Dr Who DVDs and Thurlow Nunn Football League: CAMRA judging takes in Great Yarmouth, Ashill, Norwich and Gorleston
Great Yarmouth. You go once in a Preston Guild (very infrequently) and then a couple of times in not much more than a month.
The Norfolk CAMRA branches had just announced their Pubs of the Year and their Cider Pubs of the Year, so with a free weekend we decided to go across to Yarmouth and take part in the survey to decide the county champions.
Our first port of call was our very own entry, the White Hart Free House in Ashill. With a warm welcome, and a fine selection of ales on sale, things looked promising. There were tasting notes on the screen over the bar which are also available online, giving up to date information about the beers on sale. With a dedicated CAMRA noticeboard and discount for members, this clean, attractive village local looked hard to beat.
Before we reached Yarmouth, we had a slight detour to undertake.
A late lunch in a café overlooking the beautiful and much underrated Gorleston beach allowed us time to head out to Emerald Park to watch the Greens take on Long Melford in a Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties Premier clash pitting second top against second bottom.
Surprisingly the underdog visitors came away with a 3-1 win, but perhaps more importantly, at least for me I had visited my 12th Norfolk ground. Not that I am counting…Oh, OK I am.
After finding our very pleasant and good value hotel, it was off to find the Tombstone Tavern, the East Norfolk entry into both competitions. This cowboy themed bar has its own brewery and their beers featured heavily amongst the eight or so on offer.
My Tombstone Arizona was very drinkable, as was the glass of cider I selected from amongst the dozen available, so the result would have to be decided on other criteria. What was noticeable was that the Saturday evening clientele was exclusively male, many bearded and balding (I fitted in very well).
Superhero T-shirts were the order of the day and there seemed to be a brisk exchange going on with Dr Who DVDs. I reckon that many of the customers present thought that it was amongst the best pubs in the world, and who is to say that they are wrong, but it did seem to appeal to a rather limited demographic. Should this be held against it in the scoring?
Our final objectives lay in Norwich. A fun train journey on Sunday took us to the fine city, where we broke off shopping long enough to pop into the Kings Head on Magdalen Street. An established favourite, the pub prides itself on selling local beers and no keg products. It was quiet when we called and the landlady was pleasant and chatty, the beer wonderful and it would have been very tempting to stay longer.
However, our path lay across the city to the White Lion where a glass of cider awaited. Due to their fine food offering, the place was packed but the landlady found us a place to perch at the bar, guided our choice of cider and was interested in our opinions. Gosh this is difficult. All these places are excellent.
Add into the mix our very own Live and Let Live, the winner of our West Norfolk Cider crown and the task of finding a winner becomes even harder. Still, we have made our choices, entered our scores and now we await the announcements with interest. Perhaps the Tombstone will triumph and we can return to Yarmouth once again to help judge the East Anglia round. I feel a trip to Lowestoft Town beckoning.
Jeff Hoyle
