Welcome to George + Becky

Hiya Ecke, hope all's well,

Please say hi to everyone in the pub from me,

Steve (Relief Bloke)

A secret look at what is behind the bar!!

As you should all be aware now, the Tav now has its very own Hot Ford racing team. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of going to watch them all race at Buxton. When I started this website 3 years ago I never expected to have a race car to bear the website address down its wing, but as a thank you for allowing the use of the pub to work on the cars and store equipment, Neil had the pub name painted on to his car (although its now looking a bit dented). Anyway I have lots of pictures and race news to share with you so expect them online within the next few days..

I was sat in the Tav last night and Rob moaned at me because I haven't updated the site for a while, so I thought I'd better sort it out. There's not really a lot to fill everyone in on really.
The first piece of non-news is I've managed to get hold of a top secret picture of Pete ("The Landlords son") on the pull up Hanley. She looks like a bit of an Ice Maiden to me (sorry bad joke).

It would seem that everyone in the Tav has gone Car Crazy!!! Regular Dave Williamson decided to get into Stock Car Racing, got himself a Fiesta XR2 and registered to race. His first race was a couple of weeks ago at Buxton and he came in at an excellent 5th position. He soon followed this up two weeks later with another 5th place finish at Ensford.

Who would have thought that the England would actually make it to the quarter finals of the World Cup. Over the last few matches its fair to say that the Tav has been heaving and the atmosphere has been superb. A few people (Zoe) have been getting into the spirit of things by offering to paint peoples faces and heads with the Georges Cross. Unfortunately the only thing she could find to use as paint was Lipstick which turned out very messy. Also we should thank Rob and Zoe for supplying the troops with Bacon and Sausage Butties for the first game of the World Cup.

On Monday Night Quiz Night to celebrate our performance we decided to have our own mini World Cup.

Instead of a football we used dice to see which teams progressed to the next round (we didn't have time to get everyone out on the Grass and didn't know if some of the regulars would last 15 rounds running round a muddy field). We played teams off against each other shaking the dice and the team with the highest number went through to the next round. The final was played between the "Dumbasses" and "Last Again", with "Last Again" coming out the victors and walking away with 10 bottles of beer between them.

The Quiz was actually the busiest that we 've known for years in the Tav with 17 teams taking part and a tie breaker for first and second place and third and fourth place. If you're interested in taking part next week then make sure you turn up early as I've got a feeling it could be just as busy again.

The chalk board painter came into the pub this week to try and brighten the place up a little. We've got new chalk boards all behind the bar and a few others dotted around the inside and outside of the pub. Me and Rob have finally been given our own personalised board advertising the quiz. Check out more pics here

The place looks loads brighter, and on a major plus, according to the boards, the pub will very soon be selling Pizza's. Neil and Ad will have no excuse to go home now on Saturday.

Its very rare that I take my camera to the Tav, but tonight I took it along to take pictures of the new chalk boards, and how glad was I that I did. There I was snapping away when Jay came running into the pub and told me and Tony to go outside and take a look at his car. He'd just pulled into the carpark and as he did his wheel had popped out of the socket and twisted round, spilling fluid from his suspension and grounding one end of the car almost into the tarmac. For more pictures and the full story click here

Pugwash turns up in Amsterdam

Pugwash, the Pennine Taverns favourite mascot, who was dramatically kidnapped two months ago in front of an astonished quiz night audience, has resurfaced in Amsterdam. Exclusive pictures were shown in the new Pennine Tavern newsletter of Pugwash show him smoking spliffs, drinking, and checking out the sites. You can now follow the adventures of Captain "Pennine" Pugwash at this dedicated page

Police Probe Grand National Sweep Fix Allegation

News has hit the Tavern News Desk that the local police are investigating the disgraceful series of events of last Saturday when in extremely suspicious circumstances Mike "The Landlord Pardon" "won" the Grand National Sweeps pocketing the princely sum of £25.00. This has led to rumours of Mike "The Landlord Pardon" retiring to his villa in Costa Lotta. The police when questioned declined to comment. Mike said pardon.

Blues for Mike

On a desparate Sunday for Mike "The Landlord Pardon" his home town team Birmingham City failed yet again to secure three points in their futile bid for a sixth place in Division One. When questioned Mike said "Pardon" and then confessed "I'm fed up its every year with them" - in an extremely brummy accent.

