London Millers Treasure Hunt 2010

It's the middle of July and absolutely roasting hot so it must be about time for the London Millers Treasure Hunt.

Liz and I worked on this last year and this time around we enlisted the help of one of the other LMs, Chris, as he has an abundance of pub knowledge.

The task mainly involved wandering round north-east London to find pubs which had good beer but which also had items of interest that we could turn into questions.

Pickings were quite surprisingly slim - quite a few pubs with decent beer but too few had much of interest on the walls.

And some that did were just a bit too up their own arse - The Scolt Head in De Beauvior town being one example. They were not keen to let us sit drinking in their dining area - "it's for diners only" - but apparently it was OK for diners to sit and eat their food at the bar - wankers.

The Treasure Hunt started at the Wenlock Arms once the LM AGM in the upstairs function room has finished. Teams of two set out with maps, questions, a list of bus routes and a spring in their step.

Liz was happy to stay behind with the entry money and go get some prizes from the Pound shop in nearby Hoxton and then just sit in the pub reading her book. So easily pleased...

The first pub was in Hackney - the Globe in Morning Lane - which had Youngs beers. The landlord of the pub has a connection to Rotherham comedian, Sandy "Can You Hear Me Mother?" Powell, which is very appropriate.

(left) The Pembury Tavern

I never actually made it there as Argyle chum, Geoff, and I headed straight for the second pub, the Pembury Tavern.

We know this place very well and it always has an excellent range, especially from Milton Brewery.

It was here that the front runners caught up with us, found the answers to the clues and then wandered onto pub number 3. Very professional.

Meanwhile we just had another beer and waited for the stragglers to arrive and do their bit before we all followed Jenny & co. to the wilds of Stoke Newington via the 276 bus.

The pub here is the Daniel Defoe - quite a nice pub but with an average choice of beers, St Austell Tribute being the pick of the bunch.
(right) The Uncivil Civil Servant in the Jolly Butchers
Whilst the front-runners did their stuff and then headed off to the Angel for the remaining pubs, a number of us took a detour to the Jolly Butchers on the High Street.
This has recently been done up and whilst it has a good range of beers and ciders - Dark Star American IPA and Thornbridge Hopton the pick of the beers - it was bereft of clues which is why we couldn't include it in the treasure hunt.
The pub itself has a decidedly yummy mummy feel to it, quite reminiscent of the Greenwich Union which often resembled a creche.
It also serves pints in those heavy old dimple glasses which I regard as affectation (much like the Southampton Arms and we wonder if they are indeed connected).
It is at this point that some of those teams that are lagging behind - the usual suspects from south of the river - realise that they don't stand a hope of winning.
Wisely they decide to call it a day and simply enjoy the booze. So we savour a few more beers and then we take the 73 back to the Wenlock.
Those teams that nobly carried on with the quiz had the luxury of three pubs in a short stretch just south of the Angel.
Two of these pubs were on Arlington Street - the Shakespeare's Head and the Harlequin.
The Shakespeare's Head is a modern estate-style pub just a few yards from Sadlers Well theatre - in fact it is close to the stage door and s a result the walls are covered in posters and autographed photos. The beer is Courage Best and Directors which is no more than OK.
There are two Darlington connections as part of the questions - an autographed picture of Wendy Craig on the wall plus a newspaper mock-up to celebrate one of the regulars being a great grandad. His name? George Reynolds...
(left) The Harlequin

The Harlequin is just a short walk away - a small pretty pub which is also full of acting memorabilia but this is all much older, much of it concerned with Joseph Grimaldi who trod the boards in the 19th century.
The beer is again OK but nothing fantastic - Landlord and Black Sheep.
The Old Red Lion is the last port of call on the treasure hunt -a pub has been on this site for 595 years and the current incarnation incorporates a small theatre upstairs. Photos of many of the up-and-coming stars who started out here - such as local actress Kathy Burke - festoon the walls and made perfect clues.
It's quite a nice pub - five beers on offer usually with regulars including Harvey's Best, Landlord and London Pride and the odd guest. Chris Turner and I were here a year ago on one of our close-season rambles and the Landlord was about the best we'd had in London but in more recent visits though the beer hasn't been brilliant.
As well as answering questions, there were initiative and bonus rounds to sort out the winners from the losers.
These included finding the best mis-shapen vegetable or fruit during the crawl (a huge misshapen cassava) and coming up with the best celebrity story (which involved John Inman on the Edgware Road - you don't need to know anymore).
By 7:30pm or so, everyone was back at the Wenlock Arms - Liz totted up the scores and declared the winners to be Alice and Tess - champagne for them - with Jenny and Jim close behind in second place.

