City Road Crisis by The Generic Yeti

Once upon a time, it was so easy, we would go to the Tavistock, have several pints, and move onto Kiwis, having passed through a vital staging post, the “Tut n’ Shive”. Here, much 'Bo' would be consumed whilst the Chickens would wager princely sums on games of skill such at “Battleships”, “Cludo” and “Hangman”. Occasionally, we could play pool, and in the high times, sit in the Waltzer chairs, close your eyes, and pretend you were at the fair.

However, as anyone who has been listening to Real Radio will know, the Tut is now a trendy ‘place’ called “Poets Corner”, or, as they like to call it “PC’s”. Apparently, they have live music every Saturday, to stop us talking about rugby after the game and as a Greene King pub, serves the same shit IPA bitter that I was forced to drink for the seven years I lived in East Anglia.

Couple of interesting things about this whole set up.

1) Be careful about jumping into a Taxi, and asking to go to the “Poets Corner”. Until recently, Poets Corner was a pub in Grangetown. From the outside, the picture of Coleridge on the sign, and nice blinds, made me think it would be the most classy pub in Grangetown. However, having dressed up for a night on the town, me and the missus faced the widest array of Burburry and tattoos seen West of Newport. As the ‘News of the World’ say “We made our excuses and left”, the ultimate ventriloquist pub. The name may have changed, but the custom may not.

2) Greene King have a good record of wrecking pubs in Cardiff. You with long memories will remember happy drinks at the old, old Slug and Lettuce, which became the Glassworks. Who can forget Tew gagging on Pints of Piss during the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final. The Glassworks actually won awards for its ale from CAMRA, but never got to collect it, as by that time, it had become Copa, dedicated to the sale of Belgian Beer, and Vanilla flavored Kronenbourg at £5 a pint.

So what are the alternatives? I have not been into the newly re-opened Corner House. Apparently they do Jazz, so Neil will be the best person to fill us in on there. The Wetherspoon’s is still there, and it has cheep beer. However, there always seem to be lots of old men who want to fill you in on their time in Aden, through their pipe smoke, killing what little atmosphere there is. To top it all, no telly to catch the second game. Finally, we have the Roath Park, which is in the wrong direction, and we call it the flying chair, need I say more.

You know something, we need a Club House.