AGM at The Wheatsheaf, Shedfield, 11th December 2014

After another year of dedicated devotion to duty in 2014, the gentlemen members of the Pie Club gathered together at The Wheatsheaf Inn, Shedfield for their annual general meeting.  Our choice of venue was, of course, an acknowledgement of the very special place in our hearts occupied by the Wheatsheaf.  We will never forget that momentous pie we were served in 2012 which won the Pie of the Year Award that year. Add to that the excellent range of Flowerpots Ales available here at very low prices and we have what has become the spiritual home of the Pie Club and the gold standard against which all other pubs are measured.  Knowing that our hosts, Tim and Sally, had laid on another very special pie for us, we were eager to get the formal business of the day completed quickly so that we could get on with the much more important business of tackling another Wheatsheaf pie.

We agreed that in future our annual award for excellence would be "The Pie Club Pub of the Year" rather than "The Pie of the Year". This is a more accurate reflection of the fact that our award is based not just on the quality of the pie, but also on the overall experience of the pub visit.

We then went on to consider which pub should receive this coveted award for 2014. Here are the scores for each of the pubs that we visited this year:

1. The Black Dog, Waltham Chase (27/11/2014): 22.34
2. The Bucks Head, Meonstoke (25/09/2014): 22.32
3. The Kings Head, Hursley (29/05/2014): 21.59
4. The Brewery Bar, Botley (24/04/2014): 21.54
5. The Ship Inn, Owslebury (23/01/2014): 21.13
6. The Rising Sun, Swanmore (30/10/2014): 21.07
7. The Hampshire Bowman, Dundridge (26/06/2014): 20.70
8. The Queen Inn, Winchester (24/07/2014): 20.58
9. The Brickmakers, Swanmore (27/03/2014): 19.98
10. The Hurdles, Droxford (28/08/2014): 19.20

It was a very close contest, with the Black Dog in Waltham Chase winning by a very narrow margin. Our hearts go out to Nicki and Shaun at The Bucks Head, who must have thought that with their bold imaginative move of serving us 2 pies each they had the award in the bag, and perhaps in any other year they would have won, but they were just pipped at the post by Peter and Kathy at the Black Dog with their equally bold and innovative idea of offering us a Sausage, Bacon & Black Pudding Pie. Commiserations are due to all the other venues - there were no bad pies here, and everyone did very well.  

Congratulations to Peter and Sally at The Black Dog for a well-deserved win. We are looking forward to our next visit to The Black Dog, in March, when we will present the award.

Now on to more important matters.  While we were deliberating over our AGM, we were well assisted by the excellent range of beers which were available:

We found that these ales were a great help in our decision making. Meanwhile, Sally had prepared a special Steak & Kidney Pie for us. When it was brought out for us there was a moment of respectful silence followed by a buzz of appreciation as we saw just how good it was. 

We helped ourselves.  Made with short crust pastry, and served with perfectly cooked carrots, brocolli and new potatoes, with a jug of gravy on the side, this was as near perfect as a pie can possibly be.

The end result was inevitable - a full set of empty plates and very happy gentlemen:

To use our usual methods to evaluate this experience would be an insult to all concerned. This experience is sublime. It is beyond evaluation. Suffice to say, this pub will continue to be the spiritual home of the Pie Club, and sets the standard by which all other pubs are measured. We are looking forward to our next visit to The Wheatsheaf, which will probably be in December for our next AGM, unless we can think of some excuse for not waiting as long as that. 

The Brewery Bar, Botley, 24th April 2014

On a fine spring day in April a large gathering of excited gentlemen (Nick, Trev, Paul E, Paul T, Si, Joe, Doug, Stephen) assembled outside The Crown in time to board the No. 8 bus to Botley, heading for The Brewery Bar in Botley. This time we had no trouble finding our way to the pub as we had fond memories of our previous visit there in 2012.  As has become customary on the No. 8 bus, we invited the driver to come and join us, but he declined our invitation as he had some concerns about leaving a bus full of passengers parked in the middle of Botley for a few hours.

As always we were given a warm welcome by the landlord, and presented with a difficult choice of ales: There was Silver King Ale 4.3% from the Ossett Brewery in Yorkshire, Abbott Ale 5% from the Greene King brewery in Bury St Edmunds, and Bath Ales' Gem 4.1%.

The Gem was an amber ale and seemed a little too sweet for some of us. The Silver King is a lager-style golden ale which found more general approval among us, except for Tall Paul who, of course, stuck to his preferred Guinness (and reported that it wasn't quite up to scratch).

