Beard Liberation Front
17th May
BBC Sport have issued a challenge to find the all time England cricket One Day International X1
The Beard Liberation Front has deliberated and put together an All Time England Hirsute One Day International X1.
The criteria is that a player must have played a one day international while wearing a beard
All Time England Hirsute One Day International X1
Brearley
Boycott
Root
Botham
Flintoff
Bairstow
Moeen
Collingwood
Wood
Broad
Anderson
Beard Liberation Front press release
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
17th May
Campaigners confirm Stephen Kinnock MP will be eligible for Parliamentary Beard of the Year
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has confirmed that Stephen Kinnock, Labour MP for Aberavon, will be eligible for the Parliamentary Beard of the Year Award in November 2019.
The current holder of the Award, given after an on-line poll, is Jeremy Corbyn MP
The campaigners say that Stephen Kinnock is currently wearing a distinguished and well styled beard and has now kept it for sufficient time to be eligible for the Parliamentary Beard of the Year.
BLF organiser Keith Flett said, we welcome Stephen Kinnock’s beard and given the rather follicle-less Kinnock heritage it is a particularly important development
Beard Liberation Front
Media Release
17th May
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
Hackney Pub presented with Beard Friendly Pub of the Year Award
Photos: Megan Davies & Hazel Potter
The Beard Liberation Front has said that after the vote for the annual Beard Friendly Pub of the Year concluded with the Cock Tavern in central Hackney retaining the title it won last year in an on-line poll, the official certificate was handed over to manager Christian on 16th May.
The Cock is one of the most well-known beard friendly pubs in the UK and on the day of the presentation also had a Mojito pale ale brewed at the pub in solidarity with Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we salute the beard friendliness of the Cock, it welcomes all, hirsute or non-hirsute, underlining the true spirit of London’s East End, that of friendship and solidarity
Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2019. London winners
1 The Cock (Hackney_
2 High Cross (Tottenham)
BLF Inspectors carried out surveys of pubs for beard friendliness in the last few months of 2018 (criteria below) and finalised a list including several nominations from drinkers.
As usual the final list was then to put to an on-line poll. Just over 5,000 votes were received in total.
The criteria for the Award include:
Beard Friendly Pub: a pub that welcomes the hirsute and often has a significant number of hirsute customers, including but certainly not confined to those with modern styles of beards.
Beard Friendly Ambience: a pub that may have fewer hirsute customers but is welcoming to the hirsute through some bearded bar staff and beard friendly beers, plus has a generally relaxed atmosphere for all.
The campaign group says it welcomes diversity in both appearance and drinking. The truly beard friendly pub will have a genuine mix of customers not just a load of old blokes grumbling about life.
Beard Liberation Front
17th May
Media Release contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
2019 Beard, Shorts & Sandals Season. The Big Issue Vote: socks
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that with another Bank Holiday weekend coming next week the 2019 Beard, Shorts and Sandals is in full bloom
The BLF says that it has relaxed guidelines for the 2019 season and brought in a new framework governing types of footwear, length of shorts and the controversial issue of socks:
1] Shorts may be half length (to the knee) or three-quarter length-‘culottes’. The length of shorts is particularly important as climate change may mean that unprotected legs get sunburnt.
2] Footwear should be casual. There is a considerable range of sandal type footwear now available. Some leaves parts of the feet and toes open to public view, while some does not. The BLF is not prescriptive about the matter.
3] Socks should generally not be worn. However if the beard, shorts and sandals are to be displayed in busy urban areas it is likely to be prudent to wear closed rather than open casual footwear and ankle socks, not visible to others may be worn.
