The Roll of the Dice...

The Borough Arms in Lymington, Hampshire sits on the ‘ring road’, which avoids the town centre and high street, and as such seems slightly excluded from this high brow, high net worth town.....

This sense of exclusion is emphasised by the fact that this pub, an historic posting house of 1850 origin, has a working class feel and does not share the town’s upper class, wealthy trappings.

Daytime view of the Borough Arms (still with Whitbread sign) - image Google street view

Passing in the car recently I gained the impression that the pub was not in good shape and wondered if it may be at risk.  However on owner Admiral Taverns' website it appears they are looking for new tenants, and are 'working with designers' to return in to the pub it should be - or words to that effect.

Bar with locals...

On the evening of my visit, a Friday at about 6:45pm, the pub had a few blokes at the bar including a man wearing shorts - on a bitterly cold February night.  Other than that there was a small group of people at one of the tables - fairly quiet.
There is a single room part exposed floor boards and with some rugs in the ‘snug area in front of the brickwork bar the whole room having mostly conventional pub tables and chairs.
At the bar it was the standard New Forest line-up on the handpulls - Ringwood Best and Doom beer with a third handpull unused.
Naturally, I asked the landlady for a pint of Ringwood Best ...

Ringwood Best, Ringwood beer mat and man in winter shorts with legs showing first signs of frost bite...

... having poured the beer she was about to tell me how much it was when she suddenly remembered that they had a promotion on.  “Roll the dice...” she said, “...and if you get a six you get a free pint before 7pm...”.
New one on me - but, more than willing to participate in 'gamblers happy hour',  I picked up the chrome dice cup and, like a true novice gambler, rolled the dice on the bar...
...a two and a three...
...just my luck...I handed over my £3.60 and found a table in the ‘snug’ area under the TV playing Vintage Music channel...I didn’t recognise the music - so it must have been before my time...
The Ringwood Best is an 'old reliable' kind of beer round here (and is normally good provided it’s kept well  -which is not a given).  Ringwood’s owners, Marstons, have rebranded it as Razor Back - supposedly harking back to beer brewed at Ringwood Brewery in its early days - but obviously a more 'crafty’ and therefore trendy, name.
However some pubs who, like this one, seem to have chosen to keep the 'Ringwood Best’ name, so it’s a beer with a bit of a split personality at the moment.

Ringwood Best (aka Razor Back) - dissociative identity disorder...

This was a good pint and passed a pleasant half an hour listening to the locals banter, including the landlady talking the the group on the next table about a event menu involving fish and chips, while the landlord was discussing something in the local paper with a couple of blokes at the bar.
The Borough Arms is a very pleasant working class pub and deserves some TLC and support.  Lets hope the next 'roll of the dice' favours this pub and it survives....
...but I doubt that a pastel kitchen makeover will help, Admiral Taverns...
...as the deck-shoed yachties and tourists will most likely continue to ignore it in favour of more upmarket 'places to be' in Lymington High Street and Quay ....