Pub 138, Day 51 – The Belfry

By Andy

“They're all the same!” he exclaimed. “We'll be bankrupt before you know it!”

The journey to Beighton is a long one to begin with, but it seems eternal when subjected to half-baked political ramblings.

“This country's not what it used to be!”

As it was election day, we had been assigned a taxi driver who loudly espoused his political beliefs, before admitting he hadn't actually voted.

“But if I had...”

***

Completing our quintet of polling station pubs was The Belfry at Beighton. After being spoken at for the entire journey, we were relieved to catch sight of the pub's giant bell, which sits beside the entrance.

The pub is down a slight grass embankment, but its impressive structure enables it to be seen from the road. Once inside it's a more standard affair, refusing to deviate from the chain pub formula.

The polling booths were hidden away in a corner, but the voters were drying up by this time anyway, replaced by hungry families and evening drinkers.

Waiting for us was our friend Danny, who had completed a mammoth election day undertaking of his own – residing in Leicester these days but spending his week off in Sheffield, he had driven to Leicester (and back) solely to put his X in the box.

While Rob and I had thoroughly enjoyed our day touring pubs in Sheffield, Danny was less appreciative of the scenery on offer on the M1. Still, it's the sort of story which reaffirms your faith in democracy.

The Belfry's cask selection was limited, so we cast our eyes to the bottled beers instead. We went for Over Easy, a session ale from Greene King's Craft Academy project, which puts the company's apprentices in charge of creating the beers.

As the 10pm voting cut-off approached, it suddenly dawned on us that there was no point drinking our way through Election Day, unless we were also going to drink our way through Election Night. It further dawned on us that there was no point staying up with David Dimbleby and co without first seeing the 10pm exit poll, as that is pretty much all they discuss until 2.30am.

Handily, Danny had just bought a new sports car, and he revelled in the opportunity to put it through its paces. With 616bhp and two enthusiastic passengers, we flew through the streets of Sheffield (abiding at all times to the relevant speed limits).

We made it home for 9:59pm, and stayed up drinking until 7am. By this time the pundits had been embarrassed, Paul Nuttall had resigned, and Canterbury had turned their backs on the Conservatives for the first time since 1837.

But more importantly, Pubquest had proved once again to have its finger on the pulse, having accurately predicted Nick Clegg's demise from the back room of the Cobden View.

It's always been the same: if you want to get a true sense of what the nation's thinking, go and sit in the corner of a pub.

Pub: The Belfry (Eckington Road, S20 1EQ)

Rating: 6/10

Pint: Over Easy

Brewery: Greene King Brewery (Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk)

NEXT UP: Collaboration preparation, at the Ship Inn...

Pub 137, Day 51 – Everest

By Rob

Continuing our attempt to visit every pub/polling station on election day, we headed to the Everest in Handsworth. The penultimate stop on our list, it wasn't too far from the White Rose and we arrived in good time.

Slap bang in the middle of a housing estate, the pub looked pretty drab and dreary from the outside. It wasn't much better on the inside, either. There was a slightly shabby taproom to the left of the main doors, which hosted a few local punters, some worn furniture, and two newly arrived Pubquestrians.

Andy, putting on a brave face

The drinks selection on the bar was every bit as lamentable as it was predictable, being extremely modest in scope. We scanned the pumps and, to our dismay, found that we'd already drank one of each. With no other options available to us, we went for Kopparberg Mixed Fruit. Of course, one bottle doesn't quite add up to a pint, and so we ended up taking three of the bastards back to the table.

Sat there, sipping our sugary syrup, we'd already written off this visit as a bad job. As anticipated, the cider was unpleasant and in possession of no redeeming features. However, just as we were about to down our drinks in a desperate bid to leave, my eyes spied something.

Something green.

Something table-like.

Was this a mirage? Like the oceans of water that appear to dying men in the desert?

Rushing into the next room, we found a three-quarter size snooker table. I ran my hand along the baize. This was no mirage.

