Another football away trip, this time to Teesside, which gave us the opportunity to pay another visit to a fantastic and famous little micro pub in Hartlepool. Here's how the day unfolded....
It was an early start. I was meeting our Mick and Gaz for the 8.16 from Halifax to Leeds for the first leg of our journey to Hartlepool where FC Halifax Town were hoping to maintain their push for the National League play-offs. I arrived at the station first, my taxi dropping me off at around 8am. Not long after I arrived it was announced that the train had been cancelled and the next one was delayed by animals on the line! So with the lads finishing their breakfast at a local cafe I messaged to appraise them of the current situation but received no response. They turned up a few minutes later, quickly walking just before our booked train was due to leave, telling them when I broke the news there had been no need to rush! In the end we caught a train to Leeds going the other way via Brighouse and Dewsbury and got there just in time to catch our already-booked train from Leeds to York.
Our journey took us then on the scenic route via the Wharfe Valley, Harrogate, and Knaresborough, and we arrived in York with around 35 minutes or so to play with before our train to Teesside. No words were exchanged, no knowing nods, but we left the train and marched like pre-programmed robots straight to the York Tap as if it was a default that every visit to York Station must include a visit there. An early opening time of 10.00 meant there were already several tables occupied and a few stood at the bar, and, somewhat annoyingly, a group of small kids running and screaming round the other side of the island bar where there were less customers and consequently more space (and seemingly nobody supervising them!).
There were plenty of staff on duty for once and we were served pretty quickly, the boys opting for pints of the 5.2% Citra single hop pale ale, Crackendale, from Thornbridge whilst I went for a lower strength option in the form of the 4.5% Independence from Bristol Beer Factory, which as usual was an easy-drinking pint with Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo which gave citrus, berry, and tropical notes underpinned by the trademark solid malty base you expect from BBF (NBSS 3). The boys were more than happy with their pints of Crackendale, so when we realised we had time for a quick pint before our train, I decided to join them on it. And I have to say it was on very good form, cool, refreshing, with plenty of backbone overlaid with zesty notes (NBSS 3.5). Our number had by now had increased to 4, as we had been joined by Dave, making his first appearance at a Town game after several weeks of Spanish sunshine.
We finished our pints and headed over the bridge to the platform for the third leg of our journey, which would take us to Thornaby. It was all pretty uneventful until, as we approached our destination, Dave could not find the ticket for this leg of the journey on his phone - an issue that has affected me in the past - but when he explained his predicament to the guard she threw it out to the crowd for their opinion, and he was free to go on his way! A 20 minute wait in the sunshine at Thornaby allowed time for a quick sandwich from the station buffet, and then the final leg to Hartlepool.
We didn't have far to go to get a drink once we arrived in Hartlepool. Within the main station building is the Rat Race, a well-known micropub that I had visited previously, most recently in 2024, but this was the first time I had visited by train and so without the car I was able to relax more. First thing though was getting in, and with the door on the town side locked, we had to use the entrance from within the station.
The Rat Race was opened back in 2009 by Peter Morgan in a former newsagents shop at the station, after he had been made redundant, spending around £10,000 to convert it in to a micropub, which measures 6 metres in length and is just 4.5 metres wide. In an interview at the time with the BBC Peter explained: "two weeks before I finished at work I was down at the CAMRA AGM. They had a guest speaker who runs a micro-pub in Kent, and he was saying you only really need beer and a toilet to have a pub, and I just thought that's a good idea, I'm going to do that." And he did, naming it after the Rat Race he was leaving behind.
Back then it was only the second micropub in the country after the one being spoken about at the CAMRA AGM, the Butchers Arms in Herne Bay in Kent, and so the concept was new, and because of that, and because of the growth in numbers over the intervening years has produced many variations on the format, it is worth going back to recall the original ethos that lay behind the micropub because it is relevant with regards to the Rat Race. According to the Micropub Association it is defined as follows: "A small free house which listens to its customers, mainly serves cask ales, promotes conversation, shuns all forms of electronic entertainment and dabbles in traditional pub snacks." And that is pretty much how the Rat Race has carried on over the past 17 years or so.
