Three Crowns, Wymeswold, Leicestershire

The Long Alley at the Three Crowns could be said to represent a triumph of skittling ingenuity over the apparently insurmountable issue of there being no existing alley at the pub! Even more so given that there appears to be nowhere convenient to create one, the tidy Pétanque terrain in the garden being well and truly ruled out.

Skittlers, and those from Wymeswold in particular, are nothing if not tenacious in pursuit of their game though. Confident in the knowledge that all they required was some 30 feet of clear space, ideally free from obstacles such as tables and customers, the skittles team set about creating something from nothing in what is now the well appointed upstairs games room.

An upstairs alley like the one shown here at the Three Crowns is certainly not unique. I've seen a similar, much lengthier and roomier alley at the Old Kings Head in Belper for example. The skittles players at the Three Crowns were certainly up against it though, their ingenuity pushed to the limit due to the fact that the upstairs games room falls short of the full alley length by a few crucial feet. Even this wasn't considered an insurmountable problem though, with players forced to throw from outside the room to achieve the minimum distance required for league play. That's what doorways are for I guess, and it's on the landing at the top of the stairs that you'll find the line on the floor indicating the throwing point for the game. A sturdy caged safety door contains the action during a match, and an arrangement of rubber sheets protect the walls from damage at the business end of the alley. Thankfully, drinkers and diners in the cosy bar area are not inconvenienced by the match-day clatter of hardwood, since the games room is located in a separate building to the main pub.

The games room also houses a Pool Table and Darts Board, and the alley is usually available for play outside of match nights, just ask at the bar.

The impressive trophy collection is crammed onto the mantelpiece of the bar. It's no surprise there's so much silverware on show, the pub field teams in numerous local leagues, including Darts, Pool, Long Alley Skittles, and no less than four teams in the Leicestershire Pétanque Association summer league. Pétanque is strictly a summer game in the UK, which at the Three Crowns saves players from the fear of falling Bramleys during the Winter off-season.

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Cherry Tree, Catthorpe, Leicestershire

The Cherry Tree is a warm pub in every sense of the word. The welcome from licensee Phil Cartwright was certainly warm when I popped in on a Saturday afternoon recently. The open fire in the cosy bar was if anything a little too warm, but welcome nevertheless on a cold Winter afternoon. Another fire was being set in the games/function room as I snapped off a few of these photos, ready to help warm up the local 'Shoot' along with a few pints of local Dowbridge Brewery Ale. The shoot tend to settle in for the afternoon when they visit the Cherry Tree, and I can see why, this is as good a place to spend an afternoon as any you'll find.

The shoot represent welcome additional trade on a Saturday afternoon, a time when many rural pubs experience a lull in custom, or may even close for the afternoon. But it's the holy trinity of Darts, Dominoes, and Table Skittles which are the Cherry Tree's day-to-day lifeblood, with several teams playing in local leagues throughout the week.

This view through the trophy cabinet to the bar (below) was taken from the function room which houses the venerable old skittles table. Skittles is a noisy game, not ideally suited to an open-plan pub layout, so it's as well that this separate room has been maintained. The Cherry Tree field both ladies and mens teams in the Dunchurch & District League, with play on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Darts is played in the Lutterworth & Welford League.

 

Two aspects of Skittles play which are specific to the Warwickshire and South Leicestershire (and possibly Bedfordshire) area are shown in the images below. Plastic pins and cheeses are the norm throughout this part of the traditional table skittles area, and are in fact a requirement for league play. Plastic pins and cheeses like the ones shown above and below have been around for a good few years now, indeed I recall playing with them some thirty years ago in many Leicester and Leicestershire village pubs. But they would certainly have been wooden at one time, and my guess is that over the course of several years, many pubs replaced their worn out wooden pins with the cheaper and more durable plastic alternative, such that a tipping point was reached where it was decided that all league venues should adopt the newer plastic alternative. I can only imagine the strong feelings which would have been expressed at the meeting where it was finally decided to abandon the age old tradition of wood.

Notice also the steel square (below) used to define the throwing point, fashioned with a cut-out entry point on the right-hand side. Steel 'Oches' or 'Motts' similar to this are occasionally seen in the Northamptonshire version of the game, and seem to be obligatory throughout Leicestershire and Warwickshire, but this is the first example I've seen which seems to define both the minimum and maximum throwing distance, as well as the all important sideways movement available for tricky 'off the cushion' throws.

