke -v- Wigan - and it's noticeable that a few of the regulars slip away to the back room to escape it.

The beers we try are all on excellent form - English Best, Sunshine, Orient, IPA and Special - much as you'd expect given they've not had that far to travel.

Once the Sky game is over, we depart and wander along the High Road, across the Lea Bridge Road and head up towards Walthamstow village.

The village is a little area of tranquility and poshness in E17 and it's quite spooky. We're heading to the Nags Head but it turns out we taken a wrong turn.

Luckily for us this means that we come across the East London Sausage Company and we wander in to peruse their range of home-made sausages. Quite a large choice on offer - I go for the 1920's recipe bangers which look nice and plump.

They also put us right in our search and before too long we're arrived at the Nags Head.

(right) Children - know your place!

What strikes me on arrival is the number of signs geared towards parents, all telling them what to do with their children and their buggies.

A subsequent perusal of the pub's BITE entry suggests this isn't the most child-friendly pub - clearly they've had their fill of yummy mummies (and daddies) - and the little darlings are not allowed in the pub, only outside in the heated garden.

On entering the pub, it's apparent that they're expecting a big group - rows of champagne glasses all waiting to be filled up. It turns out a wedding party is expected to drop in for a few drinks.

The Nags Head is totally different place to the more earthy King William - light-coloured wooden walls, comfy chairs, posters advertising in-house activities such as life-drawing and Egyptian dancing.

(left) Nags Head, Walthamstow Village

I'd like to think this latter class resembles Wilson, Keppel and Betty at their finest but somehow I doubt it.

There's a respectable range of beers on offer - Taylors Landlord; St Austell Tribute; Nethergate Suffolk Bitter; Mighty Oak's Oscar Wilde and Maldon Gold and their house beer, Itinerant.

This last beer turns out to be produced by Nethergate and is brewed for the pub to celebrate the late pub cat, Tetley. In fact the pub recently had a feline-themed beer festival. They like cats and won't have kids in the bar - this should be my sort of pub.

As we settle into our pints, the expected wedding party arrives and the pub goes from a quiet, library-like calm to a chatty maelstrom of air-kissing and how-do-you-dos. We hang around to watch it all and have another pint - some of the other regulars find it all a bit much though and depart.

However there's only so much jollity and such like that we can take and we decide to wander back down Orford Road to the Village.

On offer were three from Adnams - Bitter, Broadside and Explorer - and GK IPA. Not very inspiring.

Chris and I both opt for the Explorer and settle down to watch the football scores come in. The beer is not up to much - it has minimal condition and looks extremely flat and listless - and frankly it's a struggle to drink.

Even more disappointing is the latest score from Plainmoor - Torquay 5, Darlington 0! Oh dear oh dear. Happier news though for Chris as the Millers have won with a couple of late goals at Valley Parade.

We decide that the beer isn't worth bothering with and leave it. We wander back to Lea Bridge Road where we pick up the 69 bus which takes us to Leyton tube. From here we travel a couple of stops to Mile End.

I drag Chris through the streets of Bow until we reach Roman Road market - unfortunately Kelly's pie and mash shop is shut so we head straight to the Eleanor Arms.

As well as the usual Shepherd Neame choices, there is a Sheps Xmas ale and the guest beer is Old Hooky so I settle for that. Very nice.

Landlord Frankie eventually shows his face - I last saw him rather worse for wear at the end of the Pig's Ear festival a couple of weeks ago.

Whilst we have a few further pints (bottles of Otley's O-Garden for me), a few musicians wander up and perform a few tunes - not many people in to appreciate them though. We're right in the firing line and whilst it's not really our cup of tea, we applaud politely before calling it a day and heading home.

The sausages were eaten the very next day and were absolutely fabulous. I'll be going back for more...