The Fox, Carlton, Bedfordshire

Every now and then I like to choose a good book, dust off the old camera, and use what little remains of our rural public transport to search out new pubs in far-flung places. Anyone that does similar will know it can take a fair bit of forward planning to get to where you want to be at more or less the time you'd like to be there on these jaunts, and no matter how much research you've done beforehand, there's always going to be an element of hit-or-miss about the day. The main danger being that your destination pub won't be open at the advertised time, or even worse, not open at all! Rural villages are already littered with long-closed locals, and sadly they're still closing at a truly alarming rate.

Perhaps just as bad from my perspective is when the pub in question 'is' open, but just doesn't match the rose-tinted vision of pubby-perfection I've held in my mind on that long bus journey. I'm generally travelling with knowledge of a pubs gaming interest of course, but I'm also looking for good locals pubs, and ideally a nice pint too. Town centre chain bars and the 'pub-as-restaurant' model don't particularly interest me, and neither do pubs that are attractive and traditional on the outside, but bland, stripped-out, and entirely lacking in charm and character within. In common with the pub games that this blog is mainly concerned with, what I'm hoping to find is a pub that's not entirely lost its connection with the traditions and history of the community it serves.

So, one train and two meandering bus rides into the heart of Bedforshire later, I found myself more than a little disappointed with my initial pub choice. Sometimes it's hard to put your finger on why a pub just doesn't 'do-it' for you, but this otherwise perfectly serviceable, and outwardly attractive village local (which shall remain nameless for obvious reasons) 'really' didn't do-it for me. A bit bland and gentrified within, polite but thoroughly unengaging locals and landlord, just a little bit dull if I'm honest. Perhaps it was me, but despite the presence of a very fine old skittles table in the corner that I know gets regular use in a local league, I was struggling to see a good photo opportunity, and just couldn't think how I was going to make the place seem anything like interesting, because it just wasn't to my eyes! Underwhelming then, though clearly not to the handful of locals in at the time, and of course I'm genuinely pleased that the community hasn't lost its single remaining boozer in the way that so many villages already have. Perhaps it was me...

Cutting my planned two hour lunchtime pint(s) short, I did a quick recce on the internet (thank heavens for rural 3G) and caught my third bus of the day to the two-pub village of Carlton. This was more like it! A swift half in the snug of the thoroughly modernised, but actually very pleasant Royal Oak, before strolling the length of the village for my second stab at a destination pub worth travelling for, and hopefully worth writing about.

I knew very little about The Fox before visiting that day, other than it has a good reputation for beer (entirely justified I'd say), is open all day every day (rare and very welcome, particularly for a village pub), and that it plays host to the local game of Table Skittles, or 'Hood Skittles' as it's often known round these parts. I certainly wasn't aware of how chocolate-box pretty the pub is, a legacy of its former life as a farmhouse. In fact it's a bit of a thatched beauty, nestled between the village high street and the road to nearby Turvey, and with a cottage garden at the front that looks exactly the place to be on a warm summer afternoon. You really couldn't ask for a more attractive and welcoming sight after spending the best part of two hours travelling.

After many years as a Charles Wells Brewery house, The Fox is now free of tie and in the safe hands of licensee Alison Brown who bought the pub in 2014. There's a good overview of the pubs history on the Bedfordshire Community Archive webpages which suggests it was a rather small, dark and pokey place originally, trading none-too successfully it seems as a simple village alehouse. The pub today has clearly lost much of its original multi-room layout, but nevertheless it now comfortably straddles the divide between modern open-plan convenience with a strong food offering, and a pub that retains plenty of genuine character and essential 'pubbiness'. I took a strong liking to The Fox immediately I walked through the door, and was made very welcome by Alison who was busy keeping the Saturday afternoon drinkers served at the bar.

One thing I've noticed from visiting some of the more traditional pubs in the county, is that Bedfordshire pubs are generally rugby pubs, perhaps even more so than neighbouring Leicestershire and Northants. Sadly I couldn't stick around for the whole game, but it was good to see a small but enthusiastic crowd in for the weekend Six Nations matches, a pub tradition I've been enjoying since its earlier Five Nations days, but which seems to me to be on the wane as a traditional afternoon session these days.

The northern half of Bedfordshire is also very much Skittles country, the version known more widely as Northamptonshire Table Skittles being the game of choice. The skittles table is sensibly located in a separate games room to the rear of the pub (it's a noisy business), and shares throwing space with the Dartboard. Tuesdays are match days in a league that would also be entirely new to me that day. That's because the Ouse Valley Skittles League, in common with many similar pub games leagues around the country, doesn't seem to advertise its existence very widely.

