Straw Bear Festival, Whittlesey

There are two Charlton games I always look out for when the fixtures list is published in the Summer, but perhaps for the opposite reasons to most fans.  The first is the Boxing day game.  I'm usually not in London on that day so it means an early start and a long drive down in freezing weather if we are playing at home, rather than a short trip up the road from my Christmas location to watch the Posh at London Road.

The second is the mid January game which again I hope will be an away fixture as it clashes with the Straw Bear festival in Whittlesey (near Peterborough).  This year's game against Barnsley meant that it looked like I would be giving up my first home game of the season.  With apologies to the Barnsley fans who made a long and costly wasted trip down I still get to see this fixture at a later date!


Straw Bear is a custom relating to Plough Monday when a man was dressed up in straw and paraded from pub to pub for the amusement of the locals.  It has now grown to what I believe is one of the eminent folk dancing events in the country. 

www.strawbear.org.uk

The Straw Bear

Forget your wassailing in Kent orchards, this is full blown folk with Morris, Mollies, Rappers (no not that kind - sword dancers to you and me!) and Appalachian clog dancers in abundance plus the Fenland equivalent of the Yeti being led around the town on a leash.

Now before you laugh, don't knock it until you've tried it.  Being rammed against the wall in a pub, trying not to spill your pint while six sword dancers whirl around within inches of you is no mean feat, especially after a couple of beers have been sunk.  Folk dancers are a thirsty and discerning bunch when it comes to real ale and the festivities conveniently centre around the local hostelries so its a good excuse for a local pub crawl disguised as a cultural event.

Pretty Grim Morris Group

Whittlesey (or Whittlesea if you're a real local) in normal. times is blessed with a large number of pubs for a town of its size virtually all serving quality ales.  During Staw Bear they go full on with many holding their own mini beer festivals and most stocking seasonal Straw Bear beer brewed for the festival weekend, which is also used to make the batter at the local fish & chip shop.  So it would simply be rude not to take advantage of such an event.  All I can say is don't knock it until you've tried .  Its a great day out for all the family with plenty of events and opportunities to join in should you so wish.

The events start off at the George in the town square where the first pint is an obligatory Straw Beer brewed by Elgood Brewery especially for the festival while watching the Rivington Morris go through their paces.

On a short trip along Market  Street we encountered the  Wichmen Border Morris with their blacked out faces and excellent ivy leaf hatted musical accompaniment.  I've never managed to get a pint at the Black Bull as its always rammed so we tend to wonder further out of town to watch Tylers Men amongst others at the New Crown who have a decent selection of regional beers including Woodford's Wherry and Oakham's Straw Bear Ale.

Pig Dyke Molly

A brief stop outside the Ivy Leaf club saw us catch up with local group Pig Dyke Molly who for me encapsulate the spirit of Molly while dragging it into the 21st century.  You can't miss their distinctive black and white costumes.

The Letter B

Then on to two fantastically named pubs in the form of the Hero of Aliwal and the Letter B, just across the road from each other.  I've never managed to get inside the Letter B as its so small but a good chance to watch the Bourne Borders with their excellent pheasant plumage in their hats.


Back in the town centre the Falcon open up their out houses in the garden to reveal a selection of casks while inside a Mummer play entertained the crowds.  It was here that I heard the bad news about the Charlton game and so it was with a wry smile that I tucked into a pint of Wolf Brewery's "Granny wouldn't like it", picked purely for the name but an excellent dark red but rich and fruity beer.

The pavements of Whittlesey weren't built for tap, so the Apalachian clog dancers ply their trade on a large square of wood inside Childers Hall where they benefit from the acoustics.  In the freezing cold weather this was a chance for us to warm up a bit inside with a pint of Barn Ale, an excellent session pale ale at 3.9% from another local brewery Tydd Steam Brewery (www.tyddsteam.co.uk).  Hats off to dance group Tap & Sync for allowing the children to join in with the dance moves.

Bourne Boarders

We finished off at the Bricklayers Arms where a choice of Elgood Brewery ales met us if we were still thirsty.  A pint of Golden Newt looked like it would be a standard pale ale but had a fuller malty finish that came as a surprise (a few more ingredients in play other than the standard Maris Otter).

