Another update again !!! Surely Not ?

As mentioned, we have visited a number of 'younger' venue's over the summer. (some of our Badgers are fast heading towards middle age and are trying to cling onto their youth)

A number of Fat Badgers finally boarded the 'the Nightclub Bus' from Salcombe to Kingsbridge in Devon after promising to visit 'Fusion' nightclub for years. Although everyone else on the bus was half their age, they managed to grab 'the naughty seats' at the back of the bus and boogied away to the sounds of the eighties ?? in Fusion. A number of Badgers were heard to be muttering - "I thought I was going to a rave" on the journey back to Salcombe.

Fat Badgers Stakesy, Roy, Ade & Kilo along with Guest Badgeretts (as it appears we now have them ?) Kristie & Kelly paid a visit to the City of Manchester recently. Although we are unlikely to be adding any new inns to the guide, we did have a very interesting evening in the young & trendy bars in the city centre.

It has been brought to our attention that there are some people wandering around pubs claiming to be Fat Badgers and trying to entice bar staff into serving late drinks or even inviting them to accompany them to the local nightclub or for a meal. The ONLY bona fide Fat Badgers are those that appear on the 'About Us' page on this site. We do occasionally allow guest Badgers to join us for a drink and they may be deemed to be Badgers for the night - this doesn't automatically indoctrinate them into the Fat Badger Clan. We heard about a worrying story from Abbie, A very nice young barmaid working at the Mount Pleasant in Wombourne. A rather elderly gentlemen had convinced her that he was a Badger and had agreed that she could be a Badgerette. When she found out that he was a cad, she immediately resigned from the pub and went into hiding and has not been seen since. Please warn your daughter's to wary of any dodgy looking Badger imposters.

Once again we've been fantastically busy over recent weeks - but sadly with visiting inns rather than updating the website. Nick Richardson contacted us to let us know that the Kings Arms in Henley on Thames closed ages ago and BT had now re-allocated their number to his mother who was getting lots of calls from people wanting to pop round for a pint. Although we never featured the pub on the Fat Badgers guide, we did have it listed as a pub on the 'Focus' page on Henley - so humble apologies to all concerned. This has now been rectified.

Recent visits by the Fat Badgers since the last update have been to the area around Silverstone in Northamptonshire, Salcombe in Devon, Bradford & Ilkley in West Yorkshire, Llandudno area in north Wales, Cowes on the Isle of Wight, Llantrywd Wells in Powys and Manchester.

Hopefully you'll understand the type of quality establishment we're trying to promote but that doesn't mean that we'll avoid trying out the young & trendy establishments which exist. More Later !!!!

After visiting a number of inns in Oxfordshire, we have finally updated the page. In total, 6 Fat Badgers have made inspections in the county and have only needed to remove one inn. We were originally advised by Peter Allen to include the Mason' Arms in South Leigh and did so as Mr Allen seemed to understand the quality of establishment we were looking for - How wrong could we be, the Mason's was far better than we expected. It is simply one of those establishments that has to be visited to appreciate something a bit special. One pub which appears in all the good pub guides is the Trout Inn which we include as it is located in a simply stunning position on the Thames but try the White Hart just two miles away, the food is a million times better.

Three Fat Badgers recently visited a few pubs in Gosport in Hampshire - A very strange evening indeed. Gosport was in the middle of a pop festival laid on by the Borough Council. One pub appeared to be undergoing a pub brawl which we witnessed from a different establishment, the one we were drinking in would only serve the locals with plastic glasses although we we trusted with real glass. Another pub which served great ales had a very mixed clientele, a very drunken loud slapper who decided to take her bra off and put it in her handbag to play darts whilst shouting across the pub to the local vicar. The evening was rounded off by watching (for as short a time as we could stomach) The elderly Rubettes on the quayside who mimed for much of their performance, which the strange looking people of Gosport appeared to enjoy anyway.

The recent fundraising event for the Dian Fossey Fund, a charity set up to try & save Mountain Gorillas went very successfully. The aim was to get enough Mountain Gorillas on skis to clock up 100 miles. 

This was achieved with the help of three Fat Badgers who became Gorillas for a few hours. Approximately £5,000 was raised towards the cause which will now also help Lowland Gorillas which are seriously in decline. 

At one point during the event, held at Xscape indoor ski slope in Castleford, West Yorkshire, all Gorillas gathered at the slope summit and at the sound of a klaxon, proceeded to race to the bottom. It may have been a little unfair as the Fat Badgers have had hundreds of miles of experience in the Alps, skiing whilst wearing a Gorilla mask, but needless to say we didn't let the Fat Badgers down, taking both first & second place !

Latest additions include the Yachtsman's Bar at the Master Builders Hotel in Hampshire, updates to Hertfordshire and The Isle of Wight and The Clachaig Inn located in the Scottish Highands amongst other minor modifications. We've updated the pages which list Pubs close to water, Pubs near Motorways and Pubs with Accommodation and we've finally got around to updating the list of inns added recently that is linked at the top of this page but rarely gets updated ! 

We have now set up an online sponsor page for our up and coming skiing event with  the Dian Fossey Fund,  Please help us to raise lots of cash to help save the Mountain Gorillas from extinction by donating at The Fat Badgers Donation page. 

The Fat Badgers have recently helped out in sponsoring the Shropshire MGF run held on Sunday 23rd May by the F Register.  One of our latest finds, the Inn at Grinshill featured prominently as the lunch stop on what was a magnificent procession of MG cars tootling around Shropshire. Funds were raised to help Hope House Children's Hospice, the Inn at Grinshill's nominated charity.

Once again we've been slow in updating the site as we've been too busy travelling around the UK testing out a few establishments. Look out for additions to many parts of Scotland, Hampshire & the Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire. Sadly we have to report the removal of two inns. One which was recommended to us either by the Landlord or one of his regulars and sadly we trusted his review and believed the write up on their website. Having tried to visit the pub once before and finding it shut, Fat Badgers Stakesy and Ade were persuaded to try out what turned out to be a dirty horrible little place with no real ales and no sign of a bottle of wine in the establishment. Two pints of Carling & a Guinness later & we were out of there.

A clan of Fat Badgers recently visited a number of inns along the River Thames and found some absolutely dreadful service - one of which was on this guide and is now living on past reputation and privileged location and so has been removed - luckily it has been replaced by three exceptionally good inns.

We have added what may turn out to be the find of 2004. An unplanned visit by Fat Badgers Kilo & Buttle with Guest Badger Jools to the Inn at Grinshill in Shropshire turned out to be a very pleasant experience.

Well, we're getting there ! We've spent the last six months visiting establishments and neglected updating the site. We're about half way through the updating now and have added inns in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Tayside, Devon, Gwynedd, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Worcestershire, Lincolnshire and Northumberland. We've also removed an inn in Surrey as it's now a Thai restaurant - See we told you we'd been busy !

We've still got more to add which will be completed soon.

The Fat Badgers have been travelling all over the UK testing out establishments to add to the guide and visiting one or two which we've tried before. Grumpy Old Badger has been moaning an awful lot recently particularly about television phone in quizzes and we'll update his page as soon as Fat Badger Reno can find his notepad!

Not the first update of the site this year but we've been too busy to update the news pages. This will be amended soon.