I was losing heavily in the Pubquest pool competition, to the point where I was starting to fear that I'd never claw it back. Andy was miles ahead, and he was better than me.

But snooker was a different story. As things stood, we were neck and neck, and unlike at pool, Andy didn't have his vastly superior skills to fall back on.

The coin went into the box, the cues were lifted, the chalk administered.

The game began with a poor break from me. The reds split apart and the white didn't make it back past the baulk line. If I'd been playing against a pro, it would've been game over.

But me and Andy weren't quite at that level.

What followed was a typically scrappy frame of small breaks and big fouls, our enthusiasm for the game far outstripping our ability to play it.

Eventually the match reached its end. I potted pink then black and, with those shots, took the lead in the Pubquest snooker competition.

The quality of play wasn't quite at the level seen in the Crucible. Of course, the venue wasn't quite at the same level either. It's very rare that you see spectators at the Crucible staggering around the table, offering 'helpful' tips to the players while spilling JD and coke all over the floor.

Overall, it was a pretty shabby pub with an unimpressive range of beers, but the surprisingly well kept snooker room salvaged it for us.

Everest snooker score: Andy 0-1 Rob

Pubquest snooker score: Andy 4-5 Rob

Pub: Everest (44 Ballifield Drive, S13 9HS)

Rating: 5/10

Pint: Kopparberg Mixed Fruit

Brewery: Kopparberg (based in Kopparberg, Sweden)

NEXT UP: The exit poll beckons, at The Belfry...

Pub 136, Day 51 – White Rose

By Rob

For perhaps the first time in Pubquest's history, we were running ahead of schedule. We only had three more pubs to tick off before 10pm and, unbelievably, it was only 3pm. We'd grabbed a bite to eat at the Rising Sun and, feeling energised, were ready to press on.

Of course, the good times couldn't last. Just as we were basking in our own organisational brilliance, an email popped up on my phone and derailed the whole event.

It transpired that I had stupidly, stupidly forgotten about a meeting that I needed to attend with my PhD supervisor (for those of you with proper jobs, this was basically the equivalent of an appraisal with your boss). There was no way I could skip this one.

We quickly worked out a plan. Andy would go visit his grandmother, who lived nearby. While he was accruing 'good grandson' points, I'd power through the meeting and then we'd meet back at the next pub: the White Rose.

The whole thing should take about an hour, tops.

Frantically chewing gum in the hope of disguising my boozy breath, I said farewell and we went our separate ways.

Naturally, everything took longer than anticipated. Instead of taking me to the Jessop West building at the university, the taxi driver tried to drop me off at the Jessop Wing of the hospital. I finally managed to convince him that this was not the correct destination and, after receiving assurance that I neither wanted nor needed to be in hospital, he eventually agreed to drive me to the proper place.

Once there, it quickly transpired that the brief catch-up session was actually a comprehensive performance review. My maddeningly efficient supervisor was incredibly thorough and wanted to engage in a wide-ranging discussion about my work, wholly ignorant of the fact that we were eating into prime Pubquest hours.

Meanwhile, Andy's quick cup of tea with his grandmother wasn't going to plan either, as he'd been dragged off to the supermarket and put to work carrying the shopping bags.

Ninety minutes in, restlessly tapping my feet on the floor, I started to consider ways to bring the meeting to a close. Say I had another appointment? Fake illness? Soil myself? Tell the truth and explain that I had three pubs to visit before 10pm?

Across town, Andy was weighing up similar options. Stick his grandmother in the trolley and do a mad Supermarket Sweep dash through the aisles? Throw the shopping bags on the floor and storm out? Pretend he'd found a suspicious package and escape in the ensuing evacuation?

Finally, over two hours later, we were both released back into the wild. The White Rose was further away than we'd realised and, by the time we both arrived and bought our drinks, it was just after 6pm.

The pub wasn't anything to write about (says the bloke doing precisely that). Yet another budget eatery, much like The Sherwood, it offered the usual grub in the usual surroundings. That being said, there was a pool table and the place was perfectly clean, modern and airy. It wasn't unpleasant; it simply lacked character.