Conversation has always been the order of the day here, with a few tables around the room with seating on a mix of pew-style benches and stools for up to a maximum of 20 customers in the room. Up to 4 beers and 2 real ciders are served by hand pump from the cellar in an inner room, with the beers listed on a board. We walked in from the station and sat at one of the battered old tables. Landlord Peter came over fairly soon to take our order, and from what was listed we all went for pints of West Coast Session IPA from Firebrand Brewing who are based in Launceston in Cornwall, reflecting the landlord's dedication to getting a wide range of different beers from far and wide. The ceiling and walls are covered in pump clips of beers that have been on here since it opened. The number of different beers that have been on are chalked on a framed board, the number standing at 2,246 when we were having our first pint, and a number that was added to on our visits before and after the game. In and amongst there are pictures of trains, notices about this and that, quirky comments, some of them framed, and several signs stating NO LAGER, including by the door outside. Going back to the beers, our pints were pretty good, presumably served with no sparkler but had plenty of flavour, the Mosaic and El Dorado hops providing refreshing grapefruit and orange pith notes (NBSS 3).
We decided to get another pint. I needed the loo, which involved getting a rather large key from a hook on the wall and heading to a separate room on the station platform which, once entry was gained, seemingly doubled up as a storeroom/dumping ground/toilet. I locked back up, returned the key to its hook, and went back to my seat in the pub. It was a convivial atmosphere with a group of friendly locals - one of whom I recognised from my last visit who was sat in exactly the same seat - and travellers like ourselves who were here on a mission. And with that in mind we finished our pints and headed off for the short walk to Victoria Park, the home of Hartlepool United FC.
There was a decent away following from Halifax, with plenty of familiar faces having made the journey by one means or another. The game was played in bright sunshine, although a sharp wind was blowing in from the North Sea. It was a hard-fought, fairly even match between two play-off hopefuls which had all the makings of a 0-0 draw, and a point taken would have been quite acceptable for Town following a rather disappointing run of games. However, with 8 minutes remaining Town's north-east born striker, Will Harris scored a brilliant goal, his 19th of the season, to enable the away side to take all 3 points and keep themselves in the promotion mix.
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| Action from Hartlepool Utd v FC Halifax Town |
It was therefore a happy walk back to the Rat Race for a quick pint before we caught the train back home. We walked through the station and in through the back door and grabbed a table. A couple of the regulars we'd left there when we went to the game were still there. We had to have a change of beer as the Firebrand had gone, so it was pints of XPA from North Pier Brew Co, who are based up the road at Roker, Sunderland. XPA is a 4.2% extra pale ale brewed with Cascade hops and was a refreshing and enjoyable pint (NBSS 3). It was nearly time for the train, so we finished our pints on what would likely be our final visit here. Tucked away in and amongst the framed notices was one saying the Rat Race will be closing on March 22nd and will not be re-opening as Peter is retiring.
And so the end of an era. Despite attracting real ale drinkers from all over, it is fair to say that the Rat Race has not been for everybody over the years, its adherence to the original concept of the micropub and singular approach has not suited everyone. A trawl through the reviews on Trip Advisor reveals this, as amongst many positive and complimentary comments there are some pretty negative ones. Indeed one from a fellow Town supporter took issue with the landlord who he felt had been rather rude and unwelcoming on his last visit and for that reason it had not been on their itinerary this time. But I have always enjoyed going and felt welcome when I have visited. And despite its small size, the Rat Race will leave a massive hole in what is otherwise a pretty meagre local real ale scene.
We crossed over the railway bridge and shortly afterwards our return journey home began. First the train to Thornaby, then to York. Another pint of Crackendale at the York Tap. Train to Leeds via Harrogate and onwards to Halifax, where a couple of pints concluded what had been a long but, from a footballing point of view, successful day. And we had been able to pay what turned out to be a final visit to an iconic, if somewhat Marmite-esque, institution. Farewell then to the Rat Race....
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