Permeability

 Had to be down at our new base yesterday.  It's a large civic building and is right next to a sports ground.

County cricket games were played here - though not often now - but it has a thriving cricket club which attracts all sorts of players.  There is (or maybe was) a croquet club, of course there's a bowls club and there's now a large Padel "tent", one of the Town's non-league football teams plays there along with a lively hockey scene.

It's fairly recently become home to a Gun Brewery taproom which we visited once last summer - and enjoyed watching some young women's cricket. 

Yesterday we didn't really want to go back to Wolf (the other closest bar of choice) so I suggested the taproom.

The sports ground is literally right across the road from our building and there have historically been numerous entrances.  How hard do you think it would be for us to find a quick route to the taproom?

Sigh.

We went to the nearest gate to find it padlocked and a note to suggest walking round to the next entrance -which is/was the football turnstile entrance - also locked. So we had walk about a quarter of a mile round to the next entrance, then walk round a quarter of the cricket ground perimeter then cross to the centre of the whole complex to gain entry to the bar.

Once in we were a bit confused by what was available on the bar - the keg labels were small and behind the bar (and so unreadable) and the beer list did list all the beers but it was a really confused jumble of information.  Only after we'd settled on a 4% Vermont Pale (very nice) did we realise that the two cask pumps we'd seen (Best Bitter and lovely, but stupid strong Zanzama) were only 50% of the cask offering.

The beer list didn't indicate the dispense method of the beers so we'd missed them entirely until we got our beer and sat down.  Only then did we see the ENORMOUS lit beer list on a wall you couldn't see from the bar (but it was almost as confusing as the written list - and still didn't indicate dispense method) and realise there were the other two cask pumps we'd missed at the far other end of the bar.

Still the beers we had were great, if a little on the pricey side, and we ended up with 2 good cask beers as well as the initial keg one.

Being inside the taproom (ie sports bar) was OK - you wouldn't expect it to be cosy but some slightly better furniture would be nice (they have the obligatory taproom folding tables and benches and then high tables and stools plus just a few more comfy seats which were taken).  They had the golf on (which made the BBB happy, but apologetic) and there were a few people there who'd clearly played padel or hockey or whatever.  It felt like an upmarket leisure centre bar and it made me remember very fondly the bar at a Filton leisure centre (in Bristol) back in the 90's where I used to play squash with an old school friend and then have a really good pint of, probably, Bass.  The bar being run by a beer fanatic and used by anyone who wanted decent beer.

Anyhow, when we left we headed out the other side of the sports ground which is across uneven paths and circuitous route out to the road.  It was about 7pm when we left and the bar had maybe 8 or 10 people in it even though it was Friday evening.

Maybe it was because it was the last weekday of the school holidays, maybe the season for the bar hasn't really taken of yet...or maybe it was something else.  I can't help feeling that a bit more permeability of the access gates would make it easier for people to find when they're passing.  Also, a bit clearer signage/menus for the drinks would make choosing your drinks a bit more straightforward.

Definitely a work in progress, I would say.

I am looking forward to going there on a warm evening when there's a cricket match on, or similar - definitely better than watching golf on the TV!