12 teams make up the Winter competition, which runs from October through to March with a finals night in April. I'm not entirely sure if there's an equivalent Summer league. There are currently 10 venues for the game in the Ouse Valley league, a mix of pubs and social clubs dotted around an area to the north of Bedford, stretching almost as far as Wellingborough in the games heartland county of Northamptonshire.

The skittles table was fully equipped with a set of Boxwood pins and cheeses ready for practice and casual games, a good enough reason to visit the pub even without the attraction of a bite to eat, or a few beers in the garden of a really lovely village pub.

The Bluebell, Bedford

Bedfordshire is one of several counties which maintain a strong association with the game of Table Skittles. It's in the area to the north of the county, and adjoining the game's original home of Northamptonshire, where tables are still relatively common, though Bedford town itself is now almost entirely skittles-free. You have to venture out to the leafy suburbs and surrounding villages to find a table for play these days, but where the game is still found it remains a popular fixture in the bar and games room, and happily there are still several leagues active in the area.

The Bluebell is a pub which serves the needs of a suburban population to the north of Bedford town. A busy and popular pub, decked out in all its Christmas regalia when I visited in December. It was a cold day but the welcome was warm, and well worth the half hour walk out from town for a pint.

It's been a while since I came across a pair of skittles tables in a pub, both well maintained and positioned for regular play in the games area. These two tables are entirely necessary given that the The Bluebell currently field three teams in the Bedford & District Skittles League. Any less would inevitably lead to home fixture clashes on Tuesday match nights.

A Bluebell 'C' team was recently added at the pub following the closure of The Anchor to the south of Bedford. The displaced team are now well and truly settled at the Bluebell, this despite the recent re-opening of the Anchor, though whether the skittles table remains at the pub is not clear.

A good set of boxwood pins and cheeses were produced for an afternoon chuck, and a local team member gently disabused me of the notion that Bedfordshire skittling is now all plastic.

Whilst it's certainly true that plastic pins and cheeses are the norm throughout much of the Table Skittles areas, and a stipulation for league play in parts of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, boxwood still rules in the various Bedfordshire leagues. Outside of competition though, the more robust plastic alternatives are more common in Bedfordshire, and for how long this admirable preference for traditional wooden pins and cheeses will continue, given the difficulty and expense of obtaining them, is really anyones guess.

A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.18

A modern Bar Billiards Table at the historic Rowell Charter Inn, Rothwell, Northamptonshire.

This wonderfully un-PC guide to the rules of Long Alley Skittles can be found in the basement Alley of the Embankment in Nottingham, as featured on this blog already. Very 70's/80's in appearance, but a good summation of the rules of the game. I wonder who the cartoonist was.

The two off-season Skittle Alleys below are in Belper, Derbyshire. The Astro Turfed Alley on the right is at the Devonshire Arms, the other at the rear of the Nags Head. Both are active in the Belper & District league. Note that even though this is a Summer game, both of these alleys are floodlit to prevent the chance of fading light prematurely ending a league match.

Darts, Dominoes, and Table Skittles are played at the Polhill Arms in Renhold, Bedfordshire. Tuesday is Skittles nights in the Beds & Roberts Skittles League, with Darts played in the Bedford Darts League.

Old tobacco advertising Cribbage Boards used for decorative purposes only at the Wheatsheaf in Oakham, Rutland. Not a venue strong on pub games, though quiz nights are held, and the pub has strong connections with local Cricket.

The Cock, Broom, Bedfordshire

Don't be put off by the Greene King signage on The Cock, it's well worth visiting for a pint (there's usually a guest beer or two), and you'll be made very welcome if my own experience is typical. The pub is another treasure on CAMRA's list of Heritage Pubs. Much altered and extended over the years, but done in such a sensitive way that The Cock can be held up as a great example of how pubs can develop to keep pace with changing circumstances without being spoilt in the process.

The interior is a mellow blend of old polished wood and red floor tiles. There are several distinct areas for drinking as well as a separate dining room, all linked by a narrow wood panelled corridor, the floor tiles worn to a shallow groove through many years of traffic to and from the cellar door. Beer is served straight from the cask and delivered to the top of the cellar steps on a tray. There's no bar counter to get in the way at The Cock.

The pub currently opens all day every day, which is great news if, like myself, you've been disappointed far too often by the ever more limited opening hours of rural and village pubs. Whilst it's reasonable to expect pubs to limit their lunchtime or even evening opening during the week, I'm finding it  increasingly difficult to find a rural pub open on a Saturday afternoon, often one of the main times I'm looking for a pint when out and about. The difficulty with The Cock is that having found the pub open, you may not want to leave in a hurry.

