THE FAT CAT has one
1 advantage over the Fiery Fred. It can have fruit machines, while the other Sheffield watering hole is stuck with shove ha'penny.
The reason for this restriction, the management of the Fiery Fred has discovered, is because its pub is on holy ground. A covenant in the deeds of the land says there may be no gambling on the premises for sums greater than two pence.
Pub manager, Alan Hazlehurst is baffled. Customers of the Fiery Fred, on the eastern edge of Sheffield, are considering raising a petition urging magistrates to ignore the clause and grant a gambling licence for the pub.
Mr Hazlehurst said this week: "The pub is only four years old but a lot of my regulars have lived here for years and they cannot remember a church."
"It is all a bit of a mystery but I am concerned because the customers would like a fruit machine and without one I could lose trade."
Owners, Home Brewery, Nottingham, are treating the ban gravely. They are investigating whether the land might be an old burial ground, but so far have found no evidence.
Their pub was opened by cricketer, Fred Trueman, who is nicknamed Fiery Fred. It is part
of a six-year-old estate which replaced rows of Victorian
terraced houses. Enquiries at the local Methodist church have been unsuccessful and patrons will have to be satisfied with the pool table, juke box and shove ha'penny for entertainment.