Time for reflection

In his weekly The Bar Man column, Jeff Hoyle looks back on 2024…As another year draws to an end, it is time for reflection, and where better to begin than with the best beer that I have drunk over the last 12 months. The Whatpub site provides a handy record of the few maximum scores that I submitted.Back in August we visited the newly opened Tap Room at Barsham Brewery, near Fakenham and rated their beer as excellent. In June, The Orange Tree in Baldock served up a fabulous pint of Lister’s IPA, sadly one of the last pints that the Sussex-based brewery produced before it closed.

We were there to survey the pub for the regional round of the CAMRA Pub of the Year competition, and another pub that we visited for the competition was the Red Lion at Kenninghall where the beer in question was Woodforde’s Bure Gold.We were not judging the Trafalgar in Ramsey on the Isle of Man, but it had reached the last four in last year’s national competition so while we were on the island to watch the reformed Bury FC take on the local team in the North West Counties League, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss and our reward was a great pint of Asgard Bitter from the local brewery, Odin.And that was it. Four perfect pints in a calendar year, though the Red Lion in Preston near Hitchin (Redemption Bitter) and the White Hart at Ashill (North Riding US Session Ale) both narrowly missed out, with their perfect scores being recorded last December. As for pubs, The Blackfriars Tavern in Yarmouth doesn’t disappoint, and it was a shame that it didn’t make it into the final stages of the national Pub of the Year award as I feel it would have been a worthy winner. Other pubs I really enjoyed included the Westford Inn in Claddach Kiribost on the isle of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and even more surprisingly Henry House in Halifax Nova Scotia with its choice of hand-pulled beer and delicious Cornish pasties.Of course, there is more to life than pubs and beer. The best performances on the football field I witnessed include Lynn v Kidderminster – the best I have seen them play for a long time, Manchester United defeating their near neighbours in the FA Cup final, but winning my non-existent award are Downham Market with a stunning win over Long Melford towards the end of last season. There was no game on when we visited the most interesting football venue of the year, the pitch on Eriskay that features in the Guinness 0.0% advert, a bonkers place to play the beautiful game. All of these are beaten hands down by watching the Boston Red Sox play at Fenway Park, a true lifetime ambition achieved.We are blessed with affordable cinema in Lynn, and the Community Cinema Club has programmed some movies that never made the mainstream screens, as did the film festival. I think the one I enjoyed most was Bill Murray in his red hat in The Life Aquatic, playing a very different role to his rendition of Take Me Out to the Ballpark during the seventh innings stretch at London Stadium a couple of years ago.And books. Our book club has made some interesting choices this year and even if I have not appealed that much, the chance of a meal and a pint, post-meeting at the Stuart House made it worthwhile. My favourite was not a club choice but, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, a weird and wonderful book by Lawrence Sterne. Happy New Year.bar.man@btinternet.com