Encouraging Traditional Pub Games December 2010

A publicans life has always been hard work, but in recent years they have led a much more difficult life financially. In the past all a Landlord had to do was supply his punters with good beer and they rolled in. Then the pubs faced the cut price booze that the supermarkets started selling and next various health and safety legislation concerning the state of the premises with regard to cigarette smoke/ventilation and the structure/state of the kitchens if they sold any sort of food. Meeting all this new legislation became a nightmare for Landlords and with the ever greedy breweries and holding companies putting up prices they charged the pubs for rent, beer, etc, in an attempt to maximise the profits for their shareholders, Landlords faced an ever increasing battle to make a profit for themselves.

Last Summer’s smoking ban seems to have been the straw that broke the camels back for many of them. A couple of months ago I wrote that it was not all bad news for Rugeley, as, although several pubs had closed and some had been pulled down, several more had either been built, or converted from something else into a pub. Since writing that piece, several more pubs in the area have closed and it seems there may be more closing in the near future according to rumours.

If a Landlords pub is not centred round meals and relies on drinkers instead, then as one Landlord said, “The Landlords need to do something to get the punters in. They need to put up a dartboard and get Domino and Crib teams going in the pub.”  In the Rugeley area there is plenty going on every night of the week for those that want to join in traditional pub activities. Some nights of the week there are two or three leagues operating in the pubs.

Monday    Men’s Monday Darts + Dominoes + Trent Valley Quiz League.
Tuesday   Cribbage + Pool + Ladies Darts
Wednesday Weston Men’s Darts + Ladies Darts
Thursday  Men’s Superleague Darts + Weston Ladies + Rugeley Ladies Darts
Friday    Dominoes

It is true that not all of the leagues operate all year round as some run through the Summer months and others through the Winter, but the Rugeley Men’s Monday Night Darts and the Weston (Men’s and Ladies) Darts Leagues, run more or less throughout the whole year, allowing for odd weeks when there are meetings etc.

Landlords may not be keen darts players, crib or domino players, but if they encourage a few teams into their pubs they will get more business with more regular drinkers. Some leagues are struggling to keep up numbers because of apathy on the part of certain pubs to enter teams and then everyone suffers as leagues are forced to fold. British pubs will continue suffering and will be in danger of losing much of their tradition unless people start to follow age old pub pastimes. Many pub sports have gone and are never likely to be revived such as outdoor bowling with a green.

A long time ago many village pubs had a bowling green, but of course they have been turned into beer gardens and so can never be brought back, although one or two leagues do exist for the few clubs that still have them. I know that the Power Station and Red Lion Brereton used to have a green and still play in a local bowling league, although some of the leagues matches are played indoors on a mat. Nearly every English pub at one time had a wooden skittle alley. In fact not so long ago there was one pub in the area that still had one in operation. Nowadays these have been super ceded by ten pin bowling alleys that have moved to larger, purpose built venues and so are never going to return either. However, I remember going into local pubs and seeing table skittles played in the bars. This is one pastime that could certainly be revived. It would perhaps be silly to suggest bringing back any of the games involving coins such as shove halfpenny, which has been relegated to fairgrounds and the like, but if we are not careful we might lose even more traditional pub activities.

We are often critical of some of the immigrants coming into our country who do not adopt our ways, but I recently saw a piece on the T.V. of one enterprising Moslem who had taken over an empty pub in Birmingham and re-opened it for locals. Admittedly a stranger that wondered into the pub was a little surprised when he walked up to the bar asking for a pint of Bitter only to be told that they did not serve beer, but he was welcome to buy a cup of coffee or an orange juice. Having said that I think they had a dartboard, pool table, etc and the place looked busy enough. And why not?

The pub was just another vacant pub before being re-opened and it was obviously catering for the local needs in its new format. Perhaps they will even enter a darts team in their local league. Now that could be fun to see the reaction of some of the visiting alcoholic darts players that are around!