Haymarket is one of the areas of Edinburgh in which The Management are closest to achieving their aim of drinking in every pub; by early April, only a handful remained to be ticked off the list. After an hour or so of light refreshment one Friday evening, the target was even nearer. The first of the remaining few to fall was The Spider’s Web (Morrison Street, 2/3/4/25/26/33/44/48/100), an early-opener which is a shrine to all things Beatles. Unfortunately it has a somewhat dubious clientele, but as an avid Beatles fan I’d prefer to concentrate on the former point. Here’s a completely gratuitous video of Rain:
Next up was Carter’s (Morrison Street, 2) which the eagle-eyed amongst you will recognise as the old Ossian, the third pub to be taken in on the Great Edinburgh Pub Challenge. Not too much has changed, but - carrying on this update’s tradition of themed pubs – pictures of Michael Caine adorn the walls as a tribute to his role in the film Get Carter with which you should be familiar. If you’re not, make a point of watching it PDQ.
That was all for the evening, but a couple of weeks later we reconvened for another session, at which point Nick informed me that he would like to write the review for that evening (“I would like to write the review for this evening,” he said) so, in (roughly) his own words:
Despite prior skirmishes, it is widely rumoured that our affinity for Edinburgh’s pubs began in September 2004 just as Rod landed in Edinburgh to begin his University career. Back then we found ourselves on a lengthy session which started with a trip to [Chinese restaurant] Taste Good on Slateford Road and ended up in The Tron, taking in no fewer than 5 boozing venues in the process. It therefore seemed only fitting that on the evening after Rod’s last University exam the Management could once again be found on Slateford Road.
As with most of the pubs in the surrounding area Grays Mill (Slateford Road, 4/34/35/44) is decked out in maroon, a colour only Hearts fans could ever love. Predictably, its clientele includes some colourful characters. At one point a couple sat next to us and admired their “purchases” from their day trip into town. We quaffed a couple of pints whilst we watched Chelsea grind out a goalless draw against Everton, but at full time we decided to move on.
It is said that the perfect nine dart finish is achieved by a player scoring 167 with each set of three darts in the following way: Triple 20 (60), Triple 19 (57) and Bullseye (50). If only someone had informed the Management of this fact, then perhaps a visit to the dartboard in The Shandon (Slateford Road, 4/34/35/44) may have been avoided. At one point, a single end resulted in the 3 darts becoming embedded in 1) the floor, 2) the seat below the dartboard and 3) the wall above the dartboard. In order to protect the innocent, the culprit will remain nameless. However, here’s a clue:
Hmm.
Until the next time...
CUMULATIVE PUB COUNT: 135
PUB GAME TALLY:
NICK: 2.5
ROD: 0.5
ADAM JOHNS: 0