The beer choice wasn't great either, presenting us with the same frustrating situation we'd faced in a lot of chain eateries: real ale taps off duty and only standard fare on offer. Thankfully, in this case, one of the available lagers was Hop House 13, which we'd managed to save until now. We were both big fans of the pint, with its sweet taste and refreshing crispness.

Having traveled all the way to this pub at not inconsiderable expense, I wanted to clap eyes on the polling station before we left. We scoured the rooms but couldn't see any ballot boxes, volunteers or any of the other telltale signs. We looked behind the bar, in the toilets, under the pool table.

Nothing.

I glared silently at Andy, who'd been responsible for compiling the list of pubs/polling stations. 

Draining the last of the Hop House, we got up from our seats and headed outside. While waiting for yet another taxi, we went to sit down on a bench.

It was then that we saw it.

Around the side of the pub, in their car park, stood the little polling station.

Pub: The White Rose (17 Handsworth Road, S9 4AA)

Rating: 5.5/10

Pint: Hop House 13 Lager

Brewery: Guinness Brewery (Dublin)

NEXT UP: Snooker loopy, at Everest...

Pub 135, Day 51 – Rising Sun

By Andy

There is, a pub, in Sheffield,

They call the Rising Sun,

And it's poured a pint for many a parched boy,

And God, I know, I'm one.

My instinct was approval:

Friendly and well-run,

My memory was of fun and jokes,

Down in the Rising Sun.

Now the only thing that Pubquest needs,

Is a pint on polling day,

So we were pretty satisfied,

With Longhorn IPA.

Oh mother, tell your children,

Not to do what we have done,

Don't spend your lives touring all the pubs,

Just go to the Rising Sun.

Well I got one foot in the exit,

The other foot on Abbey Lane,

I'm going back to our list of pubs,

To wear that ball and chain.

Well, there is a pub in Sheffield,

They call the Rising Sun,

And it's been a hit with many a parched boy,

And God, I know, I'm one.

Pub: Rising Sun (665 Abbey Lane, S11 9ND)

Rating: 7.5/10

Pint: Longhorn IPA

Brewery: Purity Brewing Company (Great Alne, Warwickshire)

NEXT UP: The election continues, at the White Rose...

Pub 134, Day 51 – Cobden View

By Rob

On 18 April 2017, the Prime Minister surprised the nation by calling an early general election. As polling day (8 June) approached, the British people braced themselves for the third major nationwide vote in just over two years. Meanwhile, political pundits, pollsters, politicians, parties, press officers and Pubquest all made plans in preparation for the big day.

"Wait a minute," you're probably thinking. "Did he just say Pubquest?"

That's right, I did.

You see, while Pubquest is ostensibly a politically neutral enterprise, we had big plans in store for election day, which we'd concocted about a year earlier. These plans fitted into our usual pattern of trying desperately to find new and inventive ways to visit pubs. Naturally, we hadn't expected to get an opportunity to put them into practice before 2020. 

That was until Theresa May's unexpected announcement changed everything.

Despite the rather impromptu nature of the whole ordeal, we were ready. As the words 'general election' were still hanging in the air outside Downing Street, Andy was busy requesting annual leave for the big day. Meanwhile, my carefree and languorous lifestyle required nothing more of me than to make a mental note to wake up, if at all possible, before 1pm on the day in question.

As for the plans, they would go as follows:

• There are a handful of pubs in Sheffield that, when election day comes around, also serve as polling stations
• We would visit each of these pubs
• We would drink a pint in them

Once this intricate and multifaceted outline of the day's events had been carefully drawn up, we turned our attention to logistics. After extensive research, we'd discovered that there were five pubs that would be serving as polling stations, none of which were particularly close to the others. We also knew that we wanted to get all of these pubs ticked off before the polls closed at 10pm, which meant that we couldn't afford to embark on the sort of inordinately long perambulations that we might otherwise have enjoyed. Therefore, we realised that the only way forward was to get a taxi between each venue.

