I Can't Find My Baby

Manchester United 4 v Sheffield United 2 

Premier League 

Wednesday 24 April 2024 

SUFC 2023/24 Game #63 

NFDR

No Football Don't Read

The MotherHen made a miscalculation tonight. He called the drink for Rochdale. Well actually he called it for;

“Mike Harding was a cowboy here.”

“Two famous female singers come from here.”

“And two notorious MPs have been elected to represent here.”

It's how he gets his kicks. Usually, the set up is simple. Find a town. One drop off. Outside the Wetherspoons. One pick up. Same place. I should emphasise that I don't partake in the ‘spoons. But, there is a loyal clientele who flock there.

Very occasionally, MotherHen makes a judgement call that there is a particular pub, of some interest, a bit too far from the ‘spoons. And he makes two drop offs. But always one pick up. So, today, you could get off at The Baum in Rochdale, I didn't, he didn't, some did. And;

“Don't forget, pick up outside Wetherspoons.”

Except. The fucking bus couldn't park outside Wetherspoons in Rochdale. Because the bit outside Wetherspoons in Rochdale was fucking pedestrianised!!!

So, MotherHen had to spend his afts MotherHenning to catch up with all his chicks who got off at The Baum. Worrying that they would head for Wetherspoons and find - No Coach. We don't deserve him.

I caught up with him in;

Our Gracie's 

13 The Butts, Rochdale OL16 1ES

A Gracie Fields themed MicroPub. Yep. I meant to write that. Re earlier quiz - the other was Lisa Stansfield. There were four straightahead Cask on.

Whitworth Valley Brewing (Rochdale), Drop It Like It's Hop, West Coast Pale on Cask at 4.5%

I rather think it's a bit diff to get a true West Coast into a Cask. This one was in great condition. The bitterness did grow towards the finish. But it was a bit too woody and nutty for my taste. Although the bitterness did rescue it.

Wilder made the statement choices. Arblaster as Captain. Dre starting. Curtis & Hampson on the bench. Wes restored. Incidentally, once we realised Blaster was armbanding, I messaged the Carrier Bag Firm StatsMaster for deets on Arblaster Captaining the U18s and U21s. To be told…

“We don't have the facilities for that.”

Fucking unbelievable.

Wes was superb. And United scored the same number of goals as the number of notorious Rochdale MPs (Cyril Smith & George Galloway). And the number of drop offs the coach made….

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Proud To Have One Pence Left

Arsenal 5 v Sheffield United 0 

Premier League 

Saturday 28 October 2023 

SUFC 2023/24 Game #18 

Sheffield United 1 v Manchester United 2 

Premier League 

Saturday 21 October 2023 

SUFC 2023/24 Game #17 

England 3 v Italy 1 

UEFA EURO 2024 Qualifiers Group C 

Tuesday 17 October 2023 

Played at Wembley 

NFDR

No Football Don't Read 

The Carrier Bag Firm have, amongst their ranks, a Beer Philanthropist. Investment Clubs, GoFundMes, Crowd Funding - they're all over it. New brewery kit. A new bar front. A Taproom refurb. Where do I send the cheque?

You can guess the drill. Chuck some money in up front. Help the brewery or bar get summat done. And you get something in return. One pound fifty bar credit back for every quid you chuck in. Ten percent discount for life. That sort of thing.

Over the years, we've lost track of the various credits & discounts. Previously, money has deffo been put into Hammerton Brewery Crowd Funding. Hammerton Taproom is on the Roman Way Industrial Estate in N7. That's not exactly convenient for Arsenal's ground. But, a combination of road closures, coach parking restrictions and modern Premier League logistics, meant we felt Hammerton was doable for an hour or two before kick off.

But, what we couldn't recall is whether we still had any discount or credit. Here's how the convo went.

"We're sure we've crowdfunded you in the past. But, we're not sure what rewards we're still enjoying. If we give you our details, is there a database or some shit you could look us up on?"

"Sure, just let me fire it up"

"Oh yes, here you are. That's great. You've got £50.01 credit over the bar."

Whoop. Whoop. Of course, the TRUE JOY is in what's NOT being said there. Fifty Quid and One Penny credit. Now, our crowdfunding would naturally come in rounded units - tens, twenties, fifties, etc. So, that means that on a previous visit to Hammerton, to spend previous credit, it was like a version of Beer Countdown. We manipulated the Beer Board, and the prices, and our credit to get it down to just One Pence. Just One Pence. That is a marvellous Carrier Bag Firm algorithm achievement right there.

Hammerton, Islington Lager, a Californian Common at 4.7% was one of my gateway, breakthrough beers. One of the beers I tasted and thought - oh, that's what beer tastes like us it. One of the beers that got my started on Craft Beer. Hammerton, Pentonville, Oyster Stout at 5.3% was exceptional. You rarely see either of those anymore. Pity. Times change.

Neither were on among the fourteen of Hammerton on Keg. And three guests.

Hammerton Brewery, Collab with Coronado Brewing Co (San Diego), Across The Pond, IPA on Keg at 5.6%

Challenger, Godiva & Olicana Hops from the UK and Bru-1 and Azzaca from the USA. Nice beer. I felt it was a bit between two stools. Not clear and simple enough to be West Coast style. But very little going on in the cloud. There was a nice, underpinning sweetness from the malt.

Hammerton Brewery, Collab with Dogma Brewery (Belgrade), One In The Wood, Hazy IPA on Keg at 5.3%

A double dry hopped Pale Ale with Cascade, Mosaic and Citra Hops. Lovely. A lot of orange and lemon. But some tropical fruits as well. Nicely balanced bitterness.

Hammerton Brewery, Melba King, Fruited Gose on Keg at 4.4%

Fruited with raspberries and fresh peaches. Maybe could have done with more sour to offset all that fruit. Still, a nice dessert in a glass beer.

I love Eddie Nketiah. Give him the amount of space we gave him. And he's deadly. Trusty not tight enough in the first place, Robinson backing off further. You're fucked.

Souza and Norwood. But, they put Norwood as the Front Screen at corners. That is my preference. No McBurnie. So Brewster was the Zone. No. He just watches it sail over him and into danger.

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Would you please consider subscribing (free) to have my Blog delivered to your email inbox (via Substack). Thank you.

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I have now Blogged from 1,328 games in 3,357 days