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Pattenmakers Arms, Duffield, Derbyshire

If it wasn't for the fact that so many good pubs have had so much of their character and history 'refurbished' away in recent years, a pub like the Pattenmakers Arms would perhaps be regarded as a largely unremarkable backstreet boozer, and in many ways it is. It's a friendly and welcoming locals pub for sure, and certainly noted for serving a good pint, but going about its business in the unfussy and unpretentious way that backstreet pubs like this have been doing for generations.

It's the widespread blandness evident in modern pub design and decor, and the relative paucity of those which have retained a vestige of their heritage intact which makes pubs like the Pattenmakers special. Largely unspoilt Edwardian pubs like this are not nearly as common as they once were, and sadly are becoming rarer still with every closure and crassly insensitive refurbishment.

Etched and colourful stained glass windows at the Pattenmakers act to diffuse the bright sunlight in a way now frowned on by our current crop of pub designers. An attractive mix of original quarry tile, parquet, and mosaic flooring has survived throughout the pub, and the entirely un-radical use of carpeting, curtains, and other soft furnishings helps to absorb sound. It's the curse of modern coffee house style pubs and bars, that even when only moderately busy the cacophony of conversation and general noise can rise to unpleasant levels. All the result of the current trend for bright hard surfaces at the expense of old-fashioned comfort.

So the Pattenmakers is a pub full of genuine heritage and character, comfortable and cosy, and with a great reputation for beer and a friendly welcome. Which makes it even more sad that at the time of writing, the pubs owners Enterprise Inns are to set to reward the hard-working licensees of the Pattenmakers with a doubling the rent. Such is the reward for success in the licensed trade these days, particularly under the yolk of near-bankrupt pub companies such as Enterprise, and it could be that the pub will change hands in the near future. I wish the licensees the very best with their negotiations. I can only hope that going forward Enterprise might treat the pub with more sensitivity and respect than they have the licensees.

A traditional local like the Pattenmakers is naturally home to a range of traditional pub games. Dominoes is popular, as is Darts and Long Alley Skittles, both of which are played in local leagues.

A skittle set resides for safe keeping under the pool table of the bar. The alley is located in the car park, overlooked by a small beer garden which is ideal for spectators to view proceedings on a warm summer evening. This alley features floodlighting, and a rain-proof scoreboard so that play can continue in the Belper & District League even through the very worst English summer weather.

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Oadby, Leicestershire

The east Leicestershire village of Oadby would have been quite a hotbed of Long Alley Skittles play at one time, with at least three pubs in the village known to have had an alley, almost certainly more if we include clubs.

The image shown to the right is now probably of historic interest only, as The Wheel has recently received an extensive makeover. I haven't had a chance to visit for a drink yet, but I can see no mention of a skittle alley on the smart new livery, and it seems unlikely to have survived the refurbishment.

The Wheel was until quite recently a well supported community local where traditional pub games would have been popular. On one of the last occasions I popped in for a drink, I recall seeing a dozen or more Domino sets and Cribbage Boards stacked in an alcove, sadly underused and gathering dust by this time. Note also the presence of an 'Innovative Shulbac' at the pub, a game I never actually saw when the pub was in its prime, but which presumably refers to the Dutch disc-sliding game of Sjoelbak. Sadly the pub had become seriously neglected in the years before its short closure, to the point where the skittle alley was being used as a storage space, virtually unusable for play. I hope to visit the newly refurbished Wheel again soon. Perhaps I'll be surprised, perhaps the alley has been brought back into service!

Update: (4/12/13) - I've now had a chance to pop in to The Wheel, and can confirm that the current licensee is planning to bring the skittle alley back into use some time in the new year.

The impressive 1930's roadhouse that is the Oadby Owl was listed as having '...no fewer than four bars and a skittle alley' in the local CAMRA pub guide of 1979. Re-styled as a Hungry Horse family dining venue some years ago, it seems unlikely that the alley has survived in anything like playable condition. If by some miracle it does, I'd have to say that the owners are keeping it very quiet as there's no mention of the game anywhere that I can see.

An alley which has survived, and in perfectly playable condition albeit currently missing a set of pins and cheeses, is the one at former Banks's Brewery pub the Black Dog. This historic building is yet another of Oadby's once thriving village locals which has struggled to adapt to changing tastes (and the opening of cheap beer specialist JD Wetherspoon in the village!). The Black Dog is now in the hands of local brewers Everards, and it's hoped that plans for a much needed refurbishment will help to revitalise this historic pub. From my own perspective, I also hope that the historic skittle alley will be preserved and promoted as an asset for the pub, particularly as it may well be the last one left in the village.