Secure in the knowledge that we'd be spending about as much on this election as the average Tory Party donor, we pressed on.

As the big day rolled around, Andy and I met at the first pub on the list: the Cobden View.

A pleasant, stone-built little building in the heart of Crookes, the Cobden View looked like the perfect place to begin. Outside, numerous signs confirmed that our research was correct and that this was, indeed, a polling station. 

As it was 1:30pm on a Thursday, the barman justifiably assumed that we had come in to vote and, as such, immediately pointed us in the direction of the room that had been temporarily transformed into a polling station. We assured him that we'd already performed our civic duty and that we were, in fact, looking for refreshments.

Minutes later we found ourselves sat in a small, rather quirkily decorated room with two pints of Daily Bread and a pool table for company. The pint proved to be a lovely hoppy ale from Abbeydale Brewery, who can always be relied upon for quality. Looking around the pub, we were fairly impressed: the seventeen-thousand different hats hanging on the wall were a novelty. Overall, the pub had a cosy, friendly atmosphere and a reasonable selection of beers.

It was at this time that we began to work on our very own Pubquest exit poll for the 2017 election.

The UK General Election 2017 Pubquest Exit Poll:

Like its famous, televised cousin – which is commissioned by the BBC, ITV and Sky – the Pubquest exit poll worked on the basis of analysing the voting intentions of those people who had just cast their ballots at select polling stations. Also like the televised exit poll, ours would then use the information collected to construct a prediction of what the actual result would be.

Unlike the televised exit poll, however, we were conducting a more focused, micro-level study. For instance, where the wider exit poll took results from hundreds of different constituencies across the UK, we took ours from one (Sheffield Hallam). Additionally, while the broadcasters' exit poll was assembled by a team of data analysts and election experts, ours was constructed by myself and Andy, while drinking beer. Finally, it's worth noting one last crucial methodological difference, which is that the broadcasters' exit poll involved actually asking people who they had voted for, whereas ours rested heavily on me and Andy watching people walk into the polling station and then guessing, based entirely on their appearance, who they might have voted for.

Now, having read the above, you're probably thinking that our exit poll was not scientifically sound. You're also probably thinking that any predictions made on the basis of such an exit poll must be wholly unreliable and, frankly, wrong.

Not so.

As we sipped our pints and played some pool (winning one game each), we watched as an unending line of youthful faces spilled through the door, polling cards in hands. I don't think we saw a single voter over the age of thirty in the entire time we were there. All of them were young, and most were clearly students. It didn't take a genius to surmise that very few of the Sheffield student cohort would be turning out to vote for the local Tory candidate or, indeed, for the local Liberal Democrat – who just so happened to be former party leader and deputy prime minster Nick Clegg.

Our prediction thus went as follows: despite what the bookies were saying, the constituency of Sheffield Hallam would swing from the Lib Dems to Labour, thus removing one of the most high profile MPs of the modern era from parliament and turning Sheffield into an all-Labour stronghold.

The result?

Well, as I'm writing this several days after the event took place, I can confirm that the Pubquest exit poll was 100% spot on, as Nick Clegg lost his seat to Labour. This level of accuracy is notably higher than that of the broadcasters' exit poll, which got the overall picture broadly right, but failed to judge the numbers exactly. Furthermore, the broadcasters' exit poll usually comes with a margin of error that stands at roughly 20 seats, while the prediction put forward by the Pubquest poll was operating within a margin of error that was 19 seats fewer!

So maybe we should ask ourselves: do the BBC, ITV and Sky need to rethink their methods? Does polling expert and social media heartthrob Professor John Curtice need to spend less time in his office and more in his local boozer? Is sipping real ale and making guesses about people's voting intentions based purely on their age and appearance an efficient way to predict election results?

No, don't be stupid.

