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Stampeding & Crawling 12
myself and my aforementioned bro! In fairness to Shep, he rang from Peterborough Bus Station to say that he was the only taker from that end for the event and between us we decided that it wasn’t worth his making the trip. The (quite lengthy) trek to the Anchor was, of course, worth it and we arrived just as bolts were being drawn. We’d been blessed with a lovely day and we sat in the very pleasant garden watching the birdlife (including what we thought was a gannet) as our pints of Dancing Duck Bourne Particular went down. There’s a theory, to which I subscribe, which says that well-kept Bass is hard to beat, and this proved to be the case for our second pints in the Anchor – a fine ale!
Back into Bourne town centre and the Nag’s Head, a light, roomy pub with a large outdoor area. We felt it would be rude not to order Hopshackle Brewery’s Nagging Goat, which is also a permanent fixture at the Goat in Frognall, sister pub to the Nag’s Head. We debated – briefly – on whether to have halves of Nene Valley’s Bang Goes String Theory, at a hefty 7.8%, before electing to have pints of it! Lovely stuff……….Right on cue, landlord Richard Barrett arrived hotfoot from the Goat with the news that he was about to put Nene Valley’s Egyptian Cream on, so we were very happy to delay our departure to drink pints of this superb ale – and enjoy a natter with Richard.
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Onto the Delaine and down to Market Deeping and the Vine. Again it was warm enough to sit outside as we luxuriated in pints of Church End Goat’s Milk and Rudgate Ruby Mild, both quite delicious. Moved on to the town centre but didn’t trouble the bar staff in the Stage (Doom Bar only) or the Iron Horse (no real ale). However, we enjoyed our pints of mixed Everard’s Old Original and Tiger in the Bull, venue of course of the very first Peterborough CAMRA Branch meeting in 1974.
My long-suffering wife Tina picked us up and, while waiting for our pizza supper in Stamford, we somehow tumbled into the Tobie Norris for pints of Tribute to round off a very enjoyable day.
Al
Richard Barrett