Katie and Robert, Liz's niece and brother respectively, were unable to take part fully as Rob took Katie off for a ride on the tube. They still got a classy prize though...

(right) Liz presents a prize to Robert and Katie

There were cheap runner-up prizes for all the other teams - piggy banks, gardening gloves and scented candles - so everyone was a winner on the day!

It goes without saying that the Wenlock Arms provided the best beer choice of the day so it is slightly worrying that the place is up for sale and there is talk of redeveloping this area.
Some beer folk regard the place as dirty and run-down and to a degree they're right but it is a pub where everyone is welcome and left alone to enjoy their beer or have a chat. Long may it continue to be so...

(above) Alice and Tess - winners of the 2010 London Millers Treasure Hunt thingy

Eastern Promise

What a glorious day for a pub crawl - warm weather but not as stupidly hot as earlier in the week. Liz and I had got to the Wenlock Arms a little before opening so we had a pleasant sit down in the small park next door.

Following the machinations of the AGM, it was time to sort out the teams for the Pub Crawl Treasure Hunt Quiz Thingy - only four teams in all to take on the course but all as keen as mustard to get started.

Our Plymouth-supporting chum, Geoff, accompanied me as we aimed to wander around behind the teams and check all the clues were still intact. Liz meanwhile went off to buy some prizes from the nearest Pound Shop.

(left) The Marksman


The first point of call for the teams was the Marksman on Hackney Road - a healthy little schlep from the Wenlock via Columbia Road Market - just enough of a hike to generate a thirst.

Geoff and I had wandered there via the nearby Royal Oak to try the cask-conditioned Meantime London Pale Ale but alas it was off.

The Marksman commemorates the death of Nelson and it sits of the corner of Horatio Road and Hackney Road and it currently offers just one cask beer, Landlord. The landlord reckons they can't really run to another handpump but they're doing their best and the menus look extremely tasty. They're also offering the chance to barter for a pint. I'm not sure that will catch on somehow.

When I first came to London this place was an Everards house, one of the few decent places in East London for real ale in those days.

From here it was a short walk to the second pub, the Albion, which is certainly a football pub. The place is a homage to West Bromich Albion and the walls are covered in pennants and photographs from their dim and distant past.

It's just such a shame then that the beer was so lousy. The Pitfield Organic was positively vinegrescent and the Landlord little better.

However it did allow most teams to check out the final quarter of the British Lions victory against SA on the big screen - and even the beer garden had it's own screen - but no one hung around after that once they got the required answers.

Another short-walk then took everyone to Broadway Market with two opportunities for point scoring by the teams.

The Dove a very popular pub - and is the sister pub to the Dovetail in Clerkenwell - and the place was overrun with trendy young things (which is generally everyone younger than me).

(left) Get yer eels here!


A fairly decent selection of 6-8 cask beers with the likes of Maldon Gold and Golden Duck from Crouch Vale, Speckled Hen, Landlord (again), Flowers IPA, Pedigree and Abbot.

There was also a variety of Belgian beers on draught - I opted for the Brugse Zot which is always drinkable - plus a good choice of bottles.

The other place for teams to score points was at Cooke's pie and mash shop just a few yards down the road. Most teams tried the pie and mash but only one team tried the jellied eels as well. Brave boys!

Liz and I had tried out their pie and mash a couple of weeks earlier when checking out the route and the current owner is a real friendly chap and was proud of what's probably the most verdant liquor I've yet seen. However his mash had too many eyes in it for my high exacting standards and the pies were only so-so.

From the bustle of the market, it was nice to get down to the relative calm of Regents Canal towpath and walk to the next pub. Well, it would be if it wasn't for 99% of cyclists bombing along the route as well. Bastards!