Cobden View pool score: Andy 1-1 Rob
Pubquest pool score: Andy 60-36 Rob

Pub: Cobden View (40 Cobden View Road, S10 1HQ)

Rating: 7/10

Pint: Daily Bread

Brewery: Abbeydale Brewery (Sheffield)

NEXT UP: Time for a song, at the Rising Sun...

Pub 133, Day 50 – The Norton

It's time for another guest blogger, as Andy's girlfriend Catriona is forced to gladly volunteers to pick up the pen.

By Catriona

The life of a Pubquest WAG

So ladies, I’m sure you must be wondering what life is like as the WAG of one of the founders of Sheffield’s second most notorious pub blog. Do the paparazzi follow me around the streets of Yorkshire? Is life just one red carpet event after the other? Do I worry about the legion of female fans chasing after my man?

Well, if our debut appearance at the Broomhill Tavern didn’t give you enough insight into the life of a Pubquest WAG, I’m here with my very own instalment featuring pub 133: The Norton.

It was an early summer’s day in June 2017. Andy and I had spent the afternoon enjoying one of our favourite summer traditions: The Dronfield Beer Festival.

Now, Pubquest readers, if you read this blog every day you know one thing for sure – this is a blog about pubs not about beer festivals, and I don’t want my first entry to confuse that groundbreaking editorial strategy the boys have spent so much time crafting… So I’ll keep it short about Dronfield Beer Festival.

I’m not a big fan of beer – which does make you wonder why I’m writing for this blog at all – but the Dronfield Beer Festival is about so much more than beer. Firstly, there is also cider.

There’s also live music, street food and so far every time we’ve been – sunshine. This is a combination which undoubtedly makes for a good British summer’s day.

At around 4pm, after Andy and I had enjoyed a couple of live performances, a bite of lunch and a drink at each of the 13 pubs, Rob finally rolled himself out of his student squalor and came to meet us at the festival for some final pints.

As things started quietening down in Dronfield we decided to keep the party going back in Sheffield. Which is why ten minutes later we found ourselves in the family-friendly Brewers Fayre-esque Norton pub at Meadowhead. We can’t be tamed!

Now, before Andy and Rob get sued for their Pubquest millions let me quickly point out The Norton is not owned by Brewers Fayre, it is a Sizzling Pubs establishment. Other UK casual family pub dining options also exist.

The reason we ended up in The Norton was simple. It was the closest Sheffield pub to Dronfield, making it a good pitstop and a cheap taxi ride between Dronfield and Sheffield City Centre, and allowed the boys to tick off this pub while in the area.

I know a recurrent qualm for Andy and Rob is the definition of what makes a pub. A big question indeed. The Norton – billed on its website as a ‘pub and grill’ – is, in my opinion, certainly one that falls into that slightly grey area.

The Champions League Final was on that day, which had brought a trickling of middle-aged men to the bar area to watch the game. The rest of the ‘pub and grill’ was very much a family friendly dining area – there was even a family party taking place across a host of reserved tables in the restaurant area, and the scene was very reminiscent of many of my own childhood family parties spent in almost identical venues.

The boys opted for a Coors Light, which tells even me – by no means a beer connoisseur – that there wasn’t a particularly exciting range of beers on offer. Meanwhile, I was pleased to have a break from beer and opted for a glass of prosecco, although a sign for ‘Frosé’ – frozen rosé wine – also caught my eye.

We headed to a round table with high stools in the small bar area – not the most comfortable of seating options. The lighting was bright, the football was loud, the atmosphere was flat (this may also have been the case for the beers).

There was nothing at all wrong with this ‘pub and grill’. It served perfectly well the purpose it intended to serve.

A fine place to pop out to if you live locally and want a family meal that won’t break the bank, a place to watch the match, or a delicious glass of frosé.

For us, the purpose it served was simply one more pub ticked off the list.

Pub: The Norton (337 Meadowhead, S8 7UP)

Rating: 4.5/10

Beer: Coors Light

Brewery: Molson Coors Brewing Company (based in Golden, USA)

NEXT UP: Election day, at Cobden View...