Beer of the day was Oakham Ales Straw Bear Ale and dance troop of the day were Pig Dyke Molly.  Boo of the day went to the Stevenage Sword (who are an excellent group) for the apparent non-appearance at the Hero of Aliwal.

 

Haddenham Hoofers

If after all that you're looking for suitable evening home entertainment along the same theme can I recommend the film "Morris: A life with Bells on"  (http://www.morrismovie.com). It stars Derek Jacobi and is a hilarious spoof on the world of Morris dancing.




Oh about that New Years Resolution on quality not quantity, well there's always next year!  I look forward to seeing you all at Charlton's FA cup game against Oxford on Tuesday.   COYR.



Footnote
Apologies if I have the names of any of the dance groups wrong, it was a long day and I wasn't taking notes!  Please contact me and I will be happy to make any corrections

Quality but not Quantity please

The title of this blog piece is my new years resolution, let me explain.

I've had a storming 2013 in terms of the real ale experience. As well as the Great British Beer Festival I've managed to get along to a few specialist festivals in local and not so local pubs.  I've trawled the taverns of Greenwich and found an excellent new local in the form of RLAs serving cask beers only from London Breweries (see www.ewbrewery.com for more details) as well as explored a few new breweries such as Hopstuff in Woolwich and the Brixton Brewery.  I've even found time to visit specialist cask and keg bars such as the Pelt Trader near Cannon Street, Crown & Anchor in Brixton and the Old Red Cow in Smithfield, all in search of a decent pint. All this comes at a cost as my head has invariably found on a Sunday morning but we all have to suffer a little to help our struggling economy don't we?

However, in my ageing years there is only so much a man can take and I've decided that the order of the day is quality over quantity.  No more rubbish beer, no more squeezing one more in for the road and maybe the occasional half of the 7.4% porter rather than a couple of pints (oh why do you make it so easy to drink?- the guilty culprit knows who they are!).  Luckily when it comes to quality food and wine I'm afraid I am a weak willed individual so I'm not too sure how long this will last.  I'm predicting that resolution will last until around mid February at the latest!

I'm also hoping that it's going to be Chris Powell's new year's resolution too.  With the recent takeover there has been a faint whiff of resources being available to the manager and the temptation is to splash the cash.  At least he only has to keep this one until the closing of the January transfer window.  However, its all too easy for a manager to go on a spending spree, buying supposed star players that happen to be free.  We saw it with Iain Dowie who acted like the proverbial kid in a candy store buying anyone and everyone with little or no thought as to the consequences.  Charlton suffered both in footballing and financial terms as a result.

Chris seems to know his stuff, picking out a solid league one winning side when he had the cash to do so.  More importantly, this collection of individuals quickly gelled into a close knot squad, vital for any successful campaign. He has also been quite shrewd in the loan market with the likes of Cameron Stuart and before him
Danny N'Gussen, Ricardo Fuller and Danny Haynes.  It hasn't all been plain sailing though, he's had his fair share of loan players that have had few minutes on the pitch and the likes of Fuller while undoubtedly a class act have been too expensive in terms of minutes on the pitch with their potential for injuries.

It doesn't sound like the new owner is going to shower Powell with vast amounts for the transfer kitty but it looks like we'll have a small amount to spend but the priority surely is to shore up the current core of the squad whose contracts are going to run out in the summer.  Once that's done I still don't think we need to be too rash in our signings as there are a number of good players that Charlton already know very well that could be available to us.

Cameron Stewart must be close to top of that list and media reports suggest that Charlton are trying hard to keep hold of him but it will have to be an outright purchase.  This is no bad thing.  Secondly, with loanee Marvin Sordell sidelined through a hamstring injury why don't we turn to Jonathan Obika again.  He still appears to be nowhere near joining the Tottenham first team but was still banging in the goals in a friendly on Tuesday against a Charlton under 21 side.  Perhaps Tim Sherwood might have a different opinion on his squad needs to allow us to bring him in again.