The towpath is a great route to take to miss out some of the more miserable roads around here but a pain as you have to have eyes in the back of your head to see these proto-Lance Armstrongs.

(right) Token arty shot

From the towpath Geoff and I had to scale the fence into neighbouring Victoria Park in order to get to the fourth pub, the Approach Tavern.

The Approach is another old haunt of mine from the mid 1980s - it has changed a little internally but offer a decent selection of beers, mainly Fullers but also an Adnams beer. Some decent foreign beers on draught too. Liz and I have been here a couple of other times recently and the place is always busy - the beer is kept well and the food is excellent. And most people sit outside on the terrace so it's nice and quiet indoors.

Whilt Robert, Clarkey and Peter went off to find more answers at the Crown, found at the corner of Grove Road and Old Ford Road, Geoff and I rejoined the towpath and wandered off to the final pub of the crawl, the Palm Tree.

Now the Palm Tree is very well known to Darlo and Rotherham fans as an after-venue for Dagenham and Redbridge games and quite a few on the crawl had been there before but probably not via this route.

The pub occupies an eco-park next to the canal and so can get quite busy with passing walkers and local students - that we have only one person serving a busy bar is not a surprise but which does mean the wait for a beer was longer than we'd want.

John and Bev had managed to join us at this point - unfortunately the lure of domestic duties had meant they couldn't start the crawl but they'd eventually tired of carpet shops and made it in time for the last leg of the crawl.

As ever two cask beers were on offer - the very drinkable Roy Rogers (3.8%) from the Brentwood Brewery and Jake the Snake (4.0%) from Mighty Oak - but by the time we'd got served the latter had all gone - we bagged the remnants of half a pint but found it to be a bit bland.

We eventually persuaded Rob, Clarkey and Peter to leave the Palm Tree a little after 7pm and headed to nearby Mile End tube, eventually arriving back at the Wenlock just after 8pm - in the end we weren't far behind the Three Gentlemen of Norbury who had stopped off for a fish supper.

Liz proceeded to give out the answers to her carefully crafted questions - most of the teams did quite well even if some googling was done for some answers (you know who you are!). And then time for the prizes - quite predictably Liz's brother and his teammates came last despite being the only team to take on jellied eels.

Once the prize giving was over it was time to relax and have some more beer. And listen to the jazz.

One pleasant surprise at the end of the night was bumping into Richard Stedman, or Stedders to his mates, who visiting the capital and who had decided to re-visit a few of his haunts.

DAFTS got to know Stedders very well when he first put together the Football and Real Ale Guides a few seasons ago when we were able to help out with pub recommendations in the lower divisions.

Since then, Richard has spent time running a cracking little pub in sunny Colne but he's now returned to his native Bristol where he can keep an eye on his beloved Rovers.

The Football and Real Ale Guide is now online where it is much easier to maintain and Stedders is always on the look-out for new pub recommendations as well as updates and reviews so that it can kept up-to-date and useful to fans. We'll certainly be doing our best to help out.

London Millers' Pub Crawl

This Saturday (4th July) I'll be crossing over to the dark side and attending the London Millers' AGM upstairs at the Wenlock Arms, just off the City Road.

The main reason for attending is to take part in their Pub Crawl Treasure Hunt Quiz Thingy (PCTHQT hereafter) which follows the completion of their AGM business.

Essentially the PCTHQT sees teams (generally of 2 to 4 people) following clues to find pubs and then using additional clues to find answers secreted somewhere within each establishment.

In the past, the London Millers' Eddie Rowles-alike, Tim, has been organising these events - and good fun they've been too, often visiting parts of the capital I'm not overly familiar with and finding interesting pubs.

(above) a reet motley crew and no mistake

I've tended to just go along in a team and just concentrate on the beer, content to leave the others to wander the pub, examining bric-a-brac and pictures for the answers to the clues.

There is a time-limit for getting round the course - nominally three and a half hours - but teams generally come in a little later than this. Scores are then totted up and prizes awarded. All very sporting.

This year however, Tim has taken a sabbatical and the PCTHQT has been organised by yours truly and her indoors; I've selected the pubs and Liz has come up with the questions (although I do know what they are). I suspect they're not quite as obtuse as some of Tim's questions have been over the years...we're just simple folk.

