Raglan Arms, Rugby, Warwickshire

It seems a very long time ago that a pub with a Northamptonshire Skittles Table featured on this blog. I guess familiarity breeds complacency when it comes to covering your own local pub game, indeed my own village pub has a table that's yet to feature on here. Even then it was an afternoon visit to Rugby and not Northants that led to this post.

Despite a great many trips to Rugby over the years involving numerous good pubs (most of which are still with us I'm pleased to say, though sadly not our old favourite and former Hoskins Brewery house The Peacock), this would be my first visit to the Raglan Arms. A slightly negligent state of affairs you might think given that the Raglan is undoubtedly my kind of pub. But as the current relief landlord explained to me, even though the pub is on the very edge of the town centre, and barely a stone's throw from some of its very best boozers, it seems to get missed by visitors to Rugby, myself included obviously! This is a great shame as the Raglan has an excellent reputation as a friendly and welcoming locals pub, as well as being one of the towns premier destinations for real ale. It's also a pub that opens all-day every-day throughout the week, which as anyone who visits pubs on slow midweek afternoons will know, is an increasingly rare and welcome thing.

The Raglan has recently had a bit of a spruce-up too, reopening in the house style of new owners Black Country Ales, a small West Midlands brewery and pub company that's helped secure the future of many traditional pubs like the Raglan in recent years. In fact the pub very nearly closed for good way back in 2007, with plans submitted to redevelop the site as residential flats. Thankfully the Raglan was rescued on that occasion by local businessman David Hines, revitalising the pub as a popular real ale destination and CAMRA award winner in a town not exactly short of great beer pubs.

From the front entrance there's a separate quiet Snug to the left, before the pub opens out to the main bar with a raised games area at the rear. This is where the Dartboard and Skittles Table are located. Keep going and you'll eventually find yourself in a partially covered beer garden to rear of the pub.

Anyone that's visited one of Black Country Ales more recent acquisitions will recognise the overall look of the pub. Very traditional in appearance with stained wood and brass fittings throughout. It very much reminds me of Black Country Ales pubs the Salmon and Kings Head in Leicester, even down to the televised beer list, a necessary requirement given the number of beers on tap.

The skittles table is a long-term fixture of the pub, although actually owned by the home skittles team and not the brewery. A beautifully maintained WT Black & Son table, it's early history can be found stencilled on the underside (below). Once you realise this information is hidden away underneath the table, it's very hard not to go looking for it, though it's probably wise to explain to the bar staff what you're doing before getting down on hands and knees and crawling around on the carpet for a better view!

The numbers seen here tell us that this would have been the 80th table produced by the Northampton company, and that it was constructed in 1957, probably in September of that year. I believe the other dates refer to a series of refurbishments by WT Black & Son, dated at 1963, 1971, and 1973.

By modern standards these dates might seem unusually frequent. A full restoration of a skittles table today would probably only occur when it was truly worn-out through a decade or more of play. But it has to be remembered that when this table first went into service, it would have been used for league matches several times a week. Add to that a whole host of cup, charity, practice, and casual weekend games, and you can imagine it would have taken quite a hammering in a way that few tables do these days. I've little doubt the table has been refurbished since then as it's in very good condition, but by who is not clear as WT Black & Son ceased business toward the end of the 20th century.

At the time of my visit, the home team were skittling in the Summer season of the local Dunchurch & District Skittles League, but were actually playing their games at the nearby Webb Ellis pub rather than on their own home table. This was an enforced relocation due to the refurbishment of the Raglan earlier in the year, and the team are set to return to the Raglan for the forthcoming Winter season. Darts is played in the Rugby LVA Darts League, though quite why there's a trophy at the pub from the Leicester Inner City League is not entirely clear...

Hillmorton, Rugby, Warwickshire

Land-locked Warwickshire is almost unique as a county in boasting three very different pub-based skittles traditions. Only neighbouring Leicestershire can compete for overall skittling variety, with three of its own skittle games as outlined in a previous post on this blog.

To the south-west of Warwickshire the West-country tradition of Alley Skittles prevails, sharing league play with pubs and clubs in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire where the game is widespread. In the south-east of the county bordering Oxfordshire, the traditional pub game of Aunt Sally holds sway. Aunt Sally is a skittles game in all but name, albeit one where the wooden 'pins' are thrown at the 'ball'! The table skittles game known as Devil Amongst The Tailors, still played at league level in parts of Staffordshire, may well have featured to the north of the county at one time, but it's the more common Northamptonshire version of table skittles which brings the Warwickshire total to three.

