I was out for a picnic with the family, but really fancied a snifter or two before spreading out the rug and tackling stale sarnies and soggy crisps.

So it was my son and I found ourselves in The Lounge in Peacehaven on a Saturday lunchtime.

Now, there isn’t an abundance of great watering holes to select from in this neck of the woods and the first place we passed, The Sussex Coaster, looked like it had been boarded up for some time.

We headed back in the direction of Brighton on the South Coast Road and off to