Summary of the cricket trip

Last year I blogged about the trip and explained what it's about so check that out if you want the context. As suggested this year we wanted to see Lancashire and happily that meant that Canterbury was an option.

Accommodation was superb and included free, off-road parking. It was in Christ Church University student accommodation but off campus and close to the city centre.

And now for the awards discussed and agreed on Saturday morning. Pub of the week was The Thomas Beckett in Best Lane. Smashing boozer with no music or TV but decent beer and good food. Beer of the week was Whitstable Brewery Oyster Stout at The West Gate Inn (Wetherspoon) and the Priory mild in The Old Buttermarket was jolly nice too. And so was the Whistable Brewery beer we had in the Old Brewery Tavern (can't remember the name of it - we only had a couple and it was gone when we called there on Friday night). The Old Brewery Tavern also had the best toilets and the best outside drinking area (off-street) and a nice TV for watching some of the test match on Wednesday afternoon. Best on-street outside drinking area is The Buttermarket. The worst pub by a distance was the Three Tuns. An olde world pub playing "house" music far too loud to a few customers who were all commenting that they didn't like it - it was obviously on for the staff rather than the clientèle. We entered between tracks or we'd not have gone in. Service (and the music) were so poor that people were leaving rather than waiting to be served in what must have been the least busy pub in Canterbury on Friday night. Coffee of the week was the latte in the Farmers Market at Canterbury West station.

We didn't have a "third day trip" this year but had two full days of cricket. We didn't have any cricket on Wednesday but did have rather a lot of beer. We've not yet planned next year but this year was a classic without a doubt.

England win the Ashes

BBC SPORT | Cricket | England | Live Ashes - England v Australia via kwout

Last of the summer beer

For those who have seen the tweets about beer and the photos I thought I'd just explain what it's all about.

Paul, Phil and I worked together 20 years ago, at that time we were auditors with Berni Inns. For the last few years we've got together to watch some cricket. We've visited Canterbury, Scarborough and Horsham in the past - Phil and Paul are cricket fans and have been doing this for far longer but I muscled in to lower the tone. The venue is planned at the start of the year when the fixture list is released; we aim for somewhere pretty with decent beer and we've now added the "Third Day Trip". The only fixed part of the format is that we park on arrival and don't use our cars until it's time to leave and that determines how far from the ground we can stay. The "Third Day Trip" started last year when we jumped on a train and visited Bognor and Arundel and this year we went to Minehead.

Minehead was a great deal nicer than Bognor and my favourite pub of the week is The Queen's Head in Minehead.

Best pint is a harder call because there are so many to chose from but I think it's the Nutcracker from Cotleigh, a local brewer. We enjoyed that in the Castle Green in Taunton.

Best meal (not too many to pick from) was fish, chips and mushy peas in a lovely place in Minehead.

The service on the West Somerset Railway is nothing short of excellent and I can't remember the last time I went anywhere with such happy and welcoming staff (many are volunteers). Well worth a visit and some lovely countryside on the journey.

If anyone wants to see the rest of the photos they are on Flickr.

Next year? Well we're going to see where Lancashire might play any away games but that's not big deal - I'm sure we'll find something to do wherever we end up.