4] There is no prescription or definition on what type of beard may be worn, or how this may match with the shorts and sandals. This is left up to the individual.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, socks are always the most controversial issue during the Beard, Socks and Sandals season. So far the vote has shown that if the 23%, who have some form of ideological objection to socks are excluded the gap between those who wont wear socks with their beard and sandals and those who will, albeit in some cases reluctantly, is less than 5%. It is an issue that seems to divide the beard, shorts and sandals community
The result of the vote will be announced on the late May Bank Holiday Monday May 27th
Beard Liberation Front
15th May
Glastonbury 2016
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to probably the most iconic beard band in the history of modern music, ZZ Top, who were formed 50 years ago in 1969.
The original line up was not quite as it now is but the existing trio, of beard wearers Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill together with clean shaven drummer Frank Beard came together during 1969.
The lengthy beards of Gibbons and Hill have formed a style masterpiece over the decades and remain in place. Meanwhile, the cause of many jokes, Frank Beard is the beardless member of the band.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, let’s face it, beard liberation just wouldnt be the same without ZZ Top. We salute their 50th year
Tory historians: From Hague on Pitt the Younger to Rees-Mogg on the Victorians
Jacob Rees Mogg has a book out on May 23rd on the Victorians (in fact chapters on Victorian men). Obviously I haven’t read it but when it appears I will (so you don’t have to). This post aims to make a wider point about leading Tories
There is a useful Guardian review here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/15/the-victorians-jacob-rees-mogg-review
If you prefer the Murdoch Times AN Wilson’s review calls it a ‘staggeringly silly book’
Rees Mogg studied history at Oxford and should know something of what he is on about even though it has proved remarkably difficult to find out which bits of history he actually studied.
https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/jacob-rees-mogg-history-man-the-german-afd/
Rees Mogg is certainly not the first leading Tory in recent times to write a volume of British history (Im passing over Boris Johnson here as this is meant to be a reasonably serious post).
Former leader William Hague has written on Pitt and Wilberforce. Hague studied PPE at Oxford.
Neither Rees Mogg or Hague are research historians. They are after all politicians and businessmen and digging into archives is time consuming. Their work relies on the reading and interpretation of secondary studies.
That said Hague’s volumes are well researched and serious even if there is, perhaps inevitably, an element of trying to establish a political and historical tradition in which he claims to stand.
By contrast- here I am going on the reviews only at this stage, while Rees Mogg on the Victorians also aims to establish an historical tradition in which he places himself, it is very poorly researched indeed.
Perhaps this tells us something about the intellectual decline of the leadership of the Tory Party from serious figures, even if to the left unattractive figures like Hague, to self promoters like Rees Mogg with little real substance to their outlook
The Campaign for Beard Friendly Beer: say no to sparklers
May 2019
Organised by the Beard Liberation Front
The Campaign for Beard Friendly Beer is concerned about calls for the increased use of ‘sparklers’ in the serving of cask beer.
The sparkler a device attached to the pump tip causes the beer to froth up and produces a significant ‘head’ on the beer. It will usually be used in conjunction with a ‘swan neck’ method of dispense
If left the head will reduce but if consumed ‘as is’ there is a likelihood that some of the froth will end up in the beard.
The CfBFB says that while it is aware that the sparkler has been in traditional use in some areas of the UK and froth has been soaked up by the beard, this is not the modern way of introducing the beard to beer.
Rather this should be done by specifically and briefly marinating the beard in beer.
The Campaign for Beard Friendly Beer. Where We Stand
We reject the calls for sparklers to be used to serve cask beer as not beard friendly
We believe that froth in the beard is not organic
We reject calls by sparkler-ists that the problem can be solved by shaving the beard
We support traditional beer that has a light frothy head that dissipates over a minute or two and does not go into the beard
We believe that sparkler-ists my be encouraged and supported by barbers shops
We reject the slogan the ‘Froth Years’ as provocative pogonophobism
We call on the Campaign for Real Ale to declare sparklers as not beard friendly
‘Craft’ beer: has the thrill gone?