Another former loan player that has sunk away from the limelight is Emmanuel Frimpong.  In fact, since returning from his loan at Fulham he has not featured in any of Arsenal's first team games except as an unused substitute in August.  I have to admit I am unsure about his qualities but I do know that many Charlton fans regard him as a talented player.

All this is before we look at the players available in M. Duchatelet's stable of clubs in Europe.

So Mr Powell, if you are listening, if you keep your resolutions then I'll keep mine (at least until the close of the January transfer window!).  Is it a deal?  I won't be at the Barnsley match on Saturday as I have commitments elsewhere which will be revealed in next weeks blog update.

Is it still "Come on You Reds" or have we changed it to "Allez les Rouges"?

A Promising Start as History Repeats itself

The promised takeover seemed to go pretty smoothly and we are now officially in the hands of Belgium millionaire Roland Duchatelet.  However it seemed like only a day went by before certain parties were already knocking the deal, questioning which companies he had actually bought, whether the ground was included or whether other shareholders were still involved. Be under no illusions, Monsieur Duchatelet didn't get where he was without being a canny investor.  He already owns a stable of investments and we can be guaranteed that he has bought lock stock and barrel of the club, so lets put the silly rumours aside please.

 Initial signs look promising. We have a midfielder immediately on loan from Standard Liege in the form of Astrit Ajdarevic and a Premier a league quality pitch cover duly arriving which is currently pumping hot air to dry out the ground. These things don't come cheaply (one of the reasons I suspect why we haven't borrowed the "Super Soaker" from the Oval again) but was set up promptly. It's going to take more than a few days to dry out the water logged turf so the rescheduled game on Wednesday is unlikely to go ahead but whatever day it's held I will be there, if only to see our new loanee and the rest of the squad get a good run out.

I'm sure many Charlton fans will agree with me that the next step is to secure Chris Powell's tenure as manager by renewing his contract as well as that of certain key players. I'm not expecting many approaches during the current transfer window but it would be good to tie down the core of the squad before there is too much uncertainty in players' minds as the end of the season approaches.  Who knows we might even be able to hold on to Cameron Stewart which would be a bonus in my mind.

I'm also pleased that Richard Murray has retained his position on the board. A true Charlton fan and business man I know in my heart that he has the club's best interests at heart and must have had some frustrating times over the last year.  It's good to see him unshackled and willing to talk to the supporters (see the Charlton Supporters Trust website for more details) once a few hurdles have been cleared. I'm sure it will make interesting listening!  I also hope that this marks a resumption of management communication with fans and other stakeholders in the club, something that I think we can all agree was poorly handled by the previous incumbents.  Mr Jimenez has published another blog on the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tony-jimenez/charlton-athletic-sold-tony-jimenez_b_4536064.html) explaining his reasons for selling the club but again it would have been nice and won him some plaudits if he had communicated this to fans first.  I am sure that Mr Murray will ensure that our new shareholder will take note from this.

Its starting to look like we have our Charlton back again!

In other news we are once more playing Huddersfield again in the FA Cup, provided we beat Oxford of course, both of whom we have met in this season's Capital One cup!  If you have time take a look at the exasperated but amusing tweets between the Charlton and Huddersfield official twitter feeds on the matter.  Its good to see that even official tweets can have a sense of humour and long may it continue!  I wouldn't be surprised if they don't get allocated permanent spaces in the car park, so regular are the visits these days.

COYR

Where there’s muck there’s brass but be careful what you wish for Charlton Fans

Firstly seasons greetings to all Charlton Fans and real ale lovers. While it hasn’t been a great start to the season at the Valley I have made friends this year with some great and passionate fans of both the Addicks and a decent pint.

Secondly, my apologies for not writing for some time. The run up to Christmas saw me working seven days a week for some two months with a brief respite on Saturday afternoons to watch our home matches. So I’m taking the Christmas period to catch up with old friends and resume a bit of light blogging.