Darts Team Cautious on Rematch

Locals visit Amsterdam for Tulip and Cake Fes - from our Womens Institude Reporter

Two of our regulars recently returned from Amsterdam where they enjoyed a cultural delight of Tulip shows and Cake Eating. A groggy Tony replied to the question did you have a good time? "Wow Man Groovy Cool Man Sniff". Carl shouted "I only had forty five pints of Stella, where's me lighter"

Midlands Grand National a roaring success 30 Regulars of the Tavern enjoyed a great day out at Uttoxeter racecourse for the Midlands Grand National a couple of weeks ago. Bouyed on by the success of Robbity Bob in an early race most of our local punters fared well on a really good day for racing. A further trip is planned for July 13th at Chester. Keep your eyes peeled for more information, or ask at the Quiz or behind the bar. Check out the photo's here

Thong tha Thong, Thong Thong
(One of the lucky winners showing off her prize)

Last week we started our new weekly Monday night competition : Pop The Balloon. Each week, every team that takes part in the quiz will be given a silly hat or object with a number on it. When you here the song "99 Red Balloons" a number will be drawn from the hat. A member of the winning team then gets the chance to pop a balloon and win a prize.

Thanks to everyone who has been coming to the quiz over the past few weeks for making it such a laff.

For the latest Quiz Photo's and Updates click here

Dave goes for the snip.

Bet she drinks Carling Black Label

This is some of the funniest news to come out of the pub for a long time. As part of the quiz over the last few weeks, Mike has been hiding a small cuddly toy somewhere in the pub. Teams are awarded extra points for spotting it. Two weeks ago Captain Pugwash was put out on show behind the bar and later that night mysteriously vanished. Mike just thought one of the staff had moved him, well that was until he received a ransom note through the mail the next day. Whoever went to effort of stealing the toy made us all laff by producing a note made up of letters cut out from Magazines and demanding a £20,000 ransom. Personally I would have gone for a pint and a packet of Ready Salted.

If you know anything about the whereabouts of the Captain then give me a shout cos I'd love to know where he is.

Ok it may be old news now but I thought that the new Pool Table deserved an honourable mention on the site. When Mike arrived and saw the terrible state of the table he decided it was about time it was sorted. So a roll of cloth and a few new light bulbs later we've got a new pool area.

They've also installed a new Driving Arcade Game, which even before a couple of pints I always seem to crash.

Every pub has its locals and the Tav is no exception. Having noticed that our old locals page had fallen a bit behind the times I've finally got round to updating it. Instead of writing full blown profiles on everyone, I've decided to cut it down and just write mini profiles. There are still quite a lot of people I need to add, but why not see who's already listed...

Somebody asked me last week what they had to do to get listed on the Locals page. Well it's easy. All you have to do is be old enough to legally drink in the pub (if not check out this page) and spend a few quality nights in there. If you think that you should be included then just email me at ecke@yahoo.co.uk

VERSUS

Forget Tyson vs Lewis, the biggest confrontation of this year was the 2002 In-Pub Darts Competion where Mike and Arthur faced each other. Mike selected 7 players to compete against the pub's darts team led by Arthur.

On the night, Mike's Magnicifent Seven made up of Mike, Rob Walmsley, Neil Cartlidge, Ad, Dave, Chris Hill, and John started well but quickly met their match.

The final result was 59 - 32 with Arthurs team winning. Going against the normal standard the Toilet seat Trophy was awarded to the losing team. It is now on display in the Tav. I here that a re-match is on the cards.....

I probably sound like a broken record always apologising on this page for not updating the site very often. Its been a busy few months at work and I've also been tied up getting my latest project off the ground. Check out www.thisisbiddulph.co.uk

What's been happening in the Tav? Well Christmas Eve and New Years Eve were both top nights. What I can remember of them anyway. I went a little trigger happy on both nights and have uploaded the couple of hundred photo's for you all to take a look at.

Mike's now been with us for just over 2 months and has already made a number of improvements to the place. The old pool table has been refurbished and recovered with red fabric. One of the two fruit machines has been taken away and replaced with a racing Arcade Game which is a pretty good laff, especially after a couple of pints.

Plenty more exciting news to come over the weekend...watch this space!!!

Its been a while since I've updated this site, but now that we have a new land lord, and there is somebody in charge who is enthusiastic about the pub, I decided that it was time this site got a bit of attention.

For those people who haven't met our new manager Mike, he seems a really nice bloke who has some great ideas for the pub. I'd like to wish him all the best and hope that he can bring people back in. I'll hopefully be getting some pictures very soon. I've also updated the Locals section with new profiles for Critch, Adam, Andy Daniels, Elliot, Gaz, and Neil.

Have you seen this years Christmas Tree yet. The order went in a few weeks a go for a 12 foot tree to take pride of place in the pub. The order somehow got confused and we were delivered a 15 foot one instead. It atcually touches the roof at the tallest point and is the same diameter as one of the round tables. It makes up for the diddy one that we had last year. First one to the top!!!

"The 15ft Giant Tree"