God's Own Country

The Ale Trail

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There was a time when the town of Stalybridge and the villages of Marsden and Slaithwhaite were quiet country backwaters beloved of hikers and those in search of quiet afternoon in the Yorkshire countryside. This, however, is no longer the case. Everything changed when a travel show on one of Britain's major TV network did an episode detailing the benefits of the Ale Trail. The concept was a simple one. The local tourist board had started to promote a journey that involved taking a train through the country stopping of at various villages along the way to enjoy a glass of traditional English Ale. The idea was that it would be a relaxed way to spend the afternoon and to enjoy some local produce. Sadly,...Read More

There was a time when the town of Stalybridge and the villages of Marsden and Slaithwhaite were quiet country backwaters beloved of hikers and those in search of quiet afternoon in the Yorkshire countryside. This, however, is no longer the case. Everything changed when a travel show on one of Britain's major TV network did an episode detailing the benefits of the Ale Trail. The concept was a simple one. The local tourist board had started to promote a journey that involved taking a train through the country stopping of at various villages along the way to enjoy a glass of traditional English Ale. The idea was that it would be a relaxed way to spend the afternoon and to enjoy some local produce. Sadly, it has not transpired as such.

Instead of the trail attracting small groups of ale enthusiasts and those looking for an interesting twist on a visit to the countryside, the trail now plays host to huge groups of men of bachelor parties and birthday outings. In fact, it is fast catching up with Eastern Europe as a popular destination for men on their pre-wedding 'final taste of freedom'. It has got so popular and so crowded that on some Saturdays police are required to control the crowds.

The full trail takes in five or six towns and over 12 pubs. Unfortunately, my friends and I did not have the kind of time – or capacity fro drinking real ale – to do the whole thing. So, we planned to start in Huddersfield and then take the train north to Stalybridge before making our way back. We got a clear taste of what we could expect when we arrived at Huddersfield's wonderfully Victorian train station. There are two pubs in the station, one at each end of the platform. Outside both was a huge crowd of people all pounding away the beers. We stopped at Full Steam Ahead and enjoyed two ales, which were both rather good.

We took a train bound for Manchester that stopped off at all the villages on the way. It was absolutely crammed to bursting and we had to get on early to find a seat. We were sharing our carriage with a large group of extremely drunk men on a birthday party and a group of equally drunk women on a hen party. The journey was far from sedate … or pleasant. There was plenty of screaming, out of tune singing and dropping of beer on the floor. It was quite the relief when they alighted at Marsden.

We would return to Marsden later in the day, but our first stop was Stalybridge where there is a real-ale pub conveniently located on the train station platform. I opted for a glass of rather yeasty stout whilst my friends – Matt and Lee – went for a pale ale. It was all rather pleasant. The sun was out, there were plenty of people on the trail and the beer was something of an adventure.

From Stalybridge, we moved south to Marsden. It was here that the trail was most populated and became rather frantic. The pub closest to the station was absolutely heaving. We managed to get ourselves burgers from the stand outside and then squeeze through to the bar where our ale came in a plastic glass – they had nothing else due to the amount of people in the village. We had two rather cramped beers there before moving onto another pub where we managed to fight our way to the bar to get another ale. However, by this point the fun of the idea was wearing off. The sheer volume of people was making the trail far less fun than we had imagined.
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The Perfect Place to Watch Cricket

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When watching sports it is often possible to simply sense that you are in the right place and that the stadium in which you sit defines and evokes the sport it hosts perfectly. Visit some of Europe's industrial powerhouses like Manchester, Liverpool, Dortmund or Turin and you will be sure that you are in the right place for football - there is little to compare with the atmosphere at Anfield or the Westfallonstadion. Similarly, in 2001 when I spent a year in New York State as part of my university education, I was able to watch some sport in just the right places. I saw the Canadiens in Montreal and spent an afternoon in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium. Sadly, I did not feel the same sense of awe and ...Read More

When watching sports it is often possible to simply sense that you are in the right place and that the stadium in which you sit defines and evokes the sport it hosts perfectly. Visit some of Europe's industrial powerhouses like Manchester, Liverpool, Dortmund or Turin and you will be sure that you are in the right place for football - there is little to compare with the atmosphere at Anfield or the Westfallonstadion. Similarly, in 2001 when I spent a year in New York State as part of my university education, I was able to watch some sport in just the right places. I saw the Canadiens in Montreal and spent an afternoon in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium. Sadly, I did not feel the same sense of awe and wonder when I saw the Toronto Raptors.

I had the same feeling of being just where I needed to be when I went to watch cricket at Headingley, the home of Yorkshire CC. Many people might argue that Lord's in London is cricket's spiritual home as it hosted the first international matches and is viewed by many as the centre of the game. This is not an unfounded opinion. However, whereas Lords can at times be rather quiet and solemn, Headingley is forever bursting with noise, life and opinion. There are other places that could claim to be the perfect place to watch the game: some of the grounds in the Caribbean are wonderful, as is St George's Park in Port Elizabeth beneath the shadow of Table Mountain and the palm trees and historic Dutch Fort in Galle also make for a wonderful back-drop.