The alley is housed in former stabling at the rear of the pub (there are still a number of the original tethering rings on the wall). I was informed by the current temporary licence holder that the alley has listed status, though more likely to refer to the bricks and mortar than its actual use. The alley is looking a bit dusty at the moment, the result of the home team, who play in the Tom Bishop League, upping-pins and moving to the Shakespeare pub in Braunstone. I can only apologise for the quality of these images. Strip lighting and no natural light make for challenging photographic conditions. The collecting box for cheeses at the end of the return chute, shown below, is slightly unusual, and indicative of the amount of play this alley would have once seen at the height of the games popularity.

The main bar has the basic, tile-floored, and somewhat utilitarian appearance common to many Banks's pubs. Note the leather upholstered bench seating though, which even in their current well-worn state add a certain sumptuous quality to surroundings. There are currently three separate rooms to the pub, including the Pool room shown here. This is likely to change following the forthcoming refurbishment by Everards. The wall currently providing the anchor for a Darts Board (below) is understood to be going in the forthcoming refurbishment, leaving a single 'U' shaped bar area in place of the current separate Public and Lounge bars.

Next door to the Black Dog is Everards Brewery's original pub in Oadby, the Fox Inn (below). A cosy traditional boozer with a warming open fire for winter, and with Darts and Pool available to play.

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Crown & Anchor, Northampton

The eastern side of Northampton town centre, an area broadly known as Abington, has always seemed to me to have an unusually high number of pubs. Perhaps even more unusual is that so many of them are still open and appear to be trading reasonably well.

This area is a classic mix of high density terraced housing and small businesses. Well serviced by restaurants and takeaways, and yet close enough to the town centre to be considered a part of the 'circuit', which all adds up to busier than average pubs I guess. There's a good mix of pubs, including several wet-led and largely traditional 'locals'. The Crown & Anchor, located just off the main Wellingborough road, is one such example, and like many back-street locals, maintains a strong gaming interest.

Indeed the website of the Crown & Anchor suggests that the name of the pub derives from an old dice game of the same name. I don't know how accurate this is, I've certainly seen other suggestions for the origin of this pub name, but the connection is reinforced in this case by a fine example of a Crown & Anchor gaming board which can be found displayed on a wall of the bar (above).

The game of Crown & Anchor is a simple gambling game using three specially marked dice. Believed to have a naval origin, but also a popular pub game at one time, though strictly speaking not a legal one so the game would have been played furtively if at all. Players stake money on one or more of the six symbols, with the payout determined by how many of the three dice come up favourably. Needless to say the odds are stacked firmly in favour of the banker. These days the game is usually found as part of a compendium which includes other dice games such as Poker Dice and Shut The Box.

Games which are still played at the Crown & Anchor include Darts, Pool, and Bar Billiards. The pub currently field two teams in the Northampton Bar Billiards League, and I believe this is the closest pub venue for the game to the town centre.

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The Foundrymans Arms, Northampton

Putting aside for a minute the unique and special attributes we're all looking for in our 'local', it seems that most pub goers prefer to stick with the thoroughly 'safe and predictable' when out and about. Often it's the pubs you and your friends always go to, or maybe the ones recommended in the guide books. High street chain bars rely for much of their success on this safe familiarity, where you know exactly what you're going to get wherever in the country you might find yourself. No surprises, pleasant or otherwise, and perhaps entirely understandable given that people are visiting pubs less often now anyway.

Of course going off the beaten track and exploring the backstreet nooks and alleys of a town will inevitably lead to some disappointments, and for some it can be a scary business crossing the threshold of a strange pub. But how else are we going to find the hidden gems which don't make it into the guide books. The truly different, and the genuine diversity of independently run pubs which often come with a customer base slightly different to what we're used to. One of the great strengths of pubs is their individuality, but with every closure and bland refurbishment this cultural diversity is being lost at a rate of knots. So it's good to explore a little, step out of our comfort zone, and be surprised, sometimes even delighted with what we find.

The Foundrymans Arms is a little off the beaten track, though not so if you're a Northampton Saints Rugby fan as the pub is almost opposite the mighty Franklins Gardens stadium. It's also a very short walk across the railway and river bridge at St James, making it handy for the rail station, but this is not strictly speaking a town centre pub.

