The Crown Tavern, Oakham

The Crown Tavern is located at the end of a small shopping arcade, behind a couple of old steel kegs that have some greenery jabbed into them, and also a hanging sign which advertises Sky and BT Sports. This is very much a sports pub, from my seat I counted seven televisions, eleven if you count all the reflections in the mirrors dotted around the exposed brick walls. An AFCON match was playing during my recent early Tuesday evening visit. I’m a big fan of watching sport in pubs, but this place isn’t big enough to warrant two televisions, let alone double figures. There’s a dartboard in the front right corner, although a large high table was on the oche so it wasn’t playable. There are a couple of five seater booths up the right-hand wall and a long thin high table runs up the centre. Some standard seating is found beside an inglenook on the left-hand wall. The exposed brick wooden topped bar counter along the rear wall supports standard keg alongside Madri and San Miguel. There’s also a lone hand pump that was drawing GK Old Speckled Hen. After scanning to room and seeing lager being drunk throughout I decided to stick with the yellow stuff. There was a decent atmosphere, this was the busiest place I visited during my crawl of the area, and I found the governor to be pleasant. It should be noted that there are restricted opening hours, closed Mondays and open 15:00 to close the rest of the week. I returned later in the evening, maybe around 20:30 and the doors were locked with lights out. I like these quirky little sports bars so I’d return if in the area.

Self-described as a sports bar (and it does indeed have plenty of TV screens, showing darts when I called in), but this small part of what must once have been a grand coaching inn is little more than a micro-pub in size. The atmosphere early on a Thursday evening (with a mostly older clientele) was rather convivial, and it's quite comfortably furnished too. Just one handpump on the rear counter, but that produced a reasonable pint of Old Speckled Hen (£4.50).

Located in a small retail arcade in what was presumably once the coaching yard of the Crown Hotel, this is a little sports bar with a café feel. Numerous screens around the walls showing a mixture of music and sports TV were a bit of a distraction but there were a couple of dartboards and, more importantly, Old Speckled Hen on handpump, although the latter was fresh on and not quite ready.

A small sort-of micropub in the modern and covered shopping arcade. Exposed brick interior, dart board and football on the telly. Bizarrely, the barman wouldn't give me the Wi-Fi code, much to the amusement of the cackling locals. One ale on, GK London Glory, which wasn’t up to much. It’s not often I feel genuinely unwelcome in a pub, but this place managed it.