Highgate, England, United KingdomThe Yorkshire Cricket tour was over with one win to to the WA Masters credit. Today we were travelling to London for our final game
A 10:00am departure time was easily met by all, including the late night party boys and the un-named couple from the across the A58 flyover.
As this was to be our final coach trip together, the Duke gave another of his summaries on the matches played and yet again made an attempt to talk with a Yorkshire accent until someone yelled out "Tha'll get a clip rahnd lug'oil if tha' carries on like this."
Chopper took the opportunity to disclose the breaches and fines for failing to adhere to the blazer etiquette rules while on tour. For some reason the style crime of wearing shorts and/or thongs with the blazer was not regarded as a breach of etiquette. Chopper lead from the front and fined himself the equal most. What wasn't surprising was the other WAM who committed the most breaches and had the largest fine to pay. Aarggh! Who was it?
Blazer Etiquette Fines List
| WAM #1 | Larry "Skip" Davies | £10.00 |
| WAM #2 | Wayne "Pigeon" Davies | £10.00 |
| WAM #3 | Simon "Pup" Joyner | £20.00 |
| WAM #4 | Bradley "Duke" Forbes | £5.00 |
| WAM #14 | Barry "Cougar" Wilson | £25.00 |
| WAM #16 | Brendan "Chopper" Reid | £25.00 |
| WAM #21 | Greg "Catto" Catlin | £15.00 |
| WAM #26 | Morrie "Murray" Todd | £5.00 |
| WAM #27 | Frank "Cranky" Collins | £5.00 |
| WAM #28 | David "Stinky" Steens | £10.00 |
| WAM #30 | Robin "Major" Lovegrove | £10.00 |
| WAM #32 | Jonathon "Virgin" Hurst | £8.00 |
The journey down south in our coach along the M1 to London was un-eventful, with the only highlight being a lunch stop at the famous Watford Gap Services, where the WAMs and their WAGs enjoyed a delightful selection of pre-made sandwiches from the stores within.
Watford Gap is where the M1 Motorway ended when it was first built in 1959, ever since it has been, as any connoisseur of British sit-coms would know, regarded as the point that marks the division of the North of England from the South. As we ate our sandwiches most of the WAMs would have been completely unaware about this and that the divide actually dates back to times of the Vikings in England.
Our coach from Leeds sailed into London without any trouble and then sailed right pass our hotel, The Premier Inn Archway, due to a combination of one-way streets and a lack of visible of Hotel signage. We drove all the way down to Tufnell Park before we could execute a 3-point turn and drive back up to Archway. The same one-way streets meant we dis-embarked at a London Bus bus-stop and then walked the rest of the way.
The unique accessibility design continued inside the hotel. The ground floor foyer could not hold all of our party at the same time and the the two elevators to the first floor reception were also small. At reception, the self-service check-in failed and we all lined up to check in and be told we would have to re-check in the following day as well.
The reception and the restaurant areas were an improvement on the Ibis, while the rooms were brighter, more modern and came complete with a bath. The big rooms with a sofa-bed were huge, the regular rooms were not so.
Archway itself has much improved since I lived here in 1987. The roads had been reconfigured and there was a big plaza where half a round-about used to be. The Hotel was a 10 minute bus ride to our Monday fixture and was located at the bottom of Highgate Hill and the old Village of Highgate.
Wikipedia describes Highgate as:
Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character.
Until late Victorian times it was a distinct village outside London, sitting astride the main road to the north. The area retains many green expanses including the eastern part of Hampstead Heath, three ancient woods, Waterlow Park and the eastern-facing slopes known as Highgate bowl.
At its centre is Highgate village, a collection of largely Georgian shops, pubs, restaurants and residential streets,[interspersed with diverse landmarks such as St Michael's Church and steeple, St. Joseph's Church and its green copper dome, Highgate School (1565), Jacksons Lane arts centre housed in a Grade II listed former church, the Gatehouse Inn dating from 1670 which houses the theatre Upstairs at the Gatehouse and Berthold Lubetkin's 1930s Highpoint buildings. Highgate also contains the Victorian cemetery in which the Communist philosopher Karl Marx is buried, and many other notable people.
The village is at the top of North Hill which provides views across London: it is 129 metres (423 ft) above sea level at its highest point.
Being at the foot of such a historical place, a pub crawl had long been planned. Thanks to the recommendations of a friend of mime, Steve, who lived locally, the WAMs and their WAGs embarked on a pub crawl through Highgate Village.
The fitter members of the tour party decided to enjoy the 30 minute walk up Highgate Hill to the first pub, the Bull, while the rest of the group enjoyed a leisurely ride on the bus. Only the Virgin was missing, having gone to revisit his old cricket club at New Malden, where he would once again be feted as the young Aussie who scored six centuries in the summer of 1984.
At the Bull we helpfully rearranged all the chairs in the beer garden to form a large circle of friends, Johore style (see Singapore Sling). The WAGs enjoyed a large selection of gins and the WAMs had beer galore.
The next stop was the Wrestlers, 100 metres down the road where pictures of old cricketers and cricket bats on the wall made the WAMs feel at home.
Our final pub was more hipster modern than traditional, real ale and fancy gins in a very old pub in the middle of the village, the Dukes Head.
Steve had reserved the front of the pub for the WAMs and we sat around two large dining tables enjoying hipster burgers and hipster fries. The real ale was largely ignored as the WAMs, led by the red wine cabal, made a serious dent in the pub's small wine cellar. From about 9:30 WAMs and WAGs wandered the kilometre down the hill to Archway and rest. No Guessing who was leading from the front and was last to leave.
Brad
2018-09-11
As always Greg , outstanding work , who needs to take photos with this . Looking forward to the last instalments .