Sunday, 13 June 2010
Group Stages - round up of Day 2
Argentina goes to top of Group 2 with a convincing 3-1 win against Nigeria. Nigeria looks like it will struggle in this competition.
Greece squeezes past Korea with a 3:2 win. A rather lack-lustre performance from both teams.
Finally the first England match lived up to expectations with high scores from both teams and a 4-4 draw.
The Korea Republic steam ponsor enjoyed the day. Today it's the turn of the Slovenian and Serbian sponsors....
Greece squeezes past Korea with a 3:2 win. A rather lack-lustre performance from both teams.
Finally the first England match lived up to expectations with high scores from both teams and a 4-4 draw.
The Korea Republic steam ponsor enjoyed the day. Today it's the turn of the Slovenian and Serbian sponsors....
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Focus on Uruguay, a trip to the Cowley Road and a lesson in geography
From time to time, we will blog about particular teams, perhaps digressing a bit about how we sourced the beer or anything else that springs into my mind.
After Uruguay's dreadful performance yesterday, I felt you should know more.
As everyone knows, Nortena is Uruguay's beer of choice. Try as we might, we could not source it. So we needed to field a substitute.
We happened to be in Oxford's Cowley Road with a bit of time to spare before enjoying an Indian at the splendid Aziz and then going to the Big Pink gig at what is now the O2 (we preferred it in the Zodiac days). We found this amazing beer shop, Classic Beer and Wine. It was filled with unusual and hard to obtain beers - at amazingly low prices. We rootled around and found "Patagonia", in a discount basket, available at 50p per bottle. We realised it was out of date at that price (couldn't read exact death date) but this was a chance we were willing to take. As we left the store, we realised it only sold out of date beer and wine.
And this was what represented Uruguay yesterday. It was ghastly, completely off. Ugh.
The moral of the story - buy full price at discount stores. At 50p a bottle, you get what you pay for.
Any why Patagonia to substitute for Uruguay? Well, it's geographically relatively close, loosely speaking... We could not source beers from Algeria, Honduras, Paraguay or Chile either, so these too have substitutes. We limit the competitors in our beer world cup to lagers of around 5% strength, so that like competes with like. If we allowed bitter or stout in it would be a bit like having rugby players running all over the footballers, not fair. So that limits the substitutes (no banana beer in our competition!).
Must go. Day 2 will be action packed.
After Uruguay's dreadful performance yesterday, I felt you should know more.
As everyone knows, Nortena is Uruguay's beer of choice. Try as we might, we could not source it. So we needed to field a substitute.
We happened to be in Oxford's Cowley Road with a bit of time to spare before enjoying an Indian at the splendid Aziz and then going to the Big Pink gig at what is now the O2 (we preferred it in the Zodiac days). We found this amazing beer shop, Classic Beer and Wine. It was filled with unusual and hard to obtain beers - at amazingly low prices. We rootled around and found "Patagonia", in a discount basket, available at 50p per bottle. We realised it was out of date at that price (couldn't read exact death date) but this was a chance we were willing to take. As we left the store, we realised it only sold out of date beer and wine.
And this was what represented Uruguay yesterday. It was ghastly, completely off. Ugh.
The moral of the story - buy full price at discount stores. At 50p a bottle, you get what you pay for.
Any why Patagonia to substitute for Uruguay? Well, it's geographically relatively close, loosely speaking... We could not source beers from Algeria, Honduras, Paraguay or Chile either, so these too have substitutes. We limit the competitors in our beer world cup to lagers of around 5% strength, so that like competes with like. If we allowed bitter or stout in it would be a bit like having rugby players running all over the footballers, not fair. So that limits the substitutes (no banana beer in our competition!).
Must go. Day 2 will be action packed.
Friday, 11 June 2010
Group Stages - Position after Day One
You will all have seen on Twitter that Mexico nudged ahead of the host nation to win 4/3 in a closely fought contest. The next match saw a very poor performance from Uruguay and an excellent and true to form France put the match away 4/0.
