Cat crawl

A few years ago, there was a warm and poignant documentary on Channel 4 talking to customers of various pubs around the country called the Red Lion. This was one of the best TV programmes I have ever seen on the general subject of pubs and beer.

Now, the Daily Mail reports that Cathy Price from Preston has decided to undertake a mammoth pub crawl around all 724 pubs in the country bearing that name. So far she has managed 223, and thus has 501 to go.

It helps, of course, that Ms Price is a glamorous 53-year-old personal trainer, and the Mail manages to show pictures of her posing outside no less than 18 different Red Lions in a variety of figure-hugging outfits – plus a trademark pair of shades. Not that I’m complaining, though, and when she comes to the Red Lion in Cheadle just down the road from me I’ll happily buy her a drink.

But you can’t help thinking this would not have been such a prominent story had it featured a tubby 53-year-old bloke with a beard. And, for marathon pub crawls, this one is hard to beat.

Another interesting point is that the pub where the caption is “‘A bit rough’: Cathy will always stay for a photo, even if she doesn’t want to linger” is Wetherspoon’s Red Lion in Ripley, Derbyshire, although I have no idea whether that particular one actually is rough.