We did, of course, play them last season, but unfortunately
this was a game cost me by Ipswich's absurd involvement
in the UEFA Cup, having qualified under the 'fair
play' rule. Doubtless such a comfort when you've
just been relegated to be rewarded for going down
without a fight. Anyway, the fact that Ipswich were
in this wretched contest, albeit for non-footballing
reasons, resulted in our match against them being
shunted around the calendar hither and thither until
it inevitably landed on a night when I'd booked a
holiday. Some admirable stalwarts caught in a similar
position flew back from Italy, took in the game and
then caught another flight out to resume their holiday,
but I had to settle for glugging rioja in a bar while
checking texts.
Not to despair, for I checked with a couple of our
top drinkers who did go last season, and can therefore
make a few sensible suggestions, as follow below.
Be warned that pubs seem to keep funny opening hours
in Ipswich, so if any of these are closed in the
afternoons, don't blame us.
The Greyhound is apparently a "nice little
boozer" selling good quality Adnams. It's on
Henley Road, by Christchurch Park to the north of
the town centre.
Opinion was rather more mixed on the Milestone Beer
House on Woodridge Road. This big pub is said to
be rather food-oriented, although with a good range
of beers. Both were good when we played there but
one of my researchers went back for non-football
reasons and was rather less impressed. It's quite
central, near the Regent Theatre, and they have a
website.
Norther still you have the Dales on Dales Road.
This is well off the beaten track - it's really some
way out - and something of an estate pub with a big
pool room to the fore. Compensation for your trouble
may be sought in "tremendous" pints of
Woodforde's Wherry, I'm told - it's certainly a superb
beer.
Devotees of the divine Fat Cat in Norwich will be
interested to know that it has a kitten in Ipswich,
also called the Fat Cat. Lots of beer in a pleasant,
calm and quiet pub is promised. Apparently it's not
quite as good as the Norwich version, but then few
places are, and it has won Suffolk pub of the year
more than once. As in Norwich, the emphasis seems
to be on stocking local beers. This must be worth
a visit. See their website
for more. The pub is some way east of the town centre
in an area ridiculously marked 'California'
on my A-Z, on Spring Road. Looks like a cab job,
although I'm told town centre traffic is quite appallingly
slow moving.
There was also, I'm told, a reasonable Hogshead
in the centre selling a fine pint of Caledonian Deuchar's
IPA. I can't look this up because the Hogshead site
doesn't exist any more, and as the chain is being
re-branded to de-emphasise real ale, who knows? For
those wanting something to eat as well as a pint,
the two local Wetherspoon's are the imaginatively
named Wetherspoon's on Corn Hill right in the town
centre and the Cricketers, a stone's throw further
north on Crown Street.
In addition to this there are a couple of supporters'
sites with some pub information. Those
Were the Days is Ipswich's Rivals Net site.
These are always worth a look as they generally have
some ground, food and drink information. It isn't
easy to find, but click
here.
Although I think I'd give their 'food guide' a miss.
The Pride
of Anglia is
a pretty decent site, and they have an away
fans' guide.
For rail travellers, good news is that the ground
and the station are quite close - you can easily
see the ground from the station - with the town centre
a further walk beyond the ground. As for Portman
Road, it seems to have had quite a lot of work recently
as part of some poncy 'Ipswich Village' complex.
For the extortionate price of £23, away supporters
get the crappiest bit, naturally, but at least the
Cobbold Stand is named after a decent beer, sort
of.
Tolly
Cobbold were the
local brewers, and the Cobbolds were highly involved
in running Ipswich Town. Sadly the brewery went into
a long period of decline, and despite valiant attempts
to revive it in recent years, and was recently taken
over by Ridley’s
of Essex. The former brewery is apparently a fine
Victorian
building on the bank of the river Orwell, but beer
is brewed there no more and their Suffolk ales are
now produced in Chelmsford. The Brewery Tap, which
I assume is still there, is said to be worth a visit.
Tolly Cobbolds aside, you’re going to get
stuck with a lot of beer from regional giant Greene
King of nearby Bury St Edmunds.
They have pubs all over East Anglia, but unfortunately
their beer is wearyingly bland, as I may have mentioned
once or twice before in these guides. On the plus
side, you should also get plenty from Adnams -
- Southwold-based breweries of fine, flavoursome
beers.
Don't know what the beer will be like there, but
the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) maintains a list
of pubs which have outstanding interiors, and this
includes the "best surviving inter-war pub in
Britain" in the form of the Margaret Catchpole
on Cliff Lane, which might therefore be worth a look.
Ipswich CAMRA has a bright yellow website,
which should give you some further ideas. It includes
a pub news section.
Ideas for non-drinking things to do in Ipswich can
be found on the council
website.
Apparently they have a Tudor ‘Ancient House’ on
Buttermarket with elaborate plasterwork, and the
Christchurch Mansion on Northgate Street is said
to be well worth a visit, boasting fine parkland
and paintings from the overrated Constable and excellent
Gainsborough.
I'm looking forward to my first visit, the findings
of which will be reflected the next time this guide
is revised. I should say, rather, that I'm looking
forward to the pubs. I'm not looking forward to giving
Ipswich my money, especially £23 of it, which
is a disgusting price to charge for first division
football. I do tend to regard them as essentially
a bunch of cheats who ballsed things up by getting
relegated and then played the administration tactic
to perfection. The reason the rules have been changed
to penalise clubs who go into administration in future
is because of clubs like Ipswich who walked away
from having to pay for their failure at the price
of five pence in the pound. For Clarets, of course,
this is personal, for no sooner had they come out
of administration, having ditched 95 per cent of
their debts, then they snatched Driss Diallo for
more money than we, working our balls off to avoid
administration and foolishly committed to paying
100 pence in the pound, could possibly offer. Oh,
I'm angry again just thinking about it. Well, this
will be one of those occasions when they will get
the price of my admission and no more. I'll find
my food and drink elsewhere. Or perhaps I'll ask
for that pie and programme... but only offer them
five pence in the pound for it. After all, that's
a fair deal in these parts, isn't it?