So France are at the top of Group A with three points, leading on goal difference, followed by Mexico, also with three points. South Africa and Uruguay have yet to get a point, but the host nation has managed to avoid the bottom of the group position.
A busy day ahead with three matches, including England's first match. Watch this space.......
So France are at the top of Group A with three points, leading on goal difference, followed by Mexico, also with three points. South Africa and Uruguay have yet to get a point, but the host nation has managed to avoid the bottom of the group position.
A busy day ahead with three matches, including England's first match. Watch this space.......
Thursday, 10 June 2010
The Other Beer World Cup Competition
Believe it or not, there is another Beer World Cup Competition being run out there. We've entered it. The draw was yesterday and we drew...... Argentina....
It's fair to say that it was a little disappointing.
If we'd drawn North Korea, we could have described how a friend got in touch with a friend in South Korea and she went to the supermarket and bought 2 bottles and couriered them over. You can only courier over a maximum of 2 bottles at a time because of the customs laws.
If we'd drawn Slovenia, we could have described how a friend arranged for 8 tins to be included in a shipment he was receiving, and how he presented them to us in a special, football shaped container (which we will use to present the contestants for our tastings).
If we'd drawn Ghana (easy peasy to source!!) we would have described our trip to Brixton (to see LCD Soundsystem as it happens) and secured the bottles at an outrageous price and then found they are all out of date, which may put Ghana at a bit of a disadvantage. (Hope they play Nigeria at some stage. Beer experts will get that reference.)
If we'd drawn Honduras, we would have described how we tracked down Port Royal on an American website, and with great excitement put in our details (including credit card) to get it shipped over, only to find that the website was a ghost of a company that had died. (We now check our credit card bill very carefully).
But oh no it's Argentina. Good old Quilmes. Only Argentinian beer available in the UK (so not even the excitement of having to weigh up Sagres vs Superbock for Portugal). Easily available. And not even an very exciting beer, either good or bad. It reached the quarter finals in the Boxbeck 2006 Beer World Cup, where it was knocked out by Germany (Uriech).
Never mind. Come on Argentina!!
It's fair to say that it was a little disappointing.
If we'd drawn North Korea, we could have described how a friend got in touch with a friend in South Korea and she went to the supermarket and bought 2 bottles and couriered them over. You can only courier over a maximum of 2 bottles at a time because of the customs laws.
If we'd drawn Slovenia, we could have described how a friend arranged for 8 tins to be included in a shipment he was receiving, and how he presented them to us in a special, football shaped container (which we will use to present the contestants for our tastings).
If we'd drawn Ghana (easy peasy to source!!) we would have described our trip to Brixton (to see LCD Soundsystem as it happens) and secured the bottles at an outrageous price and then found they are all out of date, which may put Ghana at a bit of a disadvantage. (Hope they play Nigeria at some stage. Beer experts will get that reference.)
If we'd drawn Honduras, we would have described how we tracked down Port Royal on an American website, and with great excitement put in our details (including credit card) to get it shipped over, only to find that the website was a ghost of a company that had died. (We now check our credit card bill very carefully).
But oh no it's Argentina. Good old Quilmes. Only Argentinian beer available in the UK (so not even the excitement of having to weigh up Sagres vs Superbock for Portugal). Easily available. And not even an very exciting beer, either good or bad. It reached the quarter finals in the Boxbeck 2006 Beer World Cup, where it was knocked out by Germany (Uriech).
Never mind. Come on Argentina!!
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Rules of the Competition
We have had a number of queries about how the Boxbeck Football World Cup 2010 Beer Competition works. Well it's quite simple really.... In the Group Stages the beer competition will scrupulously follow the football competition.
On Friday South Africa play Mexico and Uruguay play France. Ali and I will open a bottle of Castle and a bottle of Bohemia. We will pour an inch or so from each bottle into a separate glass. We will examine them carefully for colour and clarity. We will inhale the aroma from each glass. We will then swirl the glass and take a good mouthful. Then the moment of truth... We will each award a score of 0-5 to each bottle. We will then follow suit with a bottle of Patagonia and a bottle of Kronenbourg. If we cannot reach agreement on any of the scores an average will be taken (rounded upwards). The scores will then be entered on the Official Boxbeck Football World Cup 2010 Beer Competition Score Sheet.
