ROGER EVANS

The lady behind the bar says 'that's a stronger beer, it's too strong for visitors, we keep it for locals'. She doesn't realise that there's a challenge in her words.

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HERE'S a group of us in Dartmouth, one my favourite places. I've never had a boat but I like looking at them. There's lots of boats in Dartmouth.

There comes one of those thundery showers - the ladies continue with their shopping, while the men take shelter in a bar. In the bar we are confronted by lots of beer pumps. One of our number asks what beer is on offer. I can’t see the point of this, there’s lots of information on blackboards. One of the pumps is on its own, some distance from the others, “what's in there?” The lady behind the bar says “that’s a stronger beer, it’s too strong for visitors, we keep it for us locals.”

She doesn’t seem to realise that there's something of the challenge in her words. “We'll each have a pint of that.” We have five pints each of this strong beer and I can see the lady behind the bar watching us. When we leave we try to go with some nonchalance. When we are outside, those who know us well will have noticed that we are now lifting our feet a bit higher than when we went in.