Moon Inn, Mordiford, Herefordshire

I recently achieved a long-standing goal in visiting the Moon Inn, a classic half-timbered Herefordshire pub in the village of Mordiford. The village itself is fairly modest in size, but something of a magnet for walkers on the Mordiford Loop footpath. Modest it may be, but it punches well above its weight in the tight-knit world of 'traditional woven cereal figures', giving its name to the unique heart-shaped Mordiford Corn Dolly!

I was keen to visit the pub both for its fine reputation, and its location which is close enough to Hereford to be an important venue in the local Indoor Quoits league. Unfortunately, rural pubs in Herefordshire can be difficult to get to by public transport, which is a bit of a problem as I usually travel to Hereford by rail. An overnighter in Hereford town with my partner provided the opportunity, as well as the greatest gift a partner can bestow, the willing services of a designated driver. As with all things in life though, you should be careful what you wish for because whilst the pub was certainly as good as I'd hoped it would be, the visit brought with it a bit of sad news for pub games enthusiasts like myself, more of which later...

The Moon Inn is that rare thing, a popular destination pub with a great reputation for food and beer, yet remains very much a village local with a strong commitment to the community it serves, and of course traditional pub games. Local and highly distinctive pub games at that, and none more so than the card game Phat which is as popular in the Hereford area as Cribbage is in the Vale of Evesham. Phat isn't unique to Hereford, but it's certainly a game that most of us will probably never have heard of, least of all seen being played. In fact I've only ever come across Phat in Hereford where the game is played in practically all of the more traditional pubs and clubs in the town and surrounding villages. A 'Phat Friendly' pub can often be recognised by the presence of one of the unique green felt-topped boards shown below, or indeed a group of people actually playing Phat in the corner of the pub!

The game of Phat is a trick taking and points scoring game played by two pairs of players, and scored to 181, hence the larger 'cribbage' style scoring board seen here in the bar of the Moon Inn. The game remains popular at the pub with play on several weekdays, but the Hereford league is much reduced from its 70's/80's heyday when there were over 70 teams playing in 6 divisions in the area.

Local Phat enthusiast Albert Phipps and other players at the pub, recently hit the headlines for the very generous donation of their game winnings to the local St Michaels Hospice. The full article can be read here, and is a reminder, should it be needed, of the huge importance local pubs like the Moon Inn and their customers play in fund-raising for charitable causes like this.

Of course Darts is probably the most important game played at the pub. The trophy cabinet to the right of the dartboard holds a good collection of silverware for the Moonatics, the pubs highly successful Darts team which is currently throwing in division one of the Hereford Licensed Victuallers Darts League.

So something of a hotbed for pub games, but sadly it's not all good news for the traditions of games play at the Moon Inn, or indeed the wider Hereford area. When I last visited the area around a year ago, I received the bombshell news that the Mens section of the Hereford City Quoits League had finally folded. At that time the Ladies section was still going, though in as parlous a position as the struggling mens section had been. I now learn from the landlord of the Moon that the Ladies section has also ceased competition, bringing almost 70 years of continuous league Quoits play to an end in the Hereford area. This is very sad news indeed, particularly as the Hereford League was one of only half a dozen remaining in an area stretching from the Forest of Dean up to Shropshire along the Welsh Borders.

It's certainly a blow for the game, but it also represents yet another loss of the genuine local distinctiveness that makes the British pub at its best so special. Obviously the game will continue to be played in pubs that still have one of the heavy concrete boards and a set of rubber Quoits, indeed the landlord of the Moon Inn was setting-up ready for a game that evening between the pubs two Quoits teams. But league play of games like this is absolutely crucial for the survival of the tradition as a whole, as evidenced by the absence of Quoits in Evesham, an area that was until relatively recently an important centre of Indoor Quoits play. Indeed Indoor Quoits is often referred to as 'Evesham Quoits' and played to 'Evesham Rules', yet there are currently no Quoits pubs remaining in the Evesham area to my knowledge. When leagues fold, games just never seems to hold their position in the pub to the same degree, and it's hoped that in-house competition like the one at the Moon Inn will go some way toward preventing Quoits disappearing entirely from the Hereford area over the coming years.

The Moon Inn has been much extended in recent years to accommodate the all-important food trade that ensures village pubs like this survive and thrive, but the heart of the pub retains much of its traditional charm and character. The metal strips screwed to the parquet flooring (below) mark the throwing points for the Dartboard, and the former location of the Quoits Board in the bar, which originally sat between the door and bench seating to the left. Note there are two strips for the Quoits throw, the furthest being the standard for the mens league, the closer one for the Ladies throw. Quite why it was decided there should be a difference is probably lost in the mists of league history, the weight of the rubber quoits don't seem to offer too much in the way of difficulty for all but the most frail players, but then it seems the game has always been more popular with older players. The board is now located in a more convenient location in a side-room of the main bar area with a set of Quoits available for a game whenever you fancy one, which I hope you do, as often as possible.

The door to the cellar, located roadside from when the pub was a coaching inn.