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I’m going to lighten up the blog with a few postings about local pubs, trips and hangouts. And the first entry has to go to the Guide Dog free house in Bevois Valley. You won’t notice it as you walk past Aldi and the fast-food outlets, but this outstanding real ale pub is only a hundred yards up Ancasta road (opposite Maplin) to its junction with Earls Road.

The Guide Dog is not a food pub, but there is always a good and varying range of well-kept ales, stouts and ciders. The pub changed hands a couple of weeks ago; the new landlords are as welcoming as their predecessors. Changes are small; it is now easier to read the beer list from across the bar.

This pub gets first place on the blog as it is the unofficial haunt of the branch executive; you can usually find at least three of us there after six on a Friday evening.

Denis Nicole