1618a. Sun 5/11/23: The Black Horse, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

Day Whatever it is of the Prem disorientation, messed up weekend cycle. It’s Sunday, and we’re drinking in readiness for a 4.30pm kick-off. Could be a whole lot worse.

The Whitings of Todd all in and present. AW wearing his Minutemen t-shirt, which in honesty, I covet. I check on who BW thinks should be lining up for the Hatters. His choice differs from mine by only one player – he has Brown starting; I’d push Ogbene up, and bring in, err… someone else. Can’t remember who. Johnny Aston if me, his Dad and his uncle had their way, and JA was fit for a runaround. 

In a way, it feels as if it might be irrelevant who starts and who plays; we’re up against Liverpool, who will surely rip us to pieces.

1102. Fri 6/8/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

Low key, just AJK and I, evening out dans l’Briqs. We see the last of the watery late summer sunshine out in the garden, playing Stockwood Discovery Centre Top Trumps. It’s a great game. I win.

We discuss television series which I should be watching. I’ve missed What we do in the shadows thus far, it’s suggested I address that as soon as poss.

We discuss what I regard to be the odious default position of the Great British Public in kowtowing to them that are assigned to be our betters. Generation after generation we do it. My brother suggests that, personally, he does not. He bloody does. And he knows it.

Town at home tomorrow, at a match we’re all going to. This is just a nice little drink on the evening before we return to a home match-day routine which has been denied for well over a year. It will likely be quite emotional.

The beer is good, and relatively strong and we end up talking about Ken Russell and Michael Winner.

1394. Tue 1/11/22: The Black Horse, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

LT v Reading.

Odd weather. Pissing down with rain before I came out, so wrapped up in parka with jacket underneath (and a long-sleeved top under that). Rain stopped, and the realisation I’m overdressed gradually sweats in.

What with all that, I also forget it was my turn for the inaugural Half Time Treats – until I got into town. Dived into Wilko’s pick’n’mix for a wholly inadequate mixture of rubbish (the chocolate was risible – I’m glad I got to taste that in store and didn’t add anymore to the already sickly p&m). Cost quite a bit too.

Got to Horse, later than expected. AJK in already. He has a new bag. His previous one was NICKED! He’ll likely tell the story in a preceding episode… but he will go off gallivanting down to that thar London town though won’t he? It’s dangerous, innit, the Old Smoke!? All kind of ne’er d’wells – not like in lovely Luton.

More importantly, CJ arrives and tells us the sale of his house looks to have fallen through. Bloody shame. Not that we want to see him go, but it’s a terrible shame.

Luke arrives – sinks down in the sofa (comfortable, but very low and hard to get out of) and, enquiring where my brother was robbed in London, talks of the wonders of the less visited areas of our capital city. Inns of court and that…

I’m hot and bothered, and I can’t take me jacket off ‘cause the shirt underneath is too tight and blubber hugging, and I’ve only got time for two pints – and though others, frankly, have somewhat more to complain about; I’m hot and bothered.

1464a. Sat 4/2/23: The Black Horse, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

There’s a man in the pub trying to sell a velour suit. It looks great – very colourful – but the fella’s having no luck. I’m not sure that Black Horse pre-football is the best time or place for such a mission.

We’re looking forward to today’s game. The Town host Stoke City. The Nathan edge has gone, leaving big ‘orrible Stoke, their noisy fans and Delilah.

No Harpers in again. It’s not the same without them, but the rest of the gang, including AW and LP are in. Luke’s talking about Bob Ross; AW has some old team sheets for two Town pre-season friendlies in the 1970s. I’ve set a trap for SRW; a crisp paper bag, used, but clean, and with a fine snap. Almost as soon as he arrives, SRW picks the bag up and does Eric Morecambe’s old trick. 

Sucked right in, though to be fair, SRW does the bag snap very well.

Outside, the man who was trying to sell the velour suit is looking disconsolate – and still very much ‘with suit.’

1276. Thu 2/6/22: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

Sultry Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday afternoon. SA and I have come straight from the Steve Dillon exhibition at Hat House (Guildford Street). We stand at the bar – next to Steve’s bar stool.

