Cheltenham
"Gloucestershire is just an illusion." - The Chrysanthemums, 1987
Well clearly, this is going to be a short one. We’re all ticking here.
This will be the first game between us, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve never even been to the town of
Cheltenham.
In the absence of experience, I generally reach for the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and an A to Z
to plan my own drinking. For all its flaws (and the new version has many), the Good Beer Guide contains
a high percentage of decent pubs selling good beer. Clearly, it wouldn’t be right for me just to reproduce
their recommendations here. Buy or borrow one. I will say this, though: you’d need an A to Z and a spare
weekend too. The five pubs listed there (some of which may be mentioned below in other contexts) are
spread out over a wide area. Just to make it that bit harder, most of them are shut on Sunday afternoons as well.
It would be impossible to do all of them, watch a Sunday one o’clock kick off and travel there and back on the day.
Two other sources which will always give you some suggestions on where to drink near the ground are
the Internet Ground Guide [www.footballgroundguide.co.uk] and the
Away Guide [www.awayguide.net].
Again, I’m not going to rip off their content, so go there and take a look.
My research turned up another couple of interesting sites. The Gloucestershire CAMRA
branch’s website [www.john-barrett.demon.co.uk/camra] has an
online pub directory at
www.john-barrett.demon.co.uk/camra/raigol/index.htm.
It’s all a bit no thrills and rather out of date, but it does list a lot of pubs. It will give you a brief
entry for some of the pubs listed below and many more, including what beers they might offer you.
The Gloucestershire Pubs website [
www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk] is clearly a work borne of huge enthusiasm,
perhaps obsession. It attempts to do no less than list every licensed premise in Gloucestershire, past and present.
It offers, therefore, a comprehensive list of Cheltenham pubs, albeit many of which don’t exist any more. It also
attempts to list every local brewery there has ever been. We understand, respect and salute this obsession.
As a spin off of this, I found one pub in Cheltenham with its own website, the Adam and Eve, at
www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/adamandeve.
In addition to these admittedly slender pickings, help is at hand in the form of London Clarets member
and long term Cheltenham resident Richard Price
. Truly, there are Clarets all over the place, and quite a few
of them are members of ours. (If you’ve even been to London once, you’re allowed in, basically.) Richard
has, at great personal sacrifice, undertaken some research into Cheltenham pubs, and can report the following:
"There are two pubs within five to ten minutes walking distance of the ground that are worth considering.
The Fiery Angel in Hewlett Road welcomes away fans and opens at eleven on Sundays. This is the pub I
tend to frequent with my friends before Cheltenham games. It’s just reopened after a major refurbishment, and
was previously known as the Pump and Optic.
Other pub I can suggest is the Sudeley Arms in Winchcombe Street. The landlord is a Clarets’ fan!
Pubs closest to the ground are probably best avoided. These include the Cat and Fiddle in Whaddon Road
and the Fox and Hounds in Prestbury Road.
Another reasonable one within ten minutes’ walk, but very small, is the Kemble, in Fairview Street.
This can get very crowded.
There are several other pubs in the town centre, approximately a ten to fifteen minute walk away.
These include the Bar Med on Pittville Street, the Moon Under Water (Wetherspoon’s) on Bath
Road, the Restoration Inn on the High Street, the Toad on Clarence Street and the
Conservatory on Winchcombe Street."
Cheers, Richard.
Beer you should try and get on your visit include anything from the local Wickwar and
Freeminer breweries. You may also get some Arkell’s and Archer’s around town.
As for the practicalities of getting around, the ground is a long way indeed from the railway station.
Most guides say two miles, but if anything, on the map it looks longer. The ground, Whaddon Road, is a little
to the east of the town centre, while the station, Cheltenham Spa, is way to the west. I don’t know why the
station has to be there, or what the public transport situation is like, but my advice is if you see a cab,
get in it. Of course, these may not be plentiful on Sundays...
For those travelling by car, parking near the ground is said to be nil. There will, however,
be a free park and ride scheme in operation between Cheltenham racecourse and the ground. This is funded by
Cheltenham Town FC, and enables those who park at the racecourse to catch a free, non stop bus to the ground.
Jolly decent of them, although it’s not much use for anyone who isn’t driving, as the racecourse is even further away
from the station.
Another thing we can’t predict is how heavily the game will be policed. Cheltenham sounds a pleasant,
genteel place. Perhaps they’ll be fearing an invasion by hordes of uncouth Northerners
(although I’m not sure you can really have a ‘horde’ of 2,000) and we’ll get paranoid policing.
Hopefully not, and we’ll all be able to get some enjoyment out of the day. This looked like a
jolly jaunt when the draw was made, and I’m sure we’d have had a fine time on Saturday,
but unfortunately, the move of the game to one o’clock on Sunday means it’s less about the drinking and
more about the game. There’s only an hour for drinking before kick off! Plus public transport is slower
and less reliable on Sundays - the journey from London is something of an epic, and it’s straight back
after the match. That’s why I like playing football on Saturdays. Ah well, at least people can go to the
races now instead.
Firmo
With thanks to Richard Price
January 2002
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