The Games Room is located directly to the left on entering the pub, and houses a Darts Board and a well polished Skittles Table. Pins and Cheeses are the pale yellow plastic variety favoured in the Bedfordshire game. The table has a couple of faded labels on the legs, probably marking this out as a W T Blacks model. Now no longer in league use, a collection of trophies in the Snug attest to the skittles action which would have once taken place at the pub.

Given the small size of the games room at the Cock, the Skittles throw is positioned on the diagonal to achieve the correct distance. Consequently the Darts and Skittles Oche's share space on the tiled floor. As far as play is concerned it's one or the other, unless some kind of strict rota is in place.

Trophies in the snug include two from the Lord Roberts Skittles League. There is a Lord Roberts pub in nearby Sandy. This league now appears to have been consolidated to form the Beds & Roberts Skittles League.

Engineers Arms, Henlow, Bedfordshire

The Engineers Arms has such a good reputation for its beer and cider that it was judged a finalist in CAMRA's national Pub of the Year awards in 2012. A regular entry in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide, the pub also plays host to annual beer and cider festivals. It's also a friendly, welcoming, and thriving community pub, buzzing with locals when I visited, and if all that were not enough, it's a bit of a treasure trove for the pub games enthusiast.

The games corner at the pub features numerous board games, including the laminate Shove Ha'penny shown above (in need of a serious polish it must be said), Dominoes, and a good Dice set which includes the pub staples of Shut The Box and Crown & Anchor. The licensee also has a much better quality slate Shove Ha'penny which is currently being mounted into a wooden frame ready to install as a fold-down board on a wall of the bar. I believe there may also be an Evesham Quoits (or Dobbers) Board at the pub, though this was not on show when I visited recently.

A recent introduction to the pub, and an increasingly popular game throughout the country, is the Monday Poker In The Pub night. Whatever you think of Poker as a pub game (and given that until relatively recently it has been illegal to play Poker for money in a pub, and so it could hardly be considered 'traditional'), the good thing about the game is that it appeals to such a wide range of people. This includes many of the younger drinkers who have previously not engaged in the more traditional games such as Skittles and Darts (it's notable that the Engineers doesn't appear to have a Darts Board, though it may be that I simply missed it). The red padded table toppers for the game can be seen on the left of the Shove Ha'penny image above.

Perhaps the jewel in the crown of pub games at the Engineers Arms is this play-worn old Skittles Table, of the type found throughout Bedfordshire and beyond. This is a very well used table, mounted on sturdy turned-wood legs, and with what may well be the original leather covering. The table can be found 'outside' the rear bar in the covered patio area. A sensible precaution for a game as noisy as this, and playable throughout the Winter months thanks to the presence of a number of large patio heaters.

League skittles play doesn't extend quite as far as Henlow, but casual games are popular at the pub, including the Friday night bar room favourite of Killer

Smiths Arms, Kempston, Bedfordshire

This fine old Skittles Table resides in the dedicated games area of the Smiths Arms, one of several venues in Kempston which still field teams in one or other of the local skittles leagues. A Pool Table and a soon to return Darts Board are also available at this friendly and welcoming back-street corner local.

The licensee is new to the pub, and looking to spruce things up a little, but coming as he does from Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, he will be familiar with this version of Skittles, if possibly not the rules or terms used in the Bedfordshire game. A 'Leg' for example is known as a 'Horse' round here, something I've never come across in Northants or Leics.

This set of Cheeses bear the mark of the Smiths Arms, though the one on the right is an impostor which appears to be made from a different wood and is actually a slightly different shape to the others. I can't imagine this being acceptable in league play but these are not likely to be the match-day set.

The space on the wall to the right of the Skittles Table will soon have a Darts Board in place.

Half Moon, Kempston, Bedfordshire

Table Skittles, of the type most commonly played in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, is a game which can also be found to a lesser extent in some of the surrounding counties. The northern half of Bedfordshire is one such area, though here as elsewhere the game has declined significantly in more recent years, such that it may well have disappeared entirely from the pubs of Bedford town itself. You'll need to venture out to the suburbs and surrounding villages of Bedford to find a pub or club with a table now, though I'm pleased to say that when a table can be found, leagues play is still very much in evidence.

Kempston, a village located on the south-western edge of Bedford, is still a bit of a skittles stronghold. Teams from a number of pubs and clubs in the village play in the North Beds and/or Bedford & District Skittles Leagues, the Half Moon being one of the best examples and well worth a visit. Recently refurbished, the interior is immaculately presented, with a comfortable lounge/dining area, and a separate thoroughly traditional bar. It's the bar which houses the beautifully maintained Skittles Table, upholstered in vibrant reddish leather work, a good contrast to the Boxwood pins and cheeses. Darts, Cribbage, and Dominoes are also played at the pub, and perhaps surprisingly there is also a twin Pétanque (or Boule) piste at the rear which is available for functions during the Summer months.