This is really just musing on a comment (by Tottenham beard wearer James Grinter) on my post about the new Beavertown Bloody ‘Ell which if asked if the thrill had now gone from what was originally a much anticipated seasonal beer
Beavertown Bloody ‘Ell: decent, drinkable, but the thrill has gone
That begs the question of whether the thrill has gone from craft beer in general. I’m not really a thrills type of person (its not an emotion usually associated with trade union officers and nor should it be) but if we take it as a highly anticipated beer it makes the point.
I still think the Beavertown Tempus range of beers are cutting edge. I enjoyed sipping a sherry barrel aged barley wine last weekend for example and recently attended a tutored session (by J.Hamilton of Pellicle) on beers that are being produced that cross between wine and beer. This is interesting stuff to taste even if not all of it is to my taste.
But think back to the early Black IPAs (the Kernel release at the Rake is much recalled) or the first Cloudwater DIPA series and perhaps more recently the first beers that were genuinely meant to be murky or the rise of sour beers.
Of course there are still new beer styles, Brut IPA and milkshake beers for example. I try them certainly. Do I seek them out as I did with those Kernel and Cloudwater beers? Not really.
What does this mean? That I’m still pondering
Beavertown Bloody ‘Ell: Decent, drinkable but the thrill has gone
I had my first glass of the new 5.5% Beavertown Bloody ‘Ell blood orange IPA at the Tottenham taproom on Saturday. A couple of weeks after the launch but I’ve been out of London and anyway does it matter that much since its no longer a seasonal beer?
I can report that it was a decent and highly drinkable beer that tasted of orange. So far so good. Was it in any way comparable to the old 7.2 version? Not that I could discern. That is perhaps obvious. If you take out 1.7% ABV from a beer its unlikely to have the same character.
I don’t really have an issue with that except I do think keeping exactly the same name is pushing it. The insertion of the word ‘new’ or ‘Mk11’ for a bit would perhaps have been a bit more upfront.
I also tried it in can btw where I was a little impressed with a can with a date just under a month old. The beer from the Tottenham Tap was clearly very fresh, as it should be.
The idea seems to be to push Bloody ‘Ell as a session fruit IPA (although that in itself indicates how the world has moved on. In the 1970s the strongest regular beer available in London was Fullers ESB at 5.56%. While it was certainly drunk in pints (halves were not well regarded) hangovers resulted). That seems like a perfectly decent plan.
Where and whether this will in fact happen remains a bit unclear. Perhaps in Heineken owned pubs. Alternatively maybe in supermarkets although the only one I’ve seen cans of Bloody Ell in so far is Waitrose.
Time will tell on that.
Perhaps Beavertown will come round to brewing a Bloody ‘Ell Original from time to time.
In the meantime the new version is a beer well worth trying, particularly if you have little or no memory of the 7.2% original.
My brief thoughts on earlier versions of Bloody ‘Ell (first produced in 2013) are here:
https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/beavertown-bloody-ell-2018-beard-friendly/
England v West Indies, Cricket World Cup Final Saturday 23rd June 1979. A world we have lost
I was reminded today by a union colleague of the cricket world cup final that took place at Lords 40 years ago on Saturday 23rd June 1979.
It is a world we have lost.
At the time games were played over 60 overs a side not 50. England won the toss and put West Indies in. They scored what today would be regarded as a very modest 286 for 9 in their 60 overs with Viv Richards making 138 not out.
Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott opened the batting for England. They put together a very decent opening stand of 129 runs. The problem was that it took them 38 overs to do it. They were still batting as if a one-day game was a Test match. By the time Brearley and Boycott were out in successive overs the runs per over target was in double figures and England collapsed to 194 all out in 51 overs. Joel Garner took 5 for 38.
Such collapses and one-sided results are hardly unknown in one-day cricket 40 years on. The slow scoring rate of Brearley and Boycott does belong to another era. Commenting in the Observer on 24th June 1979 Sir Len Hutton noted that Boycott had scored more quickly than Brearley. Then again Sir Len was a Yorkshireman so he might well say that.
Scorecard
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