Crawley: Let’s hear it for pubs’ Olympian endurance

30-Jul-2012 - Last updated on 12-Mar-2017 at 00:52 GMT

Crawley: "One must admire and champion the resilience of the pub model to survive adverse conditions"

What a summer! We British folk are certainly being tested! The weather, the politics of coalition, the Euro, the [situation in the] Middle East, and the expectations of the British sporting elite are all proving challenging.

The seemingly never-ending rain has stalled this summer after monsoon conditions caused serious localised flooding across the UK. Not quite the Blitz but a feeling that we are all in this together.

We have witnessed unprecedented disruption recently, with many UK events such as music festivals, sports fixtures — both local and major — and other money-spinners being cancelled — and all in the period that followed the Diamond Jubilee holiday weekend and was meant to build momentum towards the Olympics.

The world is watching and yet all people have been seeing on TV networks is atrocious British weather, potential strikes and security issues surrounding G4S.

For many, it seems 2012 is all about localised luck.

How does a fully stocked pub deal with the washed-out music festival? Does a soggy Silverstone cause problems for local pubs? England beat Australia 4-0 in the one-day international (ODI) cricket series — but what about those running pubs near a rained-off game? Some counties have had festivals rained off — what happened to their pubs?

Edinburgh’s Grange Cricket Club has called off the Scotland v England ODI on 16 August — stands can’t be put up as two weeks ago the ground was under 4ft of water. So the local bars will miss out.

Do punters come out anyway and spend the money? Or save it and then come out?

One must admire the resilience of the pub model to survive all these adverse conditions.

This was brought home to me this week by an Edinburgh pub tenant on a street on the tram route which is to be closed to traffic for months. A bus shelter, which he was told would be removed, is still blocking his pub. He is paying full business rates, and last week the pub was £7,000 down year on year.

Yet he is publicising his establishment, and ironically has just got funding (though not as much as he wants) for his second pub after several years of trying.

Let’s take him as an example of Olympian effort and drive and hope his determination to succeed delivers gold!

The jet stream has finally moved. Let’s hope for an Olympic bonus for all.