Live Repeats of The World Cup's Costliest Own Goal in Britain's Pubs?
Foresight is a wonderful thing and, to be Frank, not something I am known for. However, I was just struck by a vision of a game-changing own goal, with the same costly error repeated in pubs across the Nation, every single match day.
Out of curiosity, I'd had a quick peek at the match times and saw that the kick-offs were all between 1pm & 7pm. It was then that my mind conjured up images of lovely Independent pubs in the four corners of the 4 home Nations, kept busy all-day by cheering punters with beer-splattered shoes & money in their pockets, but with sad, hangry faces at being told "the kitchen's closed, but we've got lots of crisps".
I saw the mournful fizzogs of the publicans as they watched endless repeats of tenners being stuffed back in wallets and then into back pockets that trudged back to the tables, bearing the bad news that only prawn cocktail crisps remained, and that the parasite delivery services would be a 60 min wait at least & permanently on daylight surge pricing.
I saw the heady cocktail of low-blood sugar, high blood alcohol content & a defeat on penalties and, my Independent publican friends, it wasn't very pretty - not very pretty at all.
Contemplating the own goal of so much revenue going begging, so many tummies going empty and so many tables emptying needlessly early, and then seeing it repeated daily, whilst the pub chains cleaned up, chilled the cockles of my independent wholesale heart.
I'm painting the darkness of this near future, only in order to fully contrast the sunlit hallowed turf of the alternative...
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