The Boxing Day game against Brighton was a much needed Christmas cheer for both the team and fans alike. I feel it brought renewed vigour to a number of players who deserved more for their tireless efforts in previous games. A big welcome back for Chris Solly allowed Laurie Wilson more freedom to break forward as he had threatened to do on a number of occasions at right back and he was justly rewarded with two goals. I only hope the North Stand faithful justly rewards him at some stage with a decent chant rather than the awful one they came up with at the game. Some say its only banter but I can’t help feel we should reward his match winning performance with better praise than “he’s doing alright”. The other chant at the game “You must be sh##e, we’re wining at home” is more like the self deprecating British humour that (with the exception of the rude words) is a hall mark of football banter.

While the game against Sheffield Wednesday was not the best by any standards, four points over two games has given us a brief respite from the scrap at the bottom of the table. With a virtually fully fit squad I hope that we’ll start to consolidate games in the New Year and maybe put on a bit of a cup run. That is if the pitch survives which I very much doubt. The ground will not get a respite as the FA Cup game at the weekend is shortly followed by a further home match the following week, so expect more bogged down passes and poorly timed fouls as the quagmire takes its toll.

The current owners have come under a lot of criticism from fans on social media and other outlets for the lack of investment on and off the pitch (my own relatively minor gripe is the disappearance of pies from the kiosks. How can you have a football game without pies?). However, it is the lack of interaction with the fans that is the biggest gripe. If there is one criticism it is the lack of communication coming from the top brass to the fans on the financial situation and various takeover rumours.

It is no wonder that we get upset when Tony Jiminez writes an article on running a football club for the Huffington Post (thanks to valleytalkblog.com for pointing it out) when he has had so little dialogue with his own club’s fans (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tony-jimenez/football-club-owners_b_4412796.html) While this appears to be part of a regular blog post on their website I believe Jiminez or Slater would have won over a number of fans with these well thought out words on his experience running of the club if he had expressed some of these views to Charlton fans in the match day programme or on other CAFC related media.

We’re not asking for miracles just regular dialogue with the fans, to allow us to understand what the owners’ intentions and how they are running the club. Despite what is written on certain forums most fans are pretty level headed but a stone wall silence leads to silly rumours and people pouncing on the slightest nuance however absurd.

While communication with the fans is not the management’s strongest point they have effectively staved the club from almost certain bankruptcy and we should be grateful for this however much we complain about other matters. We have to remember that they did allow Chris Powell to invest heavily in almost an entire new squad for his first League One season with great success winning the league with a record number of points.

Two years into the Championship we are struggling but despite all the odds in what must be one of the most competitive divisions in the world we are doing remarkably well for the minimal resources available. We are also not the only team in the division that is struggling as past blog posts have explained.

This leads us on to the current takeover talks with Belgium Roland Duchatelet who also owns Standard Liege. It was good to see the management learning from fans’ gripes with a prompt message on the Charlton website acknowledging the discussions.

Many Charlton fans appear to be lapping this up and can’t wait for the old regime to leave without even having glanced at the credentials of the potential new owner. One only has to look at the events at Cardiff and Hull to see the face of the new breed of football club owners and their plans to commercialise their investments into profitable franchises (yes there I said it!) or at least be able to hold their head above water as stand alone investments.

A number of Standard Liege fans have taken to twitter to sympathise with the Addick faithful. They were not happy at the methods employed by him on taking their club over. It appears that this will not be a toy for a rich owner or a benevolent investment (and why should it?). If we are to take his current club as a model we can expect him to sweat the assets to recoup his investment first. At Liege this was done by selling top players and then building up the club from scratch with a relatively unknown manager. The club is currently top of their league but this has not tempered the ire of the Royal Standard fans.

I believe that Charlton is currently running at a deficit of approximately £500,000 a month, so the sale of a few top players from the existing squad is only going to fund the investment for six months at the most and go nowhere near returning the rumoured £14m price tag.

This brings us a previously mooted scheme which on the face of it looks like it might pay for itself but which may require an additional outlay to fund it. This involved the purchase of land on the Greenwich Peninsula where a brand new stadium and assorted retail outlets would be funded through the sale of residential property on the same land. Reports at the time suggested that this might be self funding with the icing on the cake (ie the profit) being the redevelopment of the Valley into further residential homes.

