Prop Up the Bar

The weekend of 19th-20th September saw 160 teams in action in FA Cup qualifying 2nd round fixtures.

A trip to the southernmost tip of Dorset in which I spend two nights on Portland and live to tell the tale.

A short Staffordshire/Worcestershire post, taking in Black Country Ales, Bathams and a magnificent cob.

🕔Five pm in Telford.

An early September Tuesday trip to Telford with a National League North game to look forward to in the evening.

Another glamorous away trip with Oxford City in the National League North, this time into North Notts for a bank holiday Monday fixture against Worksop Town.

The August 2026 instalment of my annual standing in a park watching noisy bands series.

Saturday 15th August: The football season was getting underway for most of the 72 league clubs, Reading and Luton providing the early-kick off 7-goal thriller.

A second post from sunny Coventry on the Beer & Pubs Forum big day out.

I headed to Coventry on the 12th August, a day when the city was sweltering in 33° heat and the news was full of excitement about how many people would damage their eyesight looking directly at that evening's partial eclipse of the sun.

I was pretty sad, as I reached the final three pubs of the Berkshire chapter of the Good Beer Guide for 2026.

Having barely visited Berkshire in the past year, I found myself making a flurry of trips to the neighbouring county to tick off the 2026 Beer Guide pubs I hadn't previously visited.

My afternoon in Hungerford began with a 3-mile walk north from the station to the hamlet of Hungerford Newtown where a new Good Beer Guide 2026 entry awaited.

We found ourselves in Chesterfield in summer 2026's third or fourth heatwave - I'm losing count.

In which we tackle half-a-dozen pubs on the western side of Chesterfield.

Day 2 on the train from Buxton, where we departed on the same 11:46 service but paid more than the previous day when we travelled further.

Setting out from our Buxton base, the plan was to visit a few towns and drink a few beers in some of the stops on the railway line towards Stockport.

Summer 2026 saw us shunning foreign shores and instead spending a week in Derbyshire, beginning with a four night stay in the spa town of Buxton.

A second post from Nottingham, containing a quartet of pubs outside the city centre, a superb pub dog, hanging baskets, live music, and a 6% strong premium ale from Tyne & Wear which slowed me down somewhat.

Back in Nottingham.

The first Friday in July saw a group of pub enthusiasts gather on the Notts/Derby border for a trek around half-a-dozen venues in the village of Sawley.

Having initially made a beeline for the pubs in the shadow of the cathedral, I set out to discover what was along the southern bit of the High Street - the flatness of which is welcome after a few treks up and down Steep Hill.

The end of June 2026 found me in Lincoln for a couple of days with a ticket for a gig at the castle and a plan to get around a dozen-or-so of the city's pubs.

A capital pub ramble taking in a handful of SE venues from Lewisham to Blackheath: a backstreet gem, a brewpub, a SIBA award winner, and an unexpected pint of Bass to end the day.

A post from the north-west corner of London, taking in canal-side pubs, Fullers 'London Pride', a prestigious private school, and more Wetherspoon's that anyone really need to be subjected to.

Actually, the best of Ludlow was two posts back, but as I haven't included the brewery tap or Black Country Ales pub, I figured I could squeeze in one more Shropshire blog post.

Walking The Strettons Day three on our Ludlow trip found us travelling 17-miles into the Shropshire Hills to the touristic town of Church Stretton.

The plan for Day 2 of our trip to Ludlow was to catch the train into Herefordshire and visit the town of Leominster.

A short break during some of the chillier days of May 2026 took us to the western edges of Shropshire and the historic town of Ludlow.

Staying local for a trip to the Oxfordshire town of Abingdon in a May heat wave.