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BRAPPY NEW YEAR : YEAR END REVIEW & AWARDS
Happy New Year everyone!"The only calendar I follow starts on or about 31 August with a thud" commented the ever-wise Martin Taylor when I tried to wish him a 'Happy New Year' earlier. He is right of...
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BRAPA IS ....... SET ADRIFT ON MEMORIES OF PENRITH
The last Saturday before Christmas found me in Penrith, one of my more pleasing Cumbrian towns to complete, having both a railway station, and three pubs listed under it, not to mention two outlying...
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BRAPA & A RIGHT ROYAL BEER GUIDE PINCH IN PENRITH
Back on Saturday 21st Dec, it was just gone 2:30pm as I took my second taxi of the day from the village of Langwathby back into the town of Penrith.I had to be careful with the pronunciation. Back in...
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BRAPA GOES DING DONG MERRILY ON HIGH ABOVE HEBDEN BRIDGE / BONUS FERRIBY
Monday 23rd DecemberSafely back in my possession after man in Royal, Penrith, borrowed it!In my haste to get a record number of BRAPA pubs for the year (448), I'd been really pushing West Yorkshire the...
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BRAPA AND THE WEAPONS OF CHRIST-MASS DESTRUCTION : COUNTY DURHAM
"Do you want to be George W. Bush or Tony Blair?" I asked Dad, as we arrived in Sedgefield on the final Saturday in 2019.It might have sounded a weird question, but I'd read that back in 2003, these...
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BRAPA ROCKS THE HEAVY METAL BRIDGE ..... AND A RECORD BREAKING DOGGY
Saturday 28th December, mid afternoon in Ferryhill, and I'd just equalled the yearly BRAPA pub record of 447 in the wonderful Surtees Arms. As my new hero Tony Blair once said "I can feel the hands of...
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BRAPA NEW YEAR TRAUMA IN SHUTFIELD, DONNY TO THE RESCUE!
Not long after my final trip of 2019, man-flu kicked in, which soon became the slightly more serious strain of BRAP-flu and by 2nd Jan, something resembling acceptable woman-flu. I'm not telling you...
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BRAPA AND THE 2020 VISION
Hi all!As we bravely (and I mean bravely) enter the sixth full year of BRAPA, it is a good time to take stock and think 'what do I want to achieve in the year 2020?'Â Â Where do I want to wield the...
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BRAPA in .....HE SHOOTS, HE SCAWSBY : SOUTH YORKSHIRE NIGHTS
Flu', Football, Flippin' Closed Pubs. Yes, it had been all the F words hampering what I'd hoped would be Fruitful BRAPA progress in the early stages of 2020, and on Friday night, it was the turn of...
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BRAPA in ...... OH BANKY, BANKY .... BANKY, BANKY, BANKY BANKY LANCASTER
'Twas that semi-annual time of the BRAPA calendar where a group of work friends from the bank join me for some pub ticks in a hopefully not too demanding town, city or area of the UK. After my Newark...
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BRAPA is ...... MICRO MANAGING WITH THE MILLERS - A NIGHT IN ROTHERHAM
I have a real soft spot for Rotherham. It was the first place I had a drink in a pub. On the 25th March 1995, Dad shoved me behind the front door on a curved bench and ordered me a cheeky half of...
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BRAPA ..... GETS TO THE GILCRUX OF THE MATTER
I want to make it clear that I wasn't twisting his arm, using any persuasive tactics, whining too shrilly or using any advanced pub-ticker mind games when, back in about October, I was one day...
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BRAPA AND THE IRRITABLE OWL SYNDROME : LOST IN COCKERMOUTH
Just to recap, Father BRAPA and I had just left Tallentire where we'd been to the superb Bush Inn, a 6pm opener on a freezing cold Saturday night in north west Cumbria. It hadn't been an easy day .......
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BRAPA IN ...... ITCHY APPLEBY / TRIBUTE TO A SPECIAL OWL
Sunday morning in Cockermouth dawned dazzlingly sunny, but with a harsh frost overnight, Father BRAPA's Brapmobile needed a bit of extreme heating up before we could start out on our steady journey...
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BRAPA : The Archives Pt 1 of 2 (The 2020 Edition : From Derby to Brighton)
Greetings Pub Fiends,It is that time of year again when the dust has settled after the big 'cross-ticking' exercise (I actually started writing this on 1st October!) and I'm able to identify pubs that...
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BRAPA in ...... WHAM, BAM, THANK YOU FRAM (and Chester-le-Treats)
An overnighter to County Durham might seem a bit excessive when you live in York, but then again, if they are gonna bung a 7:30pm opening club in the GBG, what choice does a boy have?I had a thirst...
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BRAPA .... IN CONCERT (SORRY, I MEAN 'CONSETT')
BRAPA in concert? There's a scary thought. I wonder what songs I'd play? I did actually find a 'BRAPA' playlist that a dude called Mark had made on Spotify. It lacked the punchy punk rock spirit I go...
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BRAPA is ..... STATION'D IN DURHAM, SUBPOENAED IN CONSETT, SEQUESTERED IN...
If you see this guy about to serve you in a pub, walk straight back out!The regulars at Consett's wonderful Grey Horse had given my next pub tick, the local Wetherspoons, such a slating, it ended up...
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BRAPA is ..... BURYING THOSE SHEFFIELD DEMONS
New Year's Day 2020 might go down in BRAPA history as one of the most depressing days of pub ticking. Nearly everything in Sheffield was closed, 'flu was starting to envelop me, and Martin the Owl...
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BRAPA - JANUARY REVIEW / FEBRUARY PREVIEW (2020 EDITION)
Good evening and welcome aboard the good ship BRAPA, navigating our brave way through those murky deep blue oceans in search of the glimmering light of a new Good Beer Guide pub beacon on some rocky...
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