For my money, though, there is nowhere in the world quite like Yorkshire to enjoy cricket. First of all, it is the most cricket-loving area in the world. This may sound like quite a statement in light of the passion with which the game is followed in India. However, In no county or province are there as many amateur or professional leagues, as many registered players or as many cricket clubs. Along with an aversion to spending their hard-earned brass (Yorkshire for 'money'), most Yorkshire-folk are born with cricket hard-wired into their DNA. Because of this, Yorkshire County Cricket Club have won more national Championships than any county in England and has a record superior to any other county or province in the world. There is a saying that goes, "When Yorkshire are strong, England are strong". With such thoughts in mind, I was very excited to make my way to Headingley to watch Yorkshire play Leicester.

Twenty 20 cricket is a shortened form of cricket. A match lasts roughly three hours and fixtures usually take place between 17h30 and 20h30. We arrived just in time to watch Yorkshire bowl and Leicestershire bat. The game itself was something of an anti-climax. Yorkshire boasted several top players including former England internationals Ryan Sidebottom, Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid. They made short work of a Leicestershire side, which had several younger and less talented players bolstered by the Zimbabwean journeyman Andrew Ireland. Their only star was Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan. Yorkshire won comfortably, and in so doing hit some fantastic sixes (cricket's equivalent of a home-run) and took some fantastic catches (cricket involves catches the same as baseball, but using bare hands).

As great as the action was, the highlight of the game was the atmosphere and the crowd. The first thing that struck me was the knowledge of the crowd. During the game there was plenty of heated and informed discussion about the course of the game and cricket in general. It was the not the sort of thing you would expect to find at your average football match. There was also something of a carnival atmosphere as many of the fans had been consuming plenty of the local ale and were in full albeit slightly off-key voice. Much of this culminated in the barracking of one of the Leicestershire players who was fielding close to the Western Terrace seating. Every time the ball came even close to him, he was heckled and barracked mercilessly much to the amusement of the whole section.

Tickets to a Twenty 20 game at Headingley cost 20GBP when sold on the door. If you book online and print the tickets in advance there is a discount of 5GBP. The three hours of entertainment were well worth it. Read Less

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Cafe Rizzolli

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Restaurant | "Street Cafe in the Mall"

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It is always a sensible idea to be skpetical of culinary options available in shopping malls. For example, I once ate Chinese food in the Cevahir mall in central Istanbul and regretted it rather quickly as my stoumach did not appreciate the fine tones of the cuisine. However, Meadowhall in the outskirts of Sheffield seems to have decided to take a positive step away from the traditional basic food court. Whilst there are your basic staples such as McDonalds and KFC, there are also some far more imaginative and higher quality options. There is Chaobaby, a rich and vibrant Thai restaurant with an 'all you can eat menu', as well as the Asian-fusion eatery Rice which offers some interesting takes on tradt...Read More

It is always a sensible idea to be skpetical of culinary options available in shopping malls. For example, I once ate Chinese food in the Cevahir mall in central Istanbul and regretted it rather quickly as my stoumach did not appreciate the fine tones of the cuisine. However, Meadowhall in the outskirts of Sheffield seems to have decided to take a positive step away from the traditional basic food court. Whilst there are your basic staples such as McDonalds and KFC, there are also some far more imaginative and higher quality options. There is Chaobaby, a rich and vibrant Thai restaurant with an 'all you can eat menu', as well as the Asian-fusion eatery Rice which offers some interesting takes on tradtional Asian staples.

Another example of the elevation of the shopping/dining erxperience is Cafe Rizzolli, a fantastic Italian-style bistro. Rizzolli is not situated in the food court area, instead, the seats are actually in the mall itself rather like it were in the street in a small Italian village ... although that is a somewhat romanticised description. It serves a blend of traditional Italian dishes, which centre largely on pasta. It also has a fantastic variety of antipasti and bruschettas as well as a very nice array of coffees and desserts. My mother and I stopped off for coffee and dessert after a hard day of shopping and were very impressed.

The first thing that struck us about Rizzolli was the service. We wandered in rather aimlessly if I am honest. We were in the mood for a sit-down and some coffee, but we hadn't really decided to plump for coffee. However, we were greeted so very warmly that it seemed rude not to take a seat. At first one of the waiters gave us a very pleasant hello before the manager stepped out and offered us our choice of seats. Before I get too gushy about this service, I will add the caveat that it was a very slow Sunday afternoon and the cafe was far from busy. But this notwithstanding, it still felt rather good.

Once we had taken our seat and ordered, we were again pleasantly surprised. I had a cafe latte with a shot of caramel, whilst my mother had a cappuccino and an ice-cream Sunday - a selection that involved alittle too much dithering and discussion of waistlines for my liking. My latte was excellent. It was beautifully sweet and came topped with a nice serving of whipped cream. It was also delivered in a rather chic piece of glassware that made the presentation feel just a little bit special. At this point, I was planning to go into great detail about my mother's sundae. However, I have only limited information as she devoured it so quickly that I was only able to steal a couple of spoon-fulls. She had opted for the chocolate/nut variety and it proved to be deliciously gooey.

Whilst Cafe Rizolli, may not quite be the same as an Italian cafe, it is a very good option for a break whilst you are out shopping. The service and the fare on offer are very good. Two coffees and an ice-cream sundae cost me 12GBP. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 17, 2013

Cafe Rizzolli
Meadowhall Shopping Center
Sheffield

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