That Was The Week That Was…Coach And Horses In Chester Green

What a week…pubs reopening and Keir Starmer gets booted out by a landlord!  No politics on this site of course and it could quite easily have been any politician from any party but fair play to a publican for sticking up for himself after being shafted left, right and centre for months..

Rumours that the last people to be banned from this pub in Bath were Dave and Dick after one of their pub visits to Blighty coincided with bumping into Martin and the carnage that involves are, as yet, unconfirmed.

If all that excitement, allied to a cask renaissance, wasn’t enough then there was also the European Super League Drama (yawn) where a lot of rich clubs get a bit richer by playing against their mates and the organisations that created the problems PL, UEFA and FA suddenly take the moral high ground in football.

The equivalent would be someone like Hansie Cronje taking the high ground and calling Lance Armstrong a cheat.

I don’t care if these clubs go as football sold out a long time ago and I can’t see it affecting my club, Birmingham City.

However, I can exclusively reveal on this blog that the ‘BIG 18’ myself, Martin, Mark Shirley, Duncan, Paul WME, BRAPA, Mudgie, Stirchley Pete, Mappiman, Paul Bailey, Chris Dyson, Citra, Blackpool Jane, The Beertonian, The Travelling Barman, Tandleman, and Tamworth Mark have all been in negotiations. 

Talks are ongoing with representatives of  Ibstock, Coalville, Whitwick, Swannington, Hugglescote and three other unnamed LE67 suburbs about a super blogging league.

Incentives mooted are 400 pints of Bass per year, unlimited supplies of beermats and a guaranteed pub character in every boozer to enable enough ammunition for posts.

Of course, this might mean the end of the road for Pub Hermit and The Wickingman but with their opulent Hampshire and Peak District lifestyles, they can cope with the downturn in blogging income.

However, THE big news of this past week has been pubs reopening…okay, okay I know it’s only beer gardens, pub car parks and makeshift marquees but the omens are positive, as punters are coming out to support.

Most landlords have been welcoming in punters – apart from Rod Humphris in The Raven of course – and a prime example of this is Mark Shirley’s favourite Derby boozer 616 – Coach And Horses DE1 3RF.

This completes my hat trick of Chester Green pubs after visiting the now defunct Duke of Clarence and open (but not yet) Little Chester Ale House, this is definitely the big behemoth in this surprisingly tranquil area of Derby.

It’s a real mix of factories and urban grit alongside some inner city parkland, churches and a busy main road.

The Coach and Horses is, apparently, one of those pubs which still has old skool pub games inside and it certainly felt like a ‘proper pub.’

I messaged beforehand to check they’d be open about 6.15 and the gaffer, a geezer called Eamon, confirmed they were open for business and he met me by the sign in table where a smattering of pub benches/tables were in the car park.

“We’ve got no cask on till next week…but I’ve got bottles of Old Peculier.”  This isn’t normally on my radar but the pubs are open and I thought why not.

Pub ticker connoisseurs might say drinking a bottle in a car park doesn’t constitute a visit but it certainly does as the fact it was in a Bass glass trumps all previous rules!

It was actually top class and will be on the agenda in the future…a group of about four likely lads arrived and looked like they were settling for a giggle whilst couples, blokes on their own and pub bloggers were also in attendance.

A great atmosphere although it was definitely jumper (that’s sweater Russ/Dave) weather by that time and highlighted one of the possible problems if the weather turns…

Some proper pubbery though and further proof that publicans want you in their boozers…unless you’re an MP of course.