So applaud the takeover as much as you like but please don’t get too attached to the Valley. Happy New Year?

Anguish for a Breton but better news about a Briton

I was pleased to see that our annual Football for a Fiver day at the valley was a virtual sellout.  I did my bit by bringing along a friend and her daughter who thoroughly enjoyed the day. They're Arsenal fans but I'm slowly winning them around to Charlton on the basis that you can actually get a ticket to watch the Addicks and for prices as low as £6 rather than with a few extra noughts on the end.

We missed the first ten minutes as all the buses in Greenwich decided that they were going to hide for 45 minutes and then turned up rammed to the hilt.  Thankful that the weather held up for an exciting although goalless match.  It was good to see Jackson and Kermorgant back on the team sheet, we sorely missed them, although it looks like our favourite Breton may be out for a little longer as his ankle injury played up again just before half time.

Revival of an Old Name

A 0-0 draw was seen by most Charlton fans as a fair result against Wigan who are no slouches and showed no signs of tiredness from their European campaign on Thursday night. We played well and dominated large portions of the game despite the inevitable last ten minute onslaught at our goal mouth (but it wouldn't be Charlton without that would it?). However, we are 12 games into the season and stuck on 11 points and really need to start turning on the goals to ensure safety, but I have faith in my team provided we can keep the injuries down as this is severely hampering our efforts.



The post match debrief was held in a new watering hole. I thought that I had found all the quality pubs in Greenwich but have to thank the excellent blog cafcandnothingelsematters.blogspot.co.uk
for pointing out a newly reopened pub in Greenwich.  Its called RLA’s at the Old Loyal Britons (the original pub on the site) and previously was the SE10 bistro (the signage hasn’t been changed yet).  It’s a couple of hundred yards down the residential side street next to Marks & Spencer, you can’t miss it.

The web link is http://ewbrewery.com/beers.html


I like what they are trying to do there and can see this becoming a regular post match haunt.  The offering is strictly beers from London breweries.  With around 80 of them there is plenty to choose from, and they've made the most of it.  At the weekend they had four ales and two lagers from the likes of By the Horns, Late Knights and Windsor & Eaton Brewery, all kept in top notch condition with some very modern kit tucked away in the cellar, as well as a small but excellent range of bottled boutique beers.  I understand that they will begin brewing their own beer on site once the cellar has been modernised and will look forward to that.

Excellent choice of ales

I had to walk out of a pub over the weekend as the sound system was so pumped up I couldn't hear a word my friend was saying so it was good to hear that RLA will not have music or TVs in the building, so we can keep up the fine art of conversation over a pint.  Its also run by Charlton fans so you’re assured a warm welcome and at £3 a pint its an awful lot cheaper than the offerings from nearby places serving their own locally produced beer.

It deserves a write up on its own but I’ll wait until they are fully up and running before I do. Meanwhile, if you're in the area why not forego your usual pint of mass produced lager and pop in to try some real beer, you never know, you just might like it !

Oktober Fest in Millwall Park

The weekend of 4-8 of October saw a Munich style beer festival pop up in Millwall park. There was a fair amount of local controversy about the event being staged in the first place. Tower Hamlet council appear to have recently introduced a policy of allowing commercial events to take place in public parks in an apparent move to raise some revenue much to the chagrin of local residents who believe that they should be exclusively for public events and usage.

Millwall rugby club were particularly aggrieved in that the tented area was only a couple of metres away from their pitches where four games were due to be played that weekend. Despite the council allowing the event to go ahead I believe it only received its licence in the week running up to the event.

Impressive Venue

Anyway, I thought it would be worth investigating and so I dug out my authentic Austrian walking hat complete with feather (there are photos but they will remain with me).  My lederhosen remained firmly in the cupboard as I was thirteen the last time I managed to squeeze into them. It was the first night and only got about a third full but plenty of those who turned up, including a lively German expat crowd, determined to get into the spirit of things, with plenty of costumes and festival regalia on show.


