Dallas correspondent Gus writes:
We played OGC in Dallas TX over the weekend. We drew the teams out of the hat the day prior and tasked each team with coming up with a theme.The “Hawaiian Hula Girls” won the day.Given Dallas has a large number of bars with open patios in the area we played we had a lot of teams who were caught gazing into a patio area and had to stop on many more occasions for a pint then they had hoped for.
It has been a long time since we posted an OGC meeting, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been happening. Since Oxford, we’ve played Islington and Borough, and I know of other matches played in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Stuttgart, New Haven, and Santa Cruz. Which just goes to show you can’t keep a good chicken (cow, easter bunny, etc) down.
Last night we stuck close to home. I love Clerkenwell. I can’t imagine living anywhere else in London, and so these were the bounds of play:
We convened at the Exmouth Arms at 6pm, and after some dilly dallying and drinking, we drew teams. Poppy, long covetou of being the chicken, finally succeeded, viz.,
And the obligatory chicken selfie (chelfie?)…
Four teams set off in search of the chicken. My team (which included Rob, Bianca, and Sebastian) set off south from Exmouth Market, but quickly turned east, thinking that a small woman in a chicken costume would be most likely to keep to busier roads. After a failed attempt to check for her at the Peasant (it was closed for a private function) we made our way to the Dovetail in Jerusalem Passage (since we all know how Poppy loves the Modern Pantry). Our plan after that was to check the pubs near Clerkenwell Green, but before that we made a remarkable discovery on the Twitter:
I am in the Betsey Trotwood. There is a young woman sat on her own in a chicken costume. She looks quite glum…
— Carsmile Steve (@CarsmileSteve) March 29, 2014
To quote Fitzwilliam Darcy: “You may imagine what I felt and how I acted.” Which is to say we downed our Belgian beers at double speed and headed to a pub named after David Copperfield’s great aunt. It took about 90 minutes for everyone else to join us, which did not go unnoticed by our Twitter tipster:
Great news everyone! All of chicken suit woman’s friends have now turned up and they are knocking back bolly like there’s no tomorrow!
— Carsmile Steve (@CarsmileSteve) March 29, 2014
The only downside (other than the fact that we invaded a rather quiet pub with a bunch of rather loud and celebratory people) was that the kitchen closed before Andrew’s team arrived, which resulted in his making this face…
But, on the plus side, the Trottwood had very pretty origami cranes hanging from the ceiling and casting their avian shadows over our celebration.
Next up: Cambridge, the City, or the King’s Road. Obviously also Spokane at some point.
And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,
She needs not June for beauty’s heightening,
Lovely all times she lies, especially during One Giant Chicken!
On Sunday 12 May a group of us convened on Oxford for an inaugural One Giant Chicken Varsity Match. We ended up with twenty people (3 who live in Oxford, 16 who live in London, 1 who lives in San Francisco). on an absolutely beautiful day.
We began at the Weatsheaf, a townie pub if ever there was one. Why? Because it’s right in the middle of town, down an alleyway, and that way no unsuspecting non-Oxonian Chicken would wander in there. As it turned out, I had the good fortune of drawing my own name to be One Giant Chicken. I high-tailed it across Christ Church Meadow, down the Long Walk to the Head of the River. Where else could I go, really? It was a lovely spring day and that chicken costume is HOT. On the way, though, I was like the pied piper. Several toddlers (presumably mistaking me for Big Bird) tried to follow me on my merry way.
Anyway, despite Oxford being a fantastic city in which to drink, we discovered some downsides for One Giant Chicken. The first was intentional: we declared all society bars out of bounds. That meant no college bars or butteries; nor could the chicken avail itself of Vinnies, the Union Bar, or the University Club. That left about 30 pubs/bars in the centre (see the boundaries we used below). We also made sure that an Oxonian was able to captain each team. And since I was chicken they had a pretty good hunch that I wasn’t going to be some place dreadful like the Mitre or Maxwells.
Of course, my being chicken also gave Andrew’s team an unfair advantage, which he exploited. Nice day + my preference for a pleasant afternoon = head to the pub with the best patio. And there they found me, almost immediately. Sigh. Alana took a picture to prove that they’d won, but we were tricksy and did it inside, with the giant fireplace behind me, which did indeed throw some of the others.
Team 2, led by Syracuse and Poppy, made a few false starts (Chequers?!) but found me within about 30 minutes. Team 3, headed by Tony & Stu, headed north first, but after failing at the Eagle and Child they joined us. That left team 4, led by Dottie & Tab. I’m sorry to say we toyed with them a little bit, feeding them ambiguous but rather misleading tips. The result was that they were VERY drunk and rather peeved by the time I posted my tip…
After which they found us very quickly (though they still did Strawpedos at the Old Tom on their way south). For those of you forgetting your ancient Egyptian mythology, that’s Isis, the namesake of the River Thames in Oxford.
View One Giant Chicken Varsity Match – Oxford in a larger map
Lessons:
Pictures to come shortly.
Courtesy of Fuller
My friend Allison told me about One Giant Chicken over Christmas. My first reaction was “why did I not think of this?!”. My second reaction was “my friends will love this game.” And so we set about trying to find a time when we could have a go at it. Unfortunately, what with a honeymoon for the bulk of January and a busy February for both myself and Andrew, we couldn’t actually make our first OGC run until today.
Suffice to say it was worth the wait. We chose Soho for its central location, its large number of pubs, and its easy-to-define boundaries (see below). We invited a large group of friends through Faceboard, and we met at the Crown and Two Chairman, a favourite pub amongst our group of friends. Dottie was so excited about the game that she had found and printed out lists of Soho’s 48 pubs. And so it seemed appropriate that fate would select her to be our first Giant Chicken.
She disappeared down the street in heels and a chicken costume and soon sent an infuriating photo of a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice…and off we went.
View One Giant Chicken – London – March 2012 in a larger map
Lessons: