It is building up to a crescendo as the first match approaches, both here in Middleton and in Germany, where I was at the weekend. Here all the pubs are being done up in the national colours, with the emphasis on quantity rather than quality, though they don't seem to do that in Germany. Not that Germany eschews tackiness altogether. While visiting a brew pub in the sticks on Saturday we came across a shop selling tat (in German colours of red, yellow and black of course) that might have made even a Langley lad think twice. Leprechaun hats in German national colours, Hawaiian garlands, ditto (I rather liked them), a set of three clappy hands (which I now wish I'd bought), flags for cars and a lanyard in red, yellow and black, with a whistle for getting on people's tits. (That was a euro and is now proudly in Tandleman Towers.) I rather think though that I would be unwise to wear much German gear around here, as I'd likely get my head kicked in. To add to the festivities, as we left Frankfurt the airport was besieged by fans, garlanded, Ballack shirted and face painted, waiting to watch the national team fly off in Lufthansa's new A380.Nonetheless Middleton is not to be outdone. I noticed this rather fine bronze fellow (pictured) outside the Middleton Archer, a Lees Pub. It pays tribute to the err..... Middleton Archers (the chaps with longbows, not pints of bitter) success in mowing innocent Scots down at Flodden, a fact also commemorated in our Parish Church, by the world's first ever war memorial.
I'm getting excited too and must get some beer in. Even this pub drinker may require the odd home libation.
Out of genuine interest... what bottles will you buy to drink at home while watching the football?
ReplyDeleteI too am interested to know what you and others plan to drink while watching the footy. This is a question I have explored on my blog, what is the perfect world cup beer?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beerdemon.blogspot.com/
I shall do my best to miss the football which may mean drinking at home a bit more unless I can find a pub with decent beer that is not showing this nonsense.
ReplyDelete"World Cup"? Is this a beer competition?
ReplyDelete@Mark. Good question. Hoegaarden is my likely choice, or maybe a few TTLL (often better in bottle than cask these days).
ReplyDeleteThis is a distraction beer. It doesn't have to be special, but it mustn't be cheap shite either. I'll sniff around and let you know what I find.
@Paul Nonsense? Nonsense!
Jeff - At least "our" world cup has more than one nation in it!
To beer drinkers weary already of the World Cup hype: my blog is a football-free zone.
ReplyDelete"maybe a few TTLL (often better in bottle than cask these days)"
ReplyDeleteLandlord I presume? WOW did not thing much of it in the bottle
Well it's been a while. Back to the drawing board then!
ReplyDeleteI've not had Taylor's Landlord for a while but I find it's one of the few filtered bottles that comes anywhere near resembling the cask version which unlike you I've rarely been disappointed by.
ReplyDeleteHoegaarden on the other hand has nosedived in quality in the last few years under the ownership of InBev. I had a bottle the other week which had none of the spicy sourness which it had when I first drank it.
Matt I think quite a few have been disappointed by TTLL. It can be good, but....
ReplyDeleteAs for Hoegaarden, InBev changed it many years ago when they bought it, but as far as I know, it has remained the same since - apart from they tried to brew it at Jupille. It isn't the greatest wit, but it still is very drinkable.
You made me think of a beer 11 for England but Im struggling. Got the folowing
ReplyDeleteRobert Green King IPa
Ledley Kingfisher
John Terys All Gold
Ahley Coles
James Milner Light
Peter Crouch Vale
Wainwright Rooney
I already have a cunning plan for Saturday's opening game.
ReplyDeleteHere in Ireland it simply will not be worth watching in the pub because of the braying oafs shouting spittle-flecked abuse at all the England players who they would normally be naming their children after when they play in their favoured Premiership team.
And yes the irony is still lost of them after all these years.
So some early pints in the pub and the home for a selection of the strongest Belgian beer I can find ( itself no mean task in this beer desert of a country ) to dull the impact of the inevitable mediocre performance against the Yanks.
Oh yes, nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI'd put football in the same category as opera, something that people like because they think they should.
Well Paul. An interesting but ultimately unsustainable analogy I'd say.
ReplyDeleteYou are in for a hard month.
I always wondered what the locals looked like in Middleton.
ReplyDeleteBeing the cantankerous old bugger I am I think I could sustain it
ReplyDeleteI think I know of at least two pubs I can go to to avoid it.
I genuinely like both football and opera. No difficulty sustaining that, and they're both about as expensive as each other nowadays to see live.
ReplyDeleteI do love how the Germans let their hair down for international football tournaments.
My football watching drink of choice is Brooklyn lager out of the bottle.