We tell Al where we’ve been. It was a nice little exhibition – very well populated too. There was complimentary wine and bottled beer available. Steve would (and we do) prefer it down the Brickies – we like the real ale; Steve would be on the Guinness of course, but there’s no accounting for taste. We chat to Al. Al suggests of the exhibition that “he’d have hated it”, which is exactly what I suggested to Steph in the exhibition.

I knew (“well I never really knew him”) Steve for over a decade before I knew anything about his comic book art/vocation. He was the fiercely intelligent bloke in the front bar (I think there’s still a sense of our using the back bar because we appreciate our place in the pub hierarchy). Extraordinary, exceptional, fellow.

Intriguing Test on the telly from Lord’s: England 96-4 chasing NZ’s 132.

Plenty of Jubbly bunting in the Briqs, as there would be. The “Queen smiling” bunting over the fireplace is good.

England 98-5. The pub is quite empty, which is a little surprising, but it is still early.

100-6

100-7

1380a. Fri 16/9/22: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

Quiet evening out, and TPK’s off early into the bargain. It’s Villa versus Southampton on the big screen.

The late arriving old folk regular get in. They’re a little upset with a wobbly table, and don’t seem aware that beermats will usually sort this problem.

1090. Fri 2/7/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Brewery Restoration 4.6%

AJK and I. In the front bar. Italy v Belgium (European Championships) on the telly. Pete’s in, and sat on an adjacent table. A group of old boys are sat at the table in the corner. Two of the three are fine. The other is soused and loud and apparently, from the admonishment Al administers when he starts singing, has been tedious in the pub for some time this afternoon/evening.

Italy 2-1 Belgium.

Atmosphere in pub is fine, really, during the football, but gets markedly better when its finished. The old boys in the corner leave (the other two apologise profusely to the landlady, after their loud and slightly obnoxious pal shuffles out). Another group of young folk – late 20’s, early 30’s – drinking Hoegaarden and a little noisy – leave. The pub is left to us old farts – Pete and us and Steve (not that one, or those ones, but an amicable fellow… nice chap, likes his non-league football). Lovely.

Nothing more noted.

1382. Sat 17/9/22: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer:    Leighton Buzzard Brewery Restoration 4.6%

LUTON TOWN            2-0       BLACKBURN ROVERS

First home win of the season.

Two days before HRH’s funeral… not much HRH chat amongst our lot. Our lot are predominantly republican – but it’s not the time…

AW and Bobby W in. They’ve been to the match and have thoroughly enjoyed it; as did we all. Good, winning, ain’t it?

The late afternoon sunshine is a little unconvincing as we sit in the Brickies backyard. What is lovely is that developers have bulldozed the garage complex at the back of the pub – granting a newly acquired vista which offers beautiful views of the trees up towards Hart Hill. It’s very aesthetically pleasing, and really does suggest at a rural rather than back street town centre setting. Apparently they’ll be building a block of flats to block out the view soon – but it’ll be nice while it lasts… it’ll probably be too cold to want to go outside until the new carbuncle is built, but still…

1074a. Fri 4/6/21: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

TPK and I coming in to see out an evening we’d started at The Black Horse for a kind of Knockout/Cerberstacks gathering of the tribes.

Notes are scant, but – unlike my memory – they exist. They record what I may have described, in the olden days, as a ‘fat man’ outside the pub. We engage in a little three pint nostalgia and I commend a Wings song to TPK, which is a bit of a one-off, risky thing to do.

1233a. Sat 19/2/22: The Black Horse, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

It’s wet outside. Bucketing down. It wasn’t when I arrived. I got a little wet, but I know things are serious when the wet stuff comes in through the extension roof.

It’s pre-West Brom. Not sure how this one will go. WBA are a yo-yo club of repute. I’ve always had a soft spot for them – two nicknames, including one after a bird – especially now, as it seems they’re on a run of bad form and might not be a match for the currently over and out performing Hatters.

A couple of free tickets from the Uni means Dave and Matt are with us. They’re both wild with excitement at the prospect of whatever’s going to unfold. At least, I’d suggest they should be…. Though they’ve both seen the Hats on numerous occasions, and know not to set the bar of expectation too high.