I had the double pleasure last week of attending the opening day of the Lord's Ashes Test and drinking cask-conditioned Pedigree at the ground. Usually even the finest sporting occasion in this country is ruined by the total absence of anything drinkable.
But now, thanks to Marston's, purveyor of fine ale to the England cricket team and sponsor of several first-class counties, we can now not only watch the willow being wielded but can also cheer on our cricketers' performance.
Cask beer is no stranger to cricket grounds, but it's usually the reserve of the members in their pavilions. Now those of us that don't wear funny ties and hats can sample the juice of the malt and the hop in the manner that nature intended - unpasteurised, unfiltered and served without the aid of extraneous CO2 or nitrogen.
Marston's marketing director Peter Jackson is a genuine cricket enthusiast and can, therefore, legitimately spend the summer watching the game while monitoring sales and beer quality. As a result of the absence of cellars, most cricket grounds have been serving a "smooth-flow" version of Pedigree.
But, as befits the ancestral home of cricket, Lord's last week launched a handpumped version of the beer. The pumps were suitably designed like cricket stumps and were falling over even more rapidly than those on the field of play.
Jackson didn't want to go into too many technical details about how, with the absence of cellars, Pedigree was served in cask form.
Coolers are used and the beer is "racked bright" before arriving at the ground. Turnover is so rapid that there's no danger of the beer going out of condition even though it lacks yeast sediment.
Further information about the techniques used will be announced later this year once the brewery has gauged the success of the experiment. Before anyone writes to me in
green ink and claims the beer at Lord's was not truly real ale, it's conditioned in cask before leaving the brewery and is only removed from its yeast sediment for a few hours.
It's a system used at many outside events and on restored steamtrain lines, including the venerable Keighley & Worth Valley track in Yorkshire.
Many sports clubs are deterred from serving cask beer as it's perceived to be difficult to look after and serve. The living proof that this is not the case is Leyton Orient Supporters' Club in East London.
The Os have been serving the real McCoy since 1993. Secretary and volunteer barman Mike Charles told me that since a new clubhouse was built, it's been possible to look after the beer in a temperature-controlled cold room. He has as many as 11 beers on during match days and the club also opens to show major sporting events on TV.
The club opens on match days at 12.30pm, closes at kick-off and serves again from 5pm until around 8pm.
As a keen real-ale drinker, Charles avoids mainstream beers and goes for ales from smaller craft breweries throughout the country. "No disrespect to Marston's," he says, "but you can get Pedigree just up the road."
He uses wholesalers to track down beer from as far away as Northumberland and adds to the range during two beer festivals known as Piglets. Piglet 9 will run from 19 to 20 November. Piglet, I imagine, comes
from the Cockney "pig's ear", rhyming
slang for beer.
Mike Charles says he believes Leyton Orient is the only professional football club that serves real ale. Iwish it were the case at my club, also in the East End, but West Ham United only offers the cold delights of Carlsberg for around £4 a pint at bars inside the ground. The bars used to serve keg Tetley as well, but even that has disappeared.
If Carlsberg imagines that football supporters only drink lager then members of its marketing department should attend a match at West Ham's Boleyn Ground. A couple of years ago an away supporter approaching the ground called out to me: "Hey, Protzie, carry on drinking!" — advice I have done my best to keep to. I once exchanged pleasantries with a West Ham fan on the Underground who was reading the
Campaign for Real Ale's newspaper, What's Brewing.
And the only decent pub near the ground is Wetherspoon's Miller's Well in Barking Road. It's packed to the gunwales on match days and not
all the fans drink fizz.
But let's not bring on the football season too fast. Cricket has a month or more to run its course and many pints of Pedigree have yet to be downed.
Thanks to Marston's, you're never stumped for a good pint at cricket grounds. Test Match Special on Radio 4 has "champagne moments" during matches. But after Monday's exhilarating victory perhaps the commentators ould join us in downing a glass of "the wine of the country".