Alcohol prices on the face of it were not cheap at £8.50 for a pint and a half Krug of their own unique German beer (apparently they are not allowed to sell it by the litre!), but you have to remember that entry was free and all the entertainment was laid on.  The health & safety brigade had also paid a visit so all the tankards were made out of polycarbonate glassware and even the wine bottles were decanted out into plastic jugs.  There was also a good selection of German food available to soak up the beer.  You could help yourself at the bar or there was service at the tables.

Fest Beer

The tent had a capacity of 3,000 and was set out in long rows of benches just like a traditional beer hall. The staff were all dressed in traditional costumes to add to the authenticity, dirndls for the ladies and lederhosen for the gents, although a black mark goes to the chap serving us who insisted on keeping his trousers on underneath his lederhosen!

 Traditional Costume

The German band was excellent with the right sort of music to get everyone standing on the benches singing and dancing (think Robbie Williams, Joan Jet and a splash of AC/DC). I was just a bit disappointed that apart from the obligatory "Ein Prosit der Gemuetlichkeit" drinking song which cropped up throughout the evening there was no traditional Bavarian"oompah" music.  The nearest they got to German music was Nina's 99 red balloons and not a hint of Falco all night!

Rocking Entertainment

Just as everyone was getting into the swing of things, at 9.30 sharp the band finished and the music was immediately turned down for the last half hour as what looked like a council environmental officer turned up with his microphone to test the noise levels. It felt like a bit of a let down being turfed out at ten pm, just when it felt like things were warming up but it was perhaps understandable given the location of the tent near to residential housing and on a school night.

Tower Hamlets Noise Abatement?

I haven't seen many reviews and comments of the evening but I hope they are allowed to come back again for what I thought was a most enjoyable evening.




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A Festival of IPAs at the Gun, Docklands

The International break has given me a little time to catch up on blogging about non-Charlton activities which seem to revolve around real ale.

I'd missed out on the Gun's previous ale festival in June and so when I heard about their latest event in September there was no way I wanted to miss this one even though it was raining cats and dogs.  With over 30 IPAs in Cask, keg and bottle format this was a truly unique occasion.

www.thegundocklands.com/index.php/calendar/ale-festival-sept/

Now the Gun is a Gastro pub with a good reputation so while there was no entry charge, the prices were somewhat commensurate with its status but I don't mind paying a bit over the odds for a one off and to sample many beers in one place that I would be unlikely to find in a regular pub.


However, it was good to see that they had prepared a handy booklet on the various beers on offer to give you an idea of what you could expect from each one.  Like any good festival there was also an option to buy just a third of a pint to allow you to sample more and they are to be commended for this sound practice. A separate sheet also showed the alcohol content and which beers were on that evening.

Beers well looked after

I started off with a middle of the road Hand Drawn Monkey IPA which I'd have been happy to drink all evening, but of course that would be rather against the point.  It was only after that I found the 2.8% 1/2 Mast from Siren Craft Brew.  As a rule the taste of the higher alcoholic beers tends to dull the taste buds of more subtle beers and so it is usually not worth going back to a lower gravity beer.  However, in this case I have to take my hat off to Siren as the hops still sang through.

It had been heavily pouring all day and there was no sign of a let up that evening.  However, the Gun was well prepared with a large canopy and decent outdoor heaters, so even though it was teaming with rain all concerned had a good time.

I had my first black IPA that evening, Hop Studio's Obsidian.  There was nothing wrong with the beer but like Porters and Milds it was just not to my taste. This was followed by Franklin's Citra IPA which cleared the palate nicely.

A sample of the evening's ales

We finished off with some of the heavyweights.  No IPA session is complete without a sample from the Kernel Brewery in Bermondsey and their Galaxy HBC291 did not disappoint, although with a name like that I think their creative branding department needs revitalising. I'd previously tried Weird Beard's Hit the Lights (a strong tasting IPA) and so was keen to sample the rest of their range and so a sample of their Holy Hoppin' Hell #2 seemed to be in order, but at 9.7% it was definitely going to be the last beer of the evening!

Friendly & Knowledgeable Staff

Rather a soggy evening in E14