Now This Is Getting Silly...

Today was going to be one of those rare days - a home game for Howard. And he was as keen as ever, beating both Martin and I to Da Vinci's for our pre-train brekky.

I'd actually arrived a little earlier as I had a myriad of pre-paid train tickets to collect from Euston and King's Cross, having recently volunteered to extend my travel agent duties for Tony and our Argyle chum, Geoff, so they can take advantage of cheap ticket deals on the East Coast.

On the journey up, I'd received a couple of worrying texts from Chris and John W indicating it was rather frosty in the north-east.

And they were right - it was significantly chillier in Darlington than the balmy south-east and as Howard and I walked into town, we tested out a patch of grass and it was rock hard.

(left) Early in the session - Brian is wide awake

We met John in the Quaker, closely followed by Tony, and were settling into our beers when we got a call from Martin. He was walking to the ground and someone walking the other way said the game was likely to be off. He'd let us know for definite as soon as he knew.

By now John Bell had also arrived - as had an old chum, Steve from Ely and his Darlo-based brother-in-law and rockabilly-in-arms, Keith.

The beers of offer today to keep us entertained were as follows: High House Farm Top Tup and Auld Hemp, Banks & Taylor SOD & Fruit Bat, Blue Monkey 99 Red Balloons, Captain Cook Sunset and Discovery, Caledonian Double Dark and Wylam Hedonist.

I got stuck in with halves of most of these - the Auld Hemp and Fruit Bat being especially good.

And then came the confirmation call from Martin - the ref had called the game off due to the pitch being frozen. Cue a flurry of conspiracy theories about our lack of strikers.

As usual in this sort of situation we made the best of it and continued drinking. Other Darlo fans wandered in plus a trio of Kettering fans who were also determined to make the best of a bad job.

It wasn't long before we (or mainly me) had tried all that was on offer and so I suggested we wander over to the Snooker Club. The idea was well received and so we moved on.

(right) A Pot Black moment for Martin and Howard

The Snooker Club is situated just off Northgate and was the usual low-lit barn with lots of young kids mis-spending their youth. Peter the manager has been working hard to get some decent beers on and has won a few pub of the season awards from the local CAMRA.

There were about five beers on offer, amongst them High House Farm Auld Hemp (again), Yorkshire Dale's Nappa Scar and Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted. Of these the first two were not good, on their way to vinegar but the Bitter and Twisted was excellent.

Howard, Martin and Brian had taken a detour via Taylor's after leaving the Quaker and so joined us a little late - Martin and Howard were not keen on drinking too much so when we moved on again, they opted to stay and play a few frames.

From here, we moved to the Britannia which tends to be a place I only get to when games have been postponed. Which is a shame as it is an excellent little pub with decent beer and a hard-core of friendly folk to talk to.

I was surprised to Brewdog Trashy Blonde available - one of the new breed of upstart brewers who brew some good beers but are prone to going a bit OTT on their publicity. But still a very nice pint.

By now Brian had succumbed and had slipped off to the Land of Nod - it had to happen eventually I suppose - whilst the rest of us supped our beers and watched the scores come in on Soccer Saturday.

Steve, one of the regulars from the Quaker was here and he introduced me to Pete, a Brit regular who has recently started brewing.

The brewery is called the Just A Minute brewery but he is just small-scale at the moment, doing occasional brews which have mainly been seen in the Brit. Hopefully I'll get to try his wares when they're next in town.

Time was moving on and once the final scores were in, I wandered off to Number Twenty-2, leaving a lens cap and my watch in my rush to move along. Howard and Martin joined me for a few more beers before we then went off to catch our train home.