Hop Locker

Middlesex 234 all out
v Sussex 33-1

Close on Day 1
at Lord's

Friday 7 August 2015

Twitter @ball_sup

Nice drink today. The Hop Locker. Essentially a stall in the Southbank Centre Market. A street market behind The Royal Festival Hall. A market in the food & drink sense. Six kegs. Bottles and cans.

Cor. People rave about that Mauna Kea don't they. Great beer. But it's the colour & unusual tropical taste that has 'em going. Good bit of marketing by Summer Wine. I've got a slight suspicion that the keg and/or gas were misfiring. Not much carbonation in mine. (And some other beers were Frothy Man).

So, mine ended up looking exactly like a glass of orange juice. Completely & densely opaque. Thick. It is certainly a well balanced beer. Synced. The bitter kick is nice.

Summer Wine, Mauna Kea, Hawaiian IPA on keg at 6.5%.

Moor, Illusion, Session Black IPA on keg at 4.5%.

Another very nice beer. A bit sweet maybe. And the toast, smoke & bitterness all a little subdued for my taste. But, it is billed as Session.

Siren, Half Mast on keg at 2.8%.

I knew what I was up against there. Had it before. I'm a big fan of these low abv, heavily hopped beers. I tried to get Buxton, Jacobs Ladder in The Tap House. But, it wasn't on. Half Mast was lovely. That can have Outstanding Beer of the Day.

I'd certainly recommend Hop Locker if you're down that way.

That felt like a very slow attritional day at Lord's. We've ended up with 270 runs. Fair few LBW shouts in the morning. But not a lot else happening. Intriguingly, this appears to be being played on the same strip as yesterday's 50 over. I'm sure there'll be some technological solution. Maybe the pitch has been "glued". But it could already be said to be a day 2 pitch. Middlesex players were getting starts. But, not pushing on. David Malan was the pick. Out in the 90s.

As always at Lord's, there were plenty of distractions. The Ashes were playing on every TV. And, the scoreboards between the Long Room & Writing Room were testifying to the clatter of wickets at Scarborough.

184/381