This strategy will still allow me to wander round the pubs and enjoy the beer whilst having a smug I-know-all-the-answers-nar-nar look on my face.

Hopefully the good weather will continue and a good time will be had by all.

If you fancy joining us, pop along to the Wenlock Arms between 1:30 and 2pm on Saturday...

For those that cannot join us, there'll be a full report next week.

I Predict A Riot

Despite a London fixture, it was still a relatively early start to the day as John Wilson and I popped to Maries by Waterloo station for breakfast - not up to the high exacting standards that we're used from here to but still better than most.

As we got to the tube, the place was swarming with people clutching various banners and placards - all going to a demo in the centre of London, possibly against the G20 thingy - they all looked quite reasonable folk and not the hard-core protesters that are predicted for later in the week.

It reminded us both of that fateful day back in March 1990 when we beat Barnet 2-0 in the Conference after which we were given a Northern Line express tube journey back into central London to find out that anarchy (or as close as this country gets) had broken out in the form of the Poll Tax riots.

Perhaps this was a good omen for the day?

On arrival at Barnet, we met Steve Duffy and Trevor Rutter and we headed to our first point of call, a Fullers outlet, the White Lion. We were very disappointed to find it only had one beer on - Pride - but it was in very good nick.

After a couple of pints, we moved onto another new place - the Lord Nelson - which is a Youngs pub. Already ensconced were Colin, Argyle fan Geoff plus John Bell and a couple of his buddies, including Rod who had already savoured one Darlo victory this season - at Dagenham - so hopefully he'd be another lucky omen for us.

Our final pre-match pub was the Olde Mitre - the quality and variety of beers here have been very disappointing in recent years though comments on beerintheevening.com had suggested the place was improving. Nevertheless, we decided to just have the one in here.

There seem to be three regular beers - Black Sheep, Adnams Broadside and GK Abbot - plus a guest beer which on this occasion was Mr Tod from the Fox Beer Company so we opted for that. It was a 4.2% beer - produced by a former head brewer at Tetleys apparently - quite a light beer, not much taste and of a rather dull condition - which was not really surprising as it went off just after we'd bought our pints.

We managed to get to Underhill just in time for kick-off and we made sure that we were stood with Colin. The reason was that the referee for the game was Premiership official, Alan Wiley, and since Colin is well known for his loud ranting at officials, it would be interesting to see how he coped with one of the top refs.

During the first-half there was ample scope for him - Danny Carlton was taken out at one point whilst poor Ricky Ravenhill was on the receiving end of some nasty tackles on several occasions (though unkind commentators might say that is karma in action). Wiley was lenient in the extreme and Barnet were lucky to keep eleven players on their famous slope.

Barnet had gone closest in the first half, hitting the woodwork (which is off-target in my book) whilst Calyton Fortune skied a good opportunity at the other end.

In the second half, Colin found that Matt Lockwood, formerly of Orient, was down our side and he proceeded to give him a load of gip. Surprisingly, Lockwood took it well and even shouted something witty and polite back which rather non-plussed our Eastwood Dynamo.

We were also privy to some excellent play from Abbot - including the odd nutmeg - and he was on the end of some good work on the left-wing from Danny Carlton to put us in the lead.

Thereafter we were under the cosh somewhat and the defence stood up to most of it with Alan White playing a blinder - what they missed was either saved by Oakes or blasted over by the Barnet forward line.

Oakes was taken off with an ankle injury with towards the end of the game after what looked to be an innocuous clash with Paul Furlong - cue reserve keeper Kazimierczak and a severe bout of jitters for the Darlo fans - would our young Pole rise to the occasion?

Oh me of litte faith! He did us proud with at least two wonderful saves which along with a goal-line clearance from Rob Purdie saw us run down the clock for our first win here for 13 years. Very sweet.

Post-match celebrations were held at the Wenlock Arms, just off the City Road, which is a very well-known pub for we beardy-weirdies. Suffice to say it had the usual array of interesting beers and we were able to watch England trounce Slovakia. Various DAFTS drifted off to catch trains home leaving just John, Geoff and myself - when the jazz band started we called it a day...