A pleasant journey north except for the presence of some Blackheath rugby fans at nearby tables - four blokes, one of who has brought his wife with him.
The blokes were OK but unfortunately she turns out to be of the gobby loud variety who pronounces to all in earshot that she is a champagne snob and "proud of it" as her compatriots are supping bottles of cava - something they do on all their trips apparently.
Just as we approach Darlo, she says to a fellow passenger that rugby fans are much nicer than those nasty football types as the rugger lot will share a pint and a joke together after the game. I'm tempted to live up to her stereotype and punch her lights out but instead I just wish evils things to befall her.
Once in Darlo, John and Howard have errands elsewhere leaving me to head off alone to the Quaker but not for long. Before I can even order my pint, John B arrives having decided to make an early start from the north-west.(left) John modelling the Darlo Devo Dome
I start off with a few halves so I can check out a few different beers with the choice today being: Hambleton Farriers Formula, Wyre Piddle Piss Thru' t Leaves, Derwent Harvesters Pale, Crouch Vale Amarillo, York Harvest Ale plus Ginger, Legion Ale and Farne Island from Hadrian and Border.
The best of the lot are the Farriers Formula, the Harvesters Pale and the Amarillo. I have a small taster of the Ginger - quite nice. The Harvest Ale though was a bit nothing-y for me whilst the Wyre Piddle beer was simply off - John B found this out on his first sip but it was quickly replaced.
Fresh from his trip to China, Tony was next in with his breakfast of chips - he's had his fill of Chinese food for a while so you can't blame the lad. Next in was Brian, John and then Howard.
Up at Number Twenty-2 there were a few new beers which I failed to note. The one we really enjoyed was the Espresso Stout from Dark Star - a rich beer which didn't have the coffee grounds taste we've sometimes noticed in the past.
Down at the Arena we pop into the club shop only to find a miserable selection of items on offer - it really is getting poorer each week in there - you can buy goods from the online shop but I would like to get an idea of sizes before I do so and there were no jackets to try on. Not much use really is it?
Out on the pitch I got chatting to Echo photographer Chris - a really nice lad despite being a Bradford fan - we don't often see him outside of the Premiership these days so we were honoured to have him with us.
On the field today we had a few familiar faces - Dean Saunders who now manages Wrexham and Frank Sinclair who was in the heart of their defence.(right) New boy Powell makes space for himself at a corner
On the Darlo side, captain Ian Miller was back in the team after injury whilst there was a new face upfront, Danny Powell, who had just arrived on loan from Franchise FC.
And it was Powell and Sinclair who were at the heart of the first talking point of the game when both players clashed and Powell went over in the box.
Cue loud claims for a penalty but the foul clearly started outside of the box and the ref wasn't fooled by Powell's unnecessary theatrics in an attempt to get a spot kick. His efforts would have been better spent trying to stay on his feet and score.
Powell had a couple of other half-chances but they came to nothing and that was about it for the first half. Wrexham had a few chances of their own but nothing to trouble Russell.
Just before the break Miller picked up an injury which saw him replaced by Dan Clarke as the game resumed.
In midfield Darlo failed to stamp their authority on the game and chances were few and far between for either of the sides.(left) Chris Senior showing off his thighs
As the game drew to a close Wrexham upped the pressure and started to throw a few balls into the box and headers went narrowly wide on a couple of occasions.
It wasn't a total surprise when they did score from another high ball into the box.
And so a very disappointing result as neither side deserved to win but we just didn't do enough in the middle of the park to create chances for our forwards. It was a bit of a glum journey back.
Once back in London, we met Howard's wife Susie at King's Cross before we started on our way to Chris Stockdale's wedding reception in Barnes. Unfortunately various traffic snarl-ups meant it took us almost two hours just to get to Hammersmith and still everything was gridlocked.
With not much time before the wedding reception finished we gave it up as a bad job and I headed home on the tube and picked up a consolation curry.
Finally congratulations to Chris and Suzy - may she forever let Chris go to games!
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