It is quite possible (as in the football competition) that there may be a no score draw, but our fingers are firmly crossed for a high-scoring competition for the 2010 World Cup!
The knock out stage of the Competition may be a different story and the Beer results may well diverge from the Football results leading to possible confusion for the uninformed.
Enough for now and more to come..................
On Friday South Africa play Mexico and Uruguay play France. Ali and I will open a bottle of Castle and a bottle of Bohemia. We will pour an inch or so from each bottle into a separate glass. We will examine them carefully for colour and clarity. We will inhale the aroma from each glass. We will then swirl the glass and take a good mouthful. Then the moment of truth... We will each award a score of 0-5 to each bottle. We will then follow suit with a bottle of Patagonia and a bottle of Kronenbourg. If we cannot reach agreement on any of the scores an average will be taken (rounded upwards). The scores will then be entered on the Official Boxbeck Football World Cup 2010 Beer Competition Score Sheet.
It is quite possible (as in the football competition) that there may be a no score draw, but our fingers are firmly crossed for a high-scoring competition for the 2010 World Cup!
The knock out stage of the Competition may be a different story and the Beer results may well diverge from the Football results leading to possible confusion for the uninformed.
Enough for now and more to come..................
Sunday, 30 May 2010
The Teams Line Up for the Boxbeck Beer World Cup 2010
With only 11 days to go, the teams line up for group photos as the final preparations are made for the Boxbeck Beer World Cup 2010.
What a fine looking bunch! It's set to be a hotly fought challenge and a mouth watering competition!
Group A
France - Kronenbourg
Mexico - Bohemia
South Africa - Castle
Uruguay - Patagonia
Group B
Argentina - Quilmes
Greece - Verginia
Korea Republic South - Hite
Nigeria - Star
Group C
Algeria - Casablanca
England - Hop
Slovenia - Zlatorog
USA - Dixie
Group D
Australia - VB
Germany - Bitburger
Ghana - Star
Serbia - Jelen
Group E
Cameroon - Castel
Denmark - Elephant
Japan - Kirin
Netherlands - Bavaria
Group F
Italy - Peroni
New Zealand - Speights
Paraguay - Brahma
Slovakia - Zlaty Bazant
Group G
Brazil - Palma Louca
Cote D'Ivoire - Flag
Korea DDR North - Taedonggang
Portugal - Super Bock
Group H
Chile - Cusquena
Honduras - Cristal
Spain - Alhambra
Switzerland - Swiss Mountain Beer
Many thanks to the sponsors:
Alan Cummings (Korea Republic South)
Trevor Lester (Slovenia)
Bernard Stevenson (Serbia)
Hye-Young Hwang and Simon Booker (Korea DDR North)
What a fine looking bunch! It's set to be a hotly fought challenge and a mouth watering competition!
Group A
France - Kronenbourg
Mexico - Bohemia
South Africa - Castle
Uruguay - Patagonia
Group B
Argentina - Quilmes
Greece - Verginia
Korea Republic South - Hite
Nigeria - Star
Group C
Algeria - Casablanca
England - Hop
Slovenia - Zlatorog
USA - Dixie
Group D
Australia - VB
Germany - Bitburger
Ghana - Star
Serbia - Jelen
Group E
Cameroon - Castel
Denmark - Elephant
Japan - Kirin
Netherlands - Bavaria
Group F
Italy - Peroni
New Zealand - Speights
Paraguay - Brahma
Slovakia - Zlaty Bazant
Group G
Brazil - Palma Louca
Cote D'Ivoire - Flag
Korea DDR North - Taedonggang
Portugal - Super Bock
Group H
Chile - Cusquena
Honduras - Cristal
Spain - Alhambra
Switzerland - Swiss Mountain Beer
Many thanks to the sponsors:
Alan Cummings (Korea Republic South)
Trevor Lester (Slovenia)
Bernard Stevenson (Serbia)
Hye-Young Hwang and Simon Booker (Korea DDR North)
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