It is rumoured to be the only Yard of Ale in Chiang Mai and having say benignly on the shelf for the past 8 months it has finally been put to use.
The assembled company gasped in astonishment when youg American Josh announced that he wanted to have a go at one of the world's most challenging drinking feats.
For the uninitiated a Yard of Ale is a distinctive drinking glass consisting of an open neck, a long stem and a glass bowl. The glass derives its name from it's length being a full yard long or 0.9144 of a meter but that is not such a cool name. A full yard contains 3 pints of beer. The glass originated in 17th century England and has since been associated with various, predominantly male, drinking rituals. The Tuskers Yard is said to be the only one in northern Thailand and travelled carefully packed with Chas and Rachel when they moved to Thailand.
Josh is the first to attempt the Yard at Tuskers and his request was greeted with great interest by the customers and frankly complete bemusement by the Thai staff. The chosen beverage for the challenge was Draft Chang, a bold choice because of it's strength and gassiness. In England most practitioners would use flat real ale but such aids are not available in Thailand.
Josh started well quickly moving through the first pint before taking a short breather. The second pint always brings a problem as air gets trapped in the bowl and throws the beer at considerable velocity towards the drinkers mouth. Skilled Yard drinkers couter this by continually twisting the vessel while drinking but Josh has not mastered this technique and was rewarded with a face full of beer resulting in some unintended, honest spillage. Gaining heart from the spectators he soldiers on and managed to complete his task.
Unfortunately out of 20 watchers not one thought to put the attempt under the clock , an appalling oversight which means Josh lacks an official time. However he was estimated to have cmpleted in 3.5 minutes and as the only person to have attempted the yard tops the Tuskers leaderboard.
An excellent effort but one which doesn't cut it in the World rankings. The fastest ever Yard of Ale was completed by Peter Dowdswell of England in 1975 - he took 5 seconds!
More pictures of Josh's attempt can be found here on the Tuskers website
