Kingston & Surbiton Pub Review 2012

Pub	Recommended Beer	Visit Date	Comments	Score
Waggon	Naked Ladies, Ordinary	17^th February 2012	Dave turned up with a personal coach, which had the desired effect of producing some snappy well-celebrated finishes. K2 also found a purple finishing patch, so how the hell did I win? Partner selection again. Brian paid the penalty of thinking that a top professional can take a winter holiday and miss training. An excellent evening down the Waggon, enhanced by the 20⁰C increase in air temperature from last week – has Spring arrived?	8
Wych Elm	Pride	10th February 2012	Absolutely freezing conditions and your reporter also under the weather - the doctor should prescribe some medicinal London Pride and a solid session on the sauce. The New Year’s first visit to the Wych was a great success as we were joined by Holly and Malcolm and later on by ‘Mallory and Irvine’, but still managed an excellent singles competition without any break in the conversation. It may have been a view through the beer goggles but everybody seemed on good form with a severe battering of the T20 and a deserved win for Dave; Noel even managed the elusive Shanghai 120 finish, concluding a 9-dart 301. I was considering a rare award of 10, but the clientele were too old and we had to survey the far reaches of the saloon bar to confirm that Holly wasn’t the loan female customer. Serious hangover Saturday only cured by a handful of paracetamol washed down by some pints of ‘The Wife’s Bitter’ in the Bricklayers, Putney – hair of the dog! (KS) D-10, K1-8, K2-8, N-4	9
New Prince	Seafarer	3rd February 2012	A Siberian wind whistling through the Prince’s darts arena; players nestling up to radiators between throws and a danger of catching ‘chalker’s neck’. Not surprising that there were a shoal of fish, a few 2s and a couple of 1s mixed in with some pretty solid arrows and another demonstration of rapid finishing by Brian; there were even a few attempts to emulate Dave’s three in the treble 1 trick from last week (see photo). The club’s accountants will be deeply concerned; following Sheila’s early departure, the total attendance at the 3-hour match was just one – maybe a punter who had overheated in the front bar, where drinkers were spotted sitting comfortably in T-shirts. A chilly session but, in the spirit of Shackleton, we stayed the course. (KS) B-11, K2-10, D-9, K1-8	7
Willoughby	Golden something and Golden something else	27th January 2012	Back to the Willy to take advantage of the beer sale – this week two golden beers that were both very nice. It’s always been a disappointing experience watching football in the Willy. With Spurs sneaking a 1-0 win on the big screen, unfortunately Rick announced that Fulham were live on the laptop in the front bar. Playing away to Everton (P10,W0,D0,L10) the result was predictably miserable and badly affected my darts all evening, although Brian was spurred on to some top finishing that made him the sure winner, despite one 3-dart score of 1. Later an incident occurred equivalent to the ‘golf club up the tree mystery’; ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Dart’. Admittedly it was late (12.15) and a few bevvies had been quaffed, but I stepped up to the oche with three darts in hand, threw one dart, looked down to see only one dart remained in my hand with a flight on the floor. Despite moving all the furniture and searching high and low, the other dart never reappeared. Noel informs me that the Willy is a Bermuda Triangle for arrows and is confident that the dart has rolled under the skirting board – we’ll never know! (KS)	9
Waggon	Winter Cheer, Mixed, Ordinary	20^th January 2012	A dark, gloomy day in January and the players were looking tired and jaded. Not much choice of beer and the dartboard was only just hanging together. The recipe for a rather miserable evening; however, despite generally poor darts, the banter was quite jovial and the evening cheerful – good practice for the annual Golf Dinner and Dance. (KS)	7
Willoughby	Odyssey	13th January 2012	Good to see a beer sale down the pub – a fee beer with each nine bought; remember to return in a fortnight for more. It may seem contradictory but, although Dave and I seemed to play rubbish most of the evening, the overall standard seemed pretty high with treble 20 taking a battering and some rapid finishing! Brian took a while to get started and K2, dartitis-free for the third consecutive week, held on for an excellent win. After an epic skinful of Odyssey it was good to head home(r) just after midnight. (KS)	9
New Prince	Seafarer, B***? (forgot)	6th January 2012	Happy New Year and a new opportunity to up the drinking and play some better darts. K2 quietly reached the 1000 Friday pubs last week; his form improved accordingly and stayed good this week. Dave should join the ‘1000 pub club’ sometime late this year, Brian in 2014 and John, at present rate of progress, around 2140, just before his 190^th birthday. A rather tired evening with Sheila arriving late and then leaving early after realising that wallpaper scraping, allotment digging and providing massage is not optimum preparation for a top professional dartswoman. I was on good form, but feel a little bit of a cheat because I took the opportunity for a sneaky Friday morning lie-in till 9.30 and hence felt lively and refreshed as midnight approached; definitely to be repeated! (KS)	8