Might as well celebrate something, ideas welcome for a staring venue!!
If the weathers fine then Fiddle & Bone, if not then the Craven Arms from 5.00pm
Chap arrived a little earlier than planned at 4.45 but was soon joined by Ted who was making an appearance in between his Leeds Utd supporting duties for a change, and Tone. There's a fair selection of ales at the Craven and even Carling to suit the less distinguished pallet. Phil, Steve and the Dorridge Dozers, Sim & Ian made up the merry septet fro the rest of the evening.
We quickly set about making the plan for DTW13 which was only 3 weeks away. Plans were made for two waves Wednesday night & Thursday and shopping duties duly assigned to Ian for the meat and the Wednesday crew for the other requirements. The getaway seems earlier every year. Plenty of ales were quothed during the planning session.
Next port of call was a new one for the Chaps - the Keg and Grill, which is a bit of an Indian gastro pub. it was ok and they served Sharps Atlantic on draught which was reasonable if not quite the same as the bottled variety. We also tried in vain to get some free samples off the reasonably attractive barmaid, but she was not forthcoming!!,
After 3 jars of SA in the Keg we headed off down to the Old Vic for a quick pint or two. A brief stop here and then time to move on to the Railway (Sam Wellers to us history buffs). We lost the dozers on route, well a 4 hour session seems to do for the DD's nowadays, whilst the remaining Chaps had a final 2 or 3 in the Railway. Poor old Ted is not use to the 8 to 10 pint session in 5 hours and he was barely compis-mentis towards the end of the evening. Tone helped him out by assisting him to the correct platform on New St. station for his train to Derby. (Following morning text from Ted confirmed he got home alright but was unaware how he made it to the station!!).
Tone bailed for his bus, how times have changed but was followed not long after by Steve and Chap. Phil did his usual and headed to the casino, well who could resist when it was next door.