The Cricketers, Richmond

This pub was heaving with post Christmas revellers on my Wednesday afternoon visit, a simple one room layout , although extra seating was available upstairs,there were four handpumps on the bar with Greene King IPA and a house beer Cricketers Ale,no doubt of GK origin, these were backed up with a brace of beers more interesting, Truman's Original Porter and Bedlam Pilgrim, the latter proving to be a decent drop.As mentioned it was a little too busy to be comfortable but a decent enough pub none the less.

The pub has an enviable location on Richmond Green and presumably comes into its own during the summer months when one can sit outside quaffing a pint while watching the cricket. There is a single room downstairs with the bar along one side, unusually with the counter front painted bright green but also with hops entwined along the gantry. A wood burning stove is opposite the bar, décor is mostly cricket themed with photographs, bats and stumps and scoreboard numbers displayed on the walls. The pub has its own team and an honours board sits on a carved sideboard that also carries the cutlery trays. Seating is mostly standard issue and includes an elaborate two seater bench near the front. Four handpumps, GK IPA seems to be a regular, Cricketers Ale will also be a GK rebadge, Sambrook's Scrum Down (£3.99), Truman's Blindside was being intermittently pulled through for later. The TV was off but a board listed the 6 Nations games which indicated live sports are shown; clearly dog friendly with a water bowl on the floor and a jar of doggy treats. A pleasant visit yesterday afternoon but I have seen the place packed to the rafters on a sunny summer day with plastic glasses being the norm so timimg is everything I suspect. Another room upstairs "Club Room" remains unvisited by me but I believe is an overflow area and can be hired too.

Built in 1834 on the site of a previous pub called 'The Cricket Players' which sadly burnt down, this is a simple single room pub overlooking Richmond Green. The pub has a very uncomplicated layout, with a front section packed full of standard, low stool and pew seating under grey walls with a few old pictures dotted around. Interestingly, there is an honours board near the door, detailing the exploits of the pub's own cricket team, for whom the Green acts as a very picturesque pitch. The servery appears midway down the left hand side of the room and has a nice spirit display on the bar back, a decorative feature which spells the pub's name out using coloured wine bottles and an unusual metal wine glass storage system in the canopy. A dumb waiter in the middle of the bar back has been surrounded by a collection of pump clips, which also liven up a well presented servery. The rear section of the pub has four or five tables served by benches and standard chairs, with a fireplace to the right and lots of cricket themed memorabilia, including several signed bats, although I wasn't able to get close enough to figure out exactly who had signed them. There is a collection of books that can be browsed and presumably swapped, with a range of board games stacked on top. In warmer weather I imagine it's very pleasant to sit out at the front of the pub overlooking the Green, and I noticed a stack of plastic glasses at the end of the bar which were being dispensed to those who expressed a preference for outdoor drinking. The pub used to be a Young's house, but is currently tied to Greene King, with their IPA available on handpull alongside Truman's Lazarus, Twickenham Smiler's Ale and something called Cricketers Ale, which I suspect is a Greene King brew rebadged. I had a very passable pint of the Lazarus, served to me by a reasonably cheery barmaid. This is quite a straightforward, functional pub that elevates itself by the lovely position it finds itself in. There's nothing particularly outstanding here to make you go out of your way to find it, but you can't fault it for the quintessentially English experience of supping good ale to the sound of leather on willow.

The Cricketers is in a nice location facing Richmond green and when i first went in here it was a Charrington house. On this visit it was a Greene King house,it has been altered inside and now there is not a lot of character left in this pub. There were a couple of GK beers on the bar i had a drink of GK IPA and this was drinkable but nothing special the other beer was Abbot. Pub visited 1/11/2001