Rob Whatley

The Richard I in Greenwich, the Navigation Inn, Blackburn and the Jolly Angler in Manchester are just three of the pubs that will not be visited by large groups of Saints fans this season. While these favourite haunts will be missed, last season's relegation does give the beer loving Saints fan the opportunity to visit many new pubs when travelling to away matches. The good news is that author Richard Steadman, football and good ale enthusiast, has published a set of new guides to pubs for the real ale loving football fan.

Most guides to watering holes for travelling fans tend to concentrate on pubs close to the ground or in the town centres and the quality of the beer or even the availability of real ale at all rarely gets a mention. Thus in the past preparing a trip to a new away ground has involved going through the Good Beer Guide and then inputting the postcodes of the pubs and of the ground into 'Multimap' in order to plan the day's entertainment. The Football and Real Ale Guide 2005-2006 means that such a task is no longer necessary.

It is a guide of four quarters, as there is a separate book for each of the four main divisions in England. The guide lists three pubs for each town featured. In Southampton the pubs featured are the Platform Tavern, the South Western and the Crown in Highfield. This selection is fairly typical of the pubs suggested for each team. Many of the selections include a pub such as the Crown, which is some way from the football ground but in which the visitor can obtain good beer and food before the match in a less frantic atmosphere than can be found in many city centre pubs before a match.

The guide scores over the Good Beer Guide in that it has pictures of every pub and a more comprehensive description, which includes the type of atmosphere and comfort that the visitor can expect to find on match days. All the pubs featured have been visited by the author in the last twelve months but the descriptions also include input from other well travelled football fans.

The guide would make a good birthday or Christmas present for any football fan. And with a bit of luck, at the end of this season Saints fans will be able to swap their Championship editions with fans from the eastern end of the M27 who will no longer be requiring their Premiership copies!

South Hants CAMRA

 
Review and Competition: Football and Real Ale Guide 05-06 Posted by: JohnCresswell 

 
Follow Villa home and away? Want to know of a decent pub for before the game? Or just a fan of decent pubs and real ale? Then we have just the thing for you.

The Football and Real Ale Guide 2005-06, written by Richard Stedman – a lifelong Bristol Rovers fan – is an away day guide with the real ale fan in mind.

Richard has visited a selection of pubs in every place you are likely to visit for the new Premiership season. Each pub visited has details such as location, whether smoking is allowed and when food is available. A detailed description is given of the pub too, so you really know where to spend those few hours before the game.

Maps with locations of the hostelries are given, and are simple and easy to follow picking out pubs that are friendly towards away fans, instead of ending up in a pub surrounded by gap toothed knuckledraggers ready to throw a chair at you for wearing a different coloured football shirt.

Other important things such as T.V and music are also detailed in this extensive and well researched book.

‘Stedders’ has written four guides that include three pubs in each football town in the country. They are proving to be very popular, having sold 2000 copies at the Great British Beer festival in four days.

You can find more information about the books at the website The Football and Real Ale Guide where you can also make suggestions about pubs for next season’s guide. You can also order the guides – and they’d make a great present for anyone who enjoys following their football team away from home – no matter what team they support.

We have a copy of each guide – Premiership, Championship, Division One and Division Two to give away, and to win them, you have to answer the following question:
 
Football & Real Ale Guide 2005-06 

 Richard Stedman (Stedders), a former Milton Keynes teacher, has written four guides linking each football division with local real ale pubs.He has kindly sent us a copy of his Division one guide for us to review.

The guide selects three real ale houses for each team in our division and details information such as disabled access, car parking, food and most important of all the beers on tap.

To judge the guides accuracy we thought it best to look at our local entries. The first was our very own Victoria Inn in Bradwell village run by Lisa who is seen at both home and away matches. A very familiar photo depicts the pub with a bunch of Dons supporters on the patio! A very accurate desciption of this pub is given - if you've never been there it's well worth the visit if you love real ale. If you're looking for a pool table then ensure you are prepared for crampt conditions! Next up was the Fox and Hounds in Stony Stratford. A local skittles pub with a good range of real ales. Stony is renowned for it's range of good pubs and eating places but the Fox & Hounds scores due to it's consistent beer quality. The final pub representing Milton Keynes is technically not in Milton Keynes! The Cannon at Newport Pagnell famous for it's public jamming sessions and range of real ales.

 A good selection of local pubs serving great beer and good food - if this is replicated throughout our division then this book is an absolute goldmine of information regarding the best pubs in the area. Definately one for those supporters who want to make the away day experience complete by visiting fantastic pubs with excellent beer and food along with a handy guide to get from the pub to the ground.

If you wish to order this book it is available via Amazon (ISBN 1-905423-02-0) - remember to order via the MKDSA Buy-At link ( http://buy.at/MKDSA ) so that your SA will benefit from your purchase!
MKDSA

Finally, a book for Cheltenham Town fans, and particularly those who travel away - Richard Stedman’s Football and Real Ale Guide - a small publication which gives a guide to recommended pubs in all of the towns that Cheltenham will visit this season in League Two. Even though nearly half of the away matches have been played, at £5.50 it’s still good value!

BBC Gloucestershire

Three Wirral pubs are featured in The Football and Real Ale Guide 20052006 which is the handiwork of Bristol Rovers fan, Richard Stedman. He has been travelling around the country to discover the best real ale pubs near football grounds. Wirral’s three, are the Traveller’s Rest, Mount Road, Higher Bebington, the Crown Ale House, Conway Street, Birkenhead and the Crown and Cushion, Market Street, Birkenhead. Richard describes the Trav’s as a recommended street corner village local with a loyal set of
customers who relish a proper pub. Beers include national favourites plus regional guests and enjoyable pub food. The Crown is described as being equally impressive from outside as within, with highly polished beautiful rooms and the magnificent Cheapside Brewery mirror. The beers too are pretty good! At the time of the visit, Cains, Titanic, York Brewery, Evan Evans and Theakstons were all available. On Market Street, the Crown and Cushion is justly called the ‘shrine’ of Tranmere players
past and present, with signed photos and press cuttings in the back room. It has a traditional bar and Hydes bitter on tap. If you are a TRFC fan and have’nt discovered the ‘Cush’, drop in and you won’t be disappointed.

Wirral Drinker