Conceived in late August, and scheduled when October was looking bleak in terms of beer festivals, the Canterbury 18-Hole Crawl ended up being the second of 3 major sessions in four weeks (the week after Letchworth, and a fortnight before the Cherry Tree fests). The premise was to start at 11am in the Weatherspoons for breakfast; take in a leisurely 9 pubs along St Dunstans Street, where a lot of the quality ale pubs are; then head on a North to South route through town, finishing at closing time.

Click map for full image

Five of us started, none of us finished - most falling between pubs 11 and 15 - but god, it was a good day!

Pub	Beer	Notes
Westgate Inn	Mole Trap x 2 (7/10)	Arriving at 10.45am, I was surprised to find two of the party already halfway through their first pint. I was shortly followed by our fourth member, and Full English x 4 were ordered. Along with a second pint. In hindsight, this extra pint may have been a bit optimistic. Our 5th man arrived as we were finishing up, but sneaked in a quick pint before we left.
Bishops Finger	Late Red (8/10)	The first of many beer gardens - a fantastic pint of Shepherd Neame's seasonal in the sun, before midday. That's what Saturday is all about.
The Monument	-----	CLOSED!
8 Bells	London Pride (7/10)	The second outside pint - in what looked like a Victorian secret garden. Became acquainted with a incredibly sociable white cat - resulting in me finding moltings on my black shirt for the rest of the day
Black Horse	Deuchars IPA (8/10)	Finding that we were the first customers of the day (at noon!) we had some quality ales in the large beer garden, and learnt that following an application by the landlord for extended opening hours from November, he's actually been told to shut his garden hours before closing instead, thanks to moaning neighbours. If you're going to buy a house next to a pub what do you expect......?
The Unicorn	Deuchars IPA (9/10)	Mighty fine pints, but a turn in the temperature meant staying inside. Agree to meet a sixth member in a couple of pubs time. The disappointment of the Monument earlier meant this was an ideal time to sneak in a replacement pub - so, on to.....
Carpenters Arms	London Pride	Pub number 6, and after 7 pints, the last with neat handwriting on the notes. Played a good few games of pool on their cheap tables, with the beer resulting in an interesting mix of terrible shots and some absolute blinding doubles. The latter clearly due to flukes, sadly...
Hobgoblin	Hobgoblin (7/10) G&T	After some tasty Hobgoblin (not the weakest of pints, at about 5%), this was deemed our second 2-pint pub. Not fancying another pint of the heavy, I made the choice of mother's ruin. Which was possibly where things went wrong. Our 6th member finally found us, and joined in the fun.
The Cricketers	Late Red (6/10)	The fourth and final garden of the day - where a fleeting visit by the housemate + his missus deemed us drunk. I think they may have been right, as things get a bit patchy from here on.
Millers Arms	Late Red	Don't remember this final pub of the first leg - which is a shame, cos their beer is usually nicely kept.
Simple Simons	Grand Union Ale	We reach double figures in terms of pubs and people here - with the arrival of another housemate, and more work people. Again, it's a bit sketchy, although I imagine it was getting a bit raucous at this point.
Jolly Sailor	Hoegaarden	The 11th pub, and the 14th pint - and a Hoegaarden for me. If the gin was a bad move earlier, this was 100 times worse. Whilst I love the stuff, it doesn't really like me - 4 pints usually results in a hangover - and I'm sure this was the turning point of the afternoon. Two of the original five drinkers deemed this a good time to escape - and I should have made the same decision
Old Buttermarket	?	I imagine I was on the G&T again, but have only 2 seconds of memories here - trying to chat up someone at the bar, who looked at me very sympathetically. This was also my final memory of the night, although I'm told I managed to stumble to...
Caseys	?	...then to...
Cherry Tree	?	...where the girlfriend of one of the starters arrived and dragged him home....then on to....
Beer Cart Arms	?	...where the journey ended for me.
Three Tuns	-----	-----
Black Horse	-----	-----
White Hart	-----	-----

So - a pretty successful day. Everyone claims to have had a good time - and without doubling pints a couple of times we may have made it to the end (although we may not have been allowed into the final pubs). So what of our fifth starter? It's rumoured he made it to the 16th or 17th pub, making the wise move onto cokes; and those that joined halfway got to the end I think.

A top day - to be repeated when internal organs have fully recovered :-)