The Brewery Bar is a funny sort of place.  On the face of it, it has so many things about it that we disapprove of (Sports TV on continuously with the sound turned down, fruit machines,  pool table, etc) that we would normally avoid such a place, but they always seem to serve an interesting range of beers from around the country, and their pies are among the best available anywhere. Today's pie was a Steak & Guinness Pie, served up as 2 pies, to be shared between 8 hungry gentlemen.

The pies came with a bowl of assorted vegetables (carrots, broccolli, caulifower) which had been freshly cooked to perfection (au point, as someone said).

And we had lashings of chips, which were also freshly cooked and done to perfection.

The gravy was served separately, in jugs, just the way it should be, and the end result was a lovely plateful.

The pie was as near perfect as could be: tasty short crust pastry enclosing tender pieces of lean steak in a rich gravy, with a few whole mushrooms, and a definite hint of Guinness. Most us us didn't have any room for a pudding, but a few of us managed to try some, and found that they were very good:

Once again we found that the ambience of the pub was good.  It's clean, tidy, and the service was excellent. Our final bill for the food and 4 rounds of drinks came to £28 each, including service, which we thought very good value for money (The pies were £8.95 each, puddings £4.75 each, ale £3.50/pint).

Scores for The Brewery Bar, Botley (Max 5 in each category - total 25 overall)

Pastry - 4.69

Filling -  4.54

Beer   -  3.91

Ambience - 3.85

Value  - 4.54

Overall  - 21.54

This was another excellent afternoon - a nice traditional pub with attentive staff, good beer, and another exceptional pie.   For The Brewery Bar this score represents a significant improvement over their 2012 score (which was 20.5, and still not a bad score), and puts them straight into first place in our rankings of pubs visited so far this year, and is actually the 3rd highest score achieved by any pub that we have ever visited (beaten only by The Wheatsheaf and The Brickmakers in 2012). So, well done to the Brewery Bar!

On our return to Bishops Waltham we adjourned to The Barleycorn to take advantage of their happy hour, which seems to last all afternoon.

The Brewery Bar, Botley, 28th June 2012

On a hot, sunny and humid day in June a large gathering of excited gentlemen (Nick, Trev, Paul E, Paul T, Si, and, after a long absence, Doug) assembled outside The Crown in time to board the No. 8 bus to Botley, heading for The Brewery Bar. Having successfully managed to get off the bus at the right stop (with some help from the driver) our unfailing instincts led us to the pub without any further difficulties.

On entering the pub we were given a warm welcome by the landlord and staff.

Our initial impression of the pub was somewhat off-putting as we noticed the TVs, background music, fruit machines, dogs, pool table - all things which are normally anathema to discerning gentlemen such as us. And we were disappointed that there is no actual brewery in the pub, although we were told that there used to be.  And we also immediately noticed the fine and unusual selection of ales on offer.

We all had our eye on the Green Jack Orange Wheat Beer 4.8%, but at 4.8%* we felt it was a bit strong to start with. Most of us opted for a pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord 4.3% @ £3.70/pint, although as usual  Paul E preferred lager, and Paul T preferred Guinness). 

We sat in the garden and started discussing important issues of the day while our pie was prepared. As we were halfway through our 2nd pints the landlord came to tell us that our pie was ready to be served, so we went in and waited with baited breath. On the table next to us were about 14 women who had obviously had a good lunch - their chatter was so noisy that we could scarcely hear ourselves think - but never mind that, the pie when it arrived was fabulous. The landlord and chef were understandably proud.

It was a splendid Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie, which had been prepared especially for us.** 

It came with plenty of beautifully prepared home-made chips, made from new potatoes,

a fine selection of nicely-cooked fresh vegetables,

and beef gravy served just the way it should be, in a separate jug.

The portions were very generous. In the judging that followed some gentlemen thought that the filling was so good that it was perfect, and awarded it 5 out of 5. But some other gentlemen are harder to please. After the meal we were all so stuffed that nobody fancied any pudding, even though there was a fine range of reasonably-priced puddings available.

Instead of having a pudding, we sampled the Green Jack Orange Wheat Beer 4.8%. Being a wheat beer it has rather an unusual first taste, but it grows on you, and we all agreed that was a fine beer. Our only criticism of the beers we had was that they were served slightly too chilled. Notwithstanding our initial impressions, the ambience of the pub was good. The distractions noted above were not too distracting when we were there, although it's possible that the pub might be crowded, boisterous and noisy in the evenings. It's clean, tidy, and the service was excellent. Our final bill for the food and 4 rounds of drinks came to £25 each, including service, which we thought very good value for money.

Scores for The Brewery Bar, Botley (Max 5 in each category - total 25 overall)

Pastry - 4.08

Filling -  4.5

Beer   -  4.25

Ambience - 3.42

Value  - 4.25

Overall  - 20.5

This was another excellent afternoon - a nice traditional pub with attentive staff, good beer, and another exceptional pie.  Perhaps it is unfortunate that this visit came so soon after our visit to The Wheatsheaf and the exceptionally good pie that we had there. The Wheatsheaf has raised the standard to such a high level that it will be very difficult for any other pub to beat it. Sadly for The Brewery Bar, despite such a good effort, they will have to be content with coming 2nd this year (so far).