The eastern edge of Warwickshire around the town of Rugby borders both Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, so it's perhaps no surprise that this part of the county shares a Table Skittles tradition with its near neighbours. Indeed many of the venues for the game in and around Rugby share league play with those just over the border near Lutterworth, and presumably the same can be said for venues in Northamptonshire's Daventry area. Rugby town centre has a handful of pubs and clubs where a skittles table can be found, but it's in the villages surrounding the town that the game is still relatively common. The nearby village of Hillmorton is a good example, a residential suburb of Rugby which could probably be considered a stronghold of the game, there being a table in virtually every pub and club.

Most of the pubs in Hillmorton are located on or near the busy High Street, the Stag & Pheasant takes a little more finding. A classic village pub of some age and character, located a short walk from the main road and now surrounded by modern housing to the north of the village. The pub is close enough to the Oxford Union Canal to attract visitors in the summer, but this is essentially a cosy two-room locals pub with a strong gaming element. Trophies for Darts are displayed around the bar, and there's an adjoining games area which features a Pool Table and vintage W T Black & Son Skittles Table.

The Skittles Table is shown here 'parked' out of the way to allow space for Pool play, but a clue to its normal playing position can be seen in the metal grills across the windows to the right. The netting 'hood' at the back of a Northamptonshire skittles table is designed to catch errant cheeses during a game, but despite this they often go astray. High-velocity plastic skittles and cheeses can do a lot of damage to a window, even occasionally to those toiling in the 'woodyard', hence the protective grill over the window. A steel Oche or Mott is used in these parts, with Mens and Ladies competition in the thriving Dunchurch & District League.

The Bell Inn (below) on the main road through Hillmorton is a pub that really impressed me. Though I'd have to say that first impressions were I'd maybe come to the wrong pub! Turn right from the front entrance as I did, and you'll find yourself in a smart refurbished lounge/restaurant, really not the kind of place you'd expect to find the rattle and thud of skittles play. The restaurant is clearly a major part of the business plan for the Bell, along with the excellent family-friendly garden to the rear, but what sets the Bell Inn apart from so many recently refurbished pubs is that it retains a thoroughly traditional bar and games area, for which you need to turn left at the entrance.

By retaining two distinctly different rooms rather than the increasingly common knocked through and blandly refurbished lounge-bar, there remains a space for everyone to enjoy the pub whatever their taste. There also remains space for Darts, a Pool Table, and another beautifully maintained Skittles Table.

The games area is located around a corner of the main bar, keeping the noise of play to a sensible level for drinkers. In this way, the locally important game of Table Skittles, as well as other popular  and sometimes noisy pub games have been accommodated rather than ousted as they are in so many modern refurbishments.

A Compendium of Pub Games Images - Pt.15

The area around the Warwickshire town of Rugby is another outpost for the game of Table Skittles, though existing tables are few and far between in the town itself. The Alexandra has one of the last remaining tables in the town centre, quite a vintage W T Blacks model from the look of the turned legs and the fragments of two plastic labels which can still be seen pinned to them.

The Pins and Cheeses are the yellow plastic variety favoured in the adjacent Lutterworth and Dunton Bassett leagues. This set are stamped with the moniker of joiner and skittle table repairer Colin Swinfen, based in the nearby village of South Kilworth in Leicestershire.

The Bridle Lane Tavern is a small, effectively single bar pub located on the edge of the city centre. The pub stands adjacent to a large traffic island, and is overlooked by the Belgrave Flyover (there are currently plans to demolish this ugly concrete edifice and redevelop the area). At one time the pub must have been hemmed in by buildings on either side, though it now stands isolated, a thin wedge of a building which helps explain the diminutive size of the drinking area. It's a welcome survivor in an area which has lost many of its local pubs, reflecting the radically changed demographics and the steep decline in industry of this area of Leicester. Despite the limited space there's still room for a good Darts Board, with another located in what appears to be a covered yard to the rear. Until fairly recently the pub was also home to a Leicester Skittles Table, an increasingly rare traditional pub game which sadly ended up in a skip during refurbishment by a former licensee.

When I first spotted these skittles at an antiques emporium in Lincolnshire, I thought they were of the style known as Old English Skittles, the largest skittle form still played in England. In fact they resemble more closely Long Alley pins of the Derby/Notts variety though larger and more bulbous in shape. The 'cheeses' are still a bit of a mystery though. These appear to be a cross between those used in Northamptonshire Table Skittles, and the large Lignum Vitae 'discus' shaped cheeses used in the now very rare Old English game. The owner describes them as Country Fete Skittles, which is probably as accurate a description as any. Given their current condition, riddled with worm holes, and set at an unrealistically high price, I can't see them coming back into use any day soon.

Domino players required at the Kings Head in Leicester. Since re-opening as a Black Country Ales pub in 2012, the Kings Head has returned to the fold as a good pub for beer, and under the current licensee is now settling in as a proper locals pub too. It's slightly unusual to see league Dominoes being played at a pub so close to the centre of town. Unusual but very welcome.