Cans & Megabus – Your Guide To Crewe Alexandra (A)

Tom Walsh takes you on a virtual tour of the railway mecca and home of the only Alexandra in the league, it’s Crewe!

Is there any town in the UK that exudes a “Stella in a Guinness glass” vibe more than Crewe? A seeming misnomer of a place that every man, woman and child from this luscious green land, has at least at one point in their life had to kill half an hour here waiting for their next train.

Cans & Megabus knows your pain as it’s something this handsome and witty column writer has been subjected to. Let me take you back to the winter of 2019, and a young Cans & Megabus was on his third train of the evening traversing railway strikes and bad weather back to the rain soaked streets of Manchester.

The humble column writer found himself in Crewe, a sweet 75 minutes before the final connection that would take his weary soul home… following a harrowing defeat at Gillingham. Crewe was his surroundings and liquid refreshment was on his mind.

The streets were quiet with a wind swirling around on this December evening. Cans & Megabus saw the glow of neon lights in the distance, an oasis of hops and grain and music, there was lots of music. What he found was The Cheshire Inn in full flow. Men and women embraced, they goaded each other into karaoke, they shouted a lot about Rihanna.

This weary traveller took it all in, a stranger going unnoticed by a group of natives having the time of their lives. The sun would never set in The Cheshire Inn, and the beer would never be served in the corresponding glass. I’d like to think that the party is somehow still going on in that public house that so beautifully occupies Nantwich Road.

Also, remember when Soccer AM used to play the Vengaboys every time they mentioned Crewe Alexandra? I didn’t really get that joke.

How To Recreate The Gresty Road Experience?

Do you remember where you left your old Hornby train set? Class! Right, dig that out as you’ll need to set it up just behind your TV or laptop. Then you want to sit as close to your preferred viewing device as possible to get that real Gresty Road away end sensation. Cap it off by getting a loved one to say “the next train to arrive at platform 5 is the Arriva Trains Wales service to Manchester Piccadilly” every 15 minutes.

Does This Place Have Any Good Brews?

Are there any good beers in Crewe? I don’t know. Have I attempted to research this beyond typing “craft breweries in Crewe” into Google? Absolutely not. Are you actually going to buy any Crewe-based beers? No, and if you said yes then you’re a liar.