Brentford Wembley Pub Challenge - the Results

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Celebrating Brentford's Trip to Wembley and our diversity in pubs

We asked you to visit Brentford's pubs on April 2nd and send the photos in. It's taken a while to collate the results (please blame Wembley and the beer) but here they are:

Debbie Richmond sent in this photo of herself (top) with a well known publican (although wearing a football shirt other than Brentford; shocking!) holding membership of Viking Bees, of which more later.

Marie Richardson took 6 photos, ending up in the Griffin (the seventh pub). She said "what a great way to get to know a new area; we met a lot of very friendly folk". Here she is with husband Dave outside the Royal Horseguardsman (second photo)

I bumped into Nick Bruzon and his wife Rachel (bottom photo) in the garden of the Weir hafway through their tour, having followed their progress on twitter (@nickbruzon) Nick writes for Brentford FC's matchday programme and wrote his own account of the day. They went to a grand total of about 18 pubs although lost count at some point. Nick's tweeted photos can be seen on TwitPic

Sven Aasen is Brentford's greatest Swedish supporter (and possibly the maddest) who flew over for the weekend especially for the trip to Wembley. He is the creator of the Viking Bees and gave the laminated logo to all the pubs he visited on Saturday. Along with Tim Collinson, the two of them notched up an impressive 26 pubs as can be seen in the impressive photo montage (pdf - please do download it: it's a brilliant summary of pubs both vibrant and derelict!). They did visit some more than once but the pdf speaks for itself. I joined them late afternoon in the Magpie along with Carey and Django when they were already halfway through their trip. We amassed Bjørn Andreassen (from Norway) at the Weir, followed by other Brentford supporters along the way before we all collapsed in a heap in the Griffin.

So, as to the distribution of prizes,

• Sven Aasen: 2 tickets to a home match (offered by Brentford FC)
• Tim Collinson: a gallon of ale to be drunk at the Magpie and Crown
• Nick and Rachel Bruzon: £25 to spend at the Royal Horseguardman
• Carey Paton: a signed ball from Brentford FC (in the hope that she buys a BFC season ticket!)
• Debbie Richmond: £20 Brentford FC club shop voucher (sponsored by BIAS)
• Marie Richardson: a meal for 2 at The Six Bells and family membership of BIAS

Left to right these are Sven, Carey, Tim, Bjørn and Django in the Weir. Please note the Viking Bees beermats! I was taking the photo, which can be seen with other tweeted photos at TwitPic

It was a grand day out and a great idea. Although the number of people doing it wasn't huge, the feedback was incredibly positive and it was indeed great fun. I'd like to make it an annual event and see if we can increase participation. If you have thoughts on this, please post them in the forum. We'd like to thank all those who came on the Pub Challenge and those who kindly gave prizes: Brentford FC, BIAS, Magpie & Crown, Royal Horseguardsman and The Six Bells.

There is of course a list of Brentford pubs in our directory with feedback. Feel free to add your comments.

 

April 27, 2011