The Ship Inn, Retford

Official site of The Ship Inn - www.batemansbrewery.co.uk

Official site of The Ship Inn - www.batemansbrewery.co.uk

A nice solid pub, with slightly weird dark decor but comfortable enough. As in an earlier review, the room behind the bar was out of use, leaving a main room and a longer extension behind, but plenty of room for me and the other customer. Four Batemans ales on the pumps, including the Gold which was waiting replacement, and they do sometimes have guests apparently. I did spot a sign advertising a 4-7 "Happy Hour" with all cask ales at £2.95, which seemed a good offer.

A random visit with half an hour to wait for my train to Sheffield, and I cycled past the busy-looking Brew Shed and the similar Idle Tap to get here and find it almost deserted at 2pm on a Friday. There were three Batemans beers on the bar and I asked for a pint of XB, then had to wait five minutes while the lass behind the bar tried to pull it through - she even went down into the cellar to make sure it had been connected properly - and the beer was only just NBSS 3 despite being a new barrel fresh on. The other beers were XXXB and Gold, and she also pulled the latter through while I was drinking my pint. Opening on a Friday lunchtime with at least two out of three beers not pulled through tells me something about this former very popular pub's change of fortunes, as it's either very sloppy or shows what the expectation of custom has become, or both. Of course I could be wrong - it's an old favourite, so I hope I am.

Large Batemans pub next to canal and the Idle Brewery Tap. Two bars, the one to the left looks unused, to the right is a roughly L shaped room leading back to a sitting area and large garden. The counter to the right has three Batemans beers on four pulls, the one to the left is has four unclipped pulls. It benefits from an idiosyncratic decor of animal portraits wall paper, framed pump clips which is more refined than the usual random collection stuck to walls and ceilings; there are shelves of old bottles and some interesting old brewery ads from Timothy Taylors and Bass.

Traditional Pub - Batemans Gold in good condition. My visit was marred by the place being run by just one member of staff on a Saturday afternoon. Merely inquiring to the the covid rules was met by a "I'll be with you in a minute!". Took an age to get served, as she had no idea of who was next in the garden. Too scared/bored to attempt to order a 2nd.