Monday 1 September 2008

Pub cricket

We had a lovely time in Cornwall and played, among other games, a fair amount of pub cricket. There are quite a few variations on this, but the basic idea is that you/your team score points for pub names which have legs (e.g. the Duke of Norfolk) and go out if you pass one with no legs (e.g. the Six Bells). We played it by sides of the road, so you score for pubs on your side, with both sides playing simultaneously therefore. Does that make any sense at all?

Some people play a stricter version where you can only score a maximum of 6 points, as in the real thing, but we had an unlimited possibility of points. I should add that unless otherwise specified a plural counts as only 2 entities - e.g. the Waggon and Horses = 2 horses = 8 points.

According to Wikipedia the best pubs for cricket are the Million Hare and the Twenty Churchwardens. Truly those would be good spots. Sadly, the Million Hare has been renamed, but the Twenty Churchwardens looks like it is real and still there - divert your journeys via Swaffham accordingly. A special mention to the marvellously named Three Ferrets in St Ives, passed on foot so unscored by us.

So, the best-scoring pub cricket pubs in Brighton & Hove are:

1. The Geese Have Gone Over The Water
Possibly....... Of course, if we're talking actual geese here, then this scores 4 (2 geese as there's an unspecified number). However, according to the rather excellent mybrightonandhove.org.uk, "The pub's name refers to sixteenth century Irish history when the nobility, artists and poets of Ireland fled to escape English rule. This period is also known as the "Flight of the Earls"." Potentially a lot of legs right there, but still contentious scoring as the numbers aren't really specified. Back to wikipedia, which warns against confusing the flight of the earls with the flight of the geese, which refers to "the departure of an Irish Jacobite army under the command of Patrick Sarsfield from Ireland to France, as agreed in the Treaty of Limerick on October 3, 1691 following the end of the Williamite War in Ireland. More broadly, the term "Wild Geese" is used in Irish history to refer to Irish soldiers who left to serve in continental European armies in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries."
So there you are. Probably you'd be pushing your luck to argue for several thousand points for this one, especially as I think its current name is just "The Geese".

1. (Again) The Lion and Lobster - FOURTEEN POINTS
.
For a lobster, as we learned at the Lobster Hatchery in Padstow, is a decapod.

2. The Hare and Hounds - 12 points

3. The Waggon and Horses
- 8 points

4. The Horse and Groom - 6 points

5. The Three Jolly Butchers - 6 points

...and as far as I can see that's IT for more than 4 points. Any others??