By
Rob
The
walk between Barry's
and The Ball Inn is a pretty lengthy one. It requires those involved
to walk up the tragically steep Granville Road and then traverse the
equally steep and yet much longer stretch of hill that is City Road,
finally coming out at Manor Top. Unbelievably, this trek of several
miles goes past no pubs. It wasn't until heading down the other side
of Manor Top that we came to such a place.
A
DeLorean we passed along the way
I'd
never been in The Ball Inn, but I'd only heard bad things about it.
Inside, the place was hardly The Ritz, but considering that most of
the negative stories related to stabbings, shootings and other violent causes of death, I had to admit I was pleasantly surprised by how little we were attacked.
Sadly, the pub was overwhelmingly nondescript and just a little too dark. The range of drinks on offer was, unsurprisingly, very limited. Gritting our teeth at the prospect of having to tick off a common beer so early in the journey, we each ordered a pint of Tetley's Cask. Fortunately, the Cask proved to be a nice beer – with a fuller flavour than the more common Smooth Flow – and we left feeling mildly refreshed.
While in the pub, the majority of our time was spent trying to figure out whether or not the barmaid was somebody we'd known back in our schooldays. Squinting across the shaded premises, I wasn't so sure. Andy, on the other hand, was confident that we were looking at the real deal and, as such, wanted to go over and say hello. My mind flashed back to a time when, during the 'famous faces' round of a pub quiz, Andy was convinced that the young black man before us was, in fact, Paul Daniels (the ageing, very much Caucasian magician). Knowing how poor my compatriot's powers of facial recognition were, I managed to dissuade him from making what would have surely been a grave social error.
Sadly, the pub was overwhelmingly nondescript and just a little too dark. The range of drinks on offer was, unsurprisingly, very limited. Gritting our teeth at the prospect of having to tick off a common beer so early in the journey, we each ordered a pint of Tetley's Cask. Fortunately, the Cask proved to be a nice beer – with a fuller flavour than the more common Smooth Flow – and we left feeling mildly refreshed.
While in the pub, the majority of our time was spent trying to figure out whether or not the barmaid was somebody we'd known back in our schooldays. Squinting across the shaded premises, I wasn't so sure. Andy, on the other hand, was confident that we were looking at the real deal and, as such, wanted to go over and say hello. My mind flashed back to a time when, during the 'famous faces' round of a pub quiz, Andy was convinced that the young black man before us was, in fact, Paul Daniels (the ageing, very much Caucasian magician). Knowing how poor my compatriot's powers of facial recognition were, I managed to dissuade him from making what would have surely been a grave social error.
Pub:
The Ball Inn (43 Mansfield Road, S12 2AG)
Rating: 4.5/10
Pint:
Tetley's Cask
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