When I visited, the interior was in the final stages of a high quality redecoration ahead of the busy rugby season. It's still quite easy to see from the general layout and numerous doorways, some now blocked up, how the pub would have been made up of several separate rooms originally. The now open-plan drinking area wraps around a central island servery, though each side of the bar still retains an element of its original distinct character. It's a terrific locals pub, beautifully maintained with comfortable leather upsholstered bench seating. Needless to say it's a very busy pub on home rugby match days, but well worth the short walk from town for a pint and natter at other times, or maybe to throw a few cheeses on the fine old Northamptonshire Skittles Table upstairs.

The Games Room at the Foundrymans is located on an upstairs Mezzanine off the bar area. The Skittles Table has an orange Pepper's label, and is sensibly positioned in the corner farthest away from the windows. The pub fields teams in the towns most active league, the Northampton Ladies Skittles League, but in common with most of Northampton towns pubs which still have a table, there doesn't appear to be a men's team in action at this time.

The small group of gentlemen drinking at the bar had all played the game competitively at one time, indeed there are numerous trophies dotted around the pub from these glory days. Talk to anyone of a certain age in Northamptonshire, and the chances are they played for a team, but why so few still play now is hard to say given that age is no bar to the throwing of boxwood cheeses.
 

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A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.18

A modern Bar Billiards Table at the historic Rowell Charter Inn, Rothwell, Northamptonshire.

This wonderfully un-PC guide to the rules of Long Alley Skittles can be found in the basement Alley of the Embankment in Nottingham, as featured on this blog already. Very 70's/80's in appearance, but a good summation of the rules of the game. I wonder who the cartoonist was.

The two off-season Skittle Alleys below are in Belper, Derbyshire. The Astro Turfed Alley on the right is at the Devonshire Arms, the other at the rear of the Nags Head. Both are active in the Belper & District league. Note that even though this is a Summer game, both of these alleys are floodlit to prevent the chance of fading light prematurely ending a league match.

Darts, Dominoes, and Table Skittles are played at the Polhill Arms in Renhold, Bedfordshire. Tuesday is Skittles nights in the Beds & Roberts Skittles League, with Darts played in the Bedford Darts League.

Old tobacco advertising Cribbage Boards used for decorative purposes only at the Wheatsheaf in Oakham, Rutland. Not a venue strong on pub games, though quiz nights are held, and the pub has strong connections with local Cricket.

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A Compendium of Darts Images

Whether played casually between friends, or more competitively at league and cup level, Darts is still probably the most popular game played in Britain's pubs and clubs. It's certainly the one most widely found and undoubtedly the game most strongly associated with the pub. But even Darts has followed the more general decline in pub games, and is not nearly as popular as it once was.

There seems to be an increasing number of pubs where the Darts Board has been unceremoniously ousted from the bar, often in favour of an extra table for dining, or simply because a Darts Board just doesn't fit with the clean, bland lines of the most recent off-the-peg refurbishment. I must say, I find it hard to warm to a pub without a Darts Board. Removing a sociable game like Darts from the bar seems to send out the message that customers are welcome to eat and spend, but the old-fashioned pastimes of social drinking and games play are not what this pub is about. That's not my kind of pub, and in many cases it pushes the limits of what I consider a pub to be!

Thankfully there are still plenty of pubs where the Darts Board is still an integral part of the bar furniture. Where the importance of a social game has not been forgotten, and 7 feet 9.25 inches of clear space has been set aside for the Arrows and Oche.

The wood panelled Smokeroom tucked away at the back of of the Seven Stars pub in Derby is a space largely devoted to the game of Darts. There's really only room for a single table in this diminutive room, because anything more would get in the way of the Darts throw, and after all, there's plenty of other seating in the pub. The walls are home to the various fixture lists, and an array of silverware displayed higher up on shelving.

The Olde Hare & Hounds in the village of Anstey, Leicestershire, features regular quiz nights, and is a real hotbed of local rugby support. It's also a thoroughly traditional local, and features the traditional gaming interests of Darts, Dominoes, and Cribbage. The Ladies Darts Team play in the Whitwick Winter League, whilst the men play a mostly social game on Tuesday evenings. In-house competition includes the coveted Duck Award for an individual who has failed to win any matches throughout the season!

The Malt Shovel Tavern in Northampton is perhaps best known for beer, bands, and huge collection of Breweriana. The pub stands in the shadow of the massive Carlsberg beer factory, which itself stands on the original home of the Phipps Brewery, soon to be resurrected at a nearby site in the town. A Darts Board is squeezed in amongst the fascinating collection of brewery memorabilia.

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