On our return to Bishops Waltham we adjourned to The Crown, and it was there that we noticed Paul E's dress sense. Should we agree a dress code for future outings?

* According to the brewer's web site, the Green Jack Orange Wheat Beer 4.8% is only 4.2%.


** There is some dispute among Pie Club members as to whether or not it is a good thing to tell the pub in advance that we are going to pay them a visit. If pre-warned then (as in this case, and at The Wheatsheaf) they can make a special effort to impress us with a made-to-order pie. We like this because we get to enjoy a very good pie. But if we turn up unannounced then our experience will be more typical and a truer reflection of the pub. Whatever we do, we should be consistent so as to be fair to all the pubs. Pieman senses a schism developing.

The Bugle Inn, Botley, 29th March 2012

The plan was for the Pie Club members to meet up at the bus stop in Bishops Waltham square at 12.00 noon. Unfortunately Joe, Si, and new member Steve (welcome) arrived early, happened to notice that the Crown Inn was open, and right next door to the bus stop. This pub has only very recently re-opened after a very expensive refit, so they decided to check it out and have a quick one in The Crown while waiting for the others to catch up. 

Unfortunately, they don't serve pies there. Otherwise we would have had this Pie Club meeting in The Crown.


Nevertheless, a well refreshed Joe, Si & Steve still managed to get to the bus stop by noon to meet up with Trev and Nick, just as they were boarding the No. 8 bus to Botley. This bus goes all around the place, seemingly visiting every little hamlet for miles around, but eventually we arrived in Botley, and headed straight for The Bugle Inn.

We were welcomed by the landlord, and noticed immediately that there was a fine selection of ales available: the excellent Bowman's Wallops Wood 4%, the always popular Sharp's Doombar 4% , and (maybe a bit strong for lunch time) Gale's HSB 4.8%.   


We settled down for our first pint, some having Wallops Wood, and others having Doombar, and surveyed our surroundings. The landlord had taken us to a table in the dining area of the pub, where there were no other customers, so we had the place to ourselves, although there were several drinkers in the other bar that we could hear.  There was no garden to sit in. We had our second pint then decided it was time to order some food. As there was only one pie on the menu it didn't take us long to decide what to order. 2 of us opted to have chips instead of new potatoes. We didn't have to wait long for the food.

  The pies had the correct short-crust pastry, a Steak & Mushroom filling, pre-applied gravy, and a selection of freshly-cooked vegetables: Cauliflower, carrots, and red cabbage.  Some of us (perhaps those who were hungriest) thought they were OK - nothing special but OK - but others were quite put off by the smell, and one of our members was actually unable to finish eating his pie*.

We'd also noticed some strange smells coming from the loos (or were they coming from the kitchens?). To be fair, this pub has a Lebanese chef, and a full menu of Lebanese food available (but no Lebanese pies, which might have been interesting). Maybe that accounted for some of the strange smells.


There was a tempting selection of puddings available, but by now we'd had enough, so we decided to skip the puddings:

As we left the pub, someone suggested walking just around the corner to The Brewery Bar to see if we could get some puddings there. This is not a bad looking pub, with a good food menu (including some pies) and a fine selection of ales:

It was a lovely sunny day so we sat outside in the garden and had a pint while we considered the pudding menu.  In the end we didn't bother with the puddings, and after a couple of pints we caught the bus back to Bishops Waltham.  We quite liked the look of the Brewery Bar, and decided that it was probably worth a proper Pie Club assessment later in the year.


As we got off the bus in Bishops Waltham, someone happened to notice that the Crown Inn was open, and right next door to the bus stop. This pub has only very recently re-opened after a very expensive refit, so we decided to check it out and have a quick one in garden at the front, in the sun.  As we were sitting there enjoying our pints, we got chatting with a young couple sitting at the next table who turned out to be JK and Lucy, presenters of Heart South Coast Breakfast Show.

Lucy got quite friendly with one of the Pie Club members, but Pieman feels honour-bound to reveal no more, and certainly won't publish any photos! The Pie Club got a mention on their show the next morning.

Scores for The Bugle, Botley (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall):

• Pastry 3.3
• Filling 3.6
• Beer 3.6
• Ambience 2.7
• Value 3.4
• Overall 16.6

* On checking the Pie Club constitution, Pieman was surprised to see that there is nothing in the rules about penalties for leaving a pie half uneaten. Pieman would have thought that the offending member would at least have to buy a round.