27/11/22 - Two new, in Jericho - Oxford.

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #766 and #767

One thing I like about this pub ticking game, it never ends. Oxford City Centre was completed. A new edition of the bible is released. New discoveries are to be made.

There are two new ticks in Student Central - Jericho. Keep your eyes away from Google opening times and in the back of your head, or suffer death by sit-up-and-beg bike.

Not that Google Maps helps.

My arrival timed for 15:10am

Of course it's locked. I tried the doors. I tried phoning and heard the loneliest sound known to man. A ringing telephone from inside a pub that no-one is answering.

Will a photo count as a Tick?

Oh well, the Old Bookbinders is around the corner. And firmly open. For now. We understand it closes at 5pm on a Sunday.

10/10 for "pubiness". Just the correct level of customers.  A mild skirmish to get to the bar, rather than a full on fight. Dogs, young and old, to get into easy conversation with their owners.  

Free monkey nuts.  

Free Nuts - an offer, not a challenge

I loved the ambiance and it was a great place to catch up with our bikeless Student Son, Alex and his girlfriend, Dani. A first meeting.  

However.  And they often is an however.  The beer wasn't great. Black Sheep got progressively worse.  Deuchers IPA in condition that would struggle to score above average.

Black Sheep

We leave at 16:50 - and good news.  There is sign of life at the Harcourt Arms.

Alex and Dani are mightily impressed by my ability to use sign language through the window to determine it is opening in 10 minutes.

Any longer and hanging around a pub for the scrape of a bolt might have presented a poor image of Alex's lineage.  Dani would worry what she was getting herself into.

It was well worth the wait. Even if it was the first pour of the day, the London Pride was in glorious HD condition.  

The staff get a wood burner going and the folk musicians, previously seen rehearsing from outside the Bookbinders, move to pole position in front of it. Our new friends from the Bookbinder bar turn up.

Everything you want from a Sunday afternoon session.

Apart from free nuts.