Scores on the doors!

It was perhaps always going to be a rather futile bid, to get anywhere near visiting as many pubs over the course of the year, as experienced pub tickers, such as Retired Martin, Simon Everitt and Stafford Paul. However, there’s no harm in trying, and with this aim in mind, I’d been keeping score on the number of pubs I’ve been in, over the past 12 months. In the end, I topped out at 106, after plans for a final few hostelries fell into disarray, right at the last hurdle. This was evidenced by my drive back from a visit to the local Waste Transfer Station on New Year’s Eve, when I found the Poet at Matfield and the George & Dragon at Tudeley both firmly closed.

The latter at least had a note on the door, advising the pub would be closed for two weeks, due to family holidays. I was also thwarted by a completely full car park at the Star, also at Matfield. Talk about no room at the inn! I suppose it make sense for some pubs to close following the hectic Christmas – New Year period, and with trade traditionally quiet, or even dead, at the start of January, why not shut up shop for a few weeks, and allow both licensees and staff to head off for a well-earned holiday, providing there’s money in the till to pay for it.

That total of one hundred & six different pubs, some of which I visited on several occasions, pales into insignificance compared to the totals of some dedicated pub men. My total for 2025 is considerably up on the previous year’s score of 74 pubs, which strangely was down on 2023’s total of 84. 

It still represents the highest number of pubs visited since I began keeping proper records of my pub going activities. Of course, I only counting each pub once, even if multiple visits are made over the course of the year, but starting from 1^st January, I shall be indicating repeat visits, which is something I haven’t done before. I shall also be setting certain ground rules, going forward in order to avoid any duplication or waste of effort.  

Looking back on 2025, I eventually reached a situation where I was running out of the more local hostelries, which meant having to journey farther afield to “tick” pubs in towns and villages that weren’t exactly on the doorstep. I don’t mind this, as I always enjoy visiting different locations, and whilst most of these ticks won’t have been totally new ones, at least for that year, they were still as far as the current count is concerned.

Even better, is visiting an unfamiliar location for the first time, where every pub or bar is a new one, and should the visit be extended over a number of days – a mini-break, if you like, then this is a golden opportunity to dramatically increase one’s pub scores. But even returning to a previously visited town or city, can have the same benefit, especially as this little competition seems to be a yearly occurrence, amongst pub men.

I’m off to a reasonable start so far this year, having ticked five pubs to date, and it’s worth noting that two of these outlets were places I wouldn’t normally have set foot in. And there’s the rub, because by risking replacing familiar, and by association, pubs one feels comfortable in, with the unfamiliar, where one feels edgy, and definitely out of one’s comfort zone, is the obvious key to success in the pub ticking game.  Who knows, you may stumble upon a hitherto unknown gem.

It's back to my part time job tomorrow morning and, apart from a potentially icy commute into work, I’m looking forward to a dose of reality, and an escape from the temptation of all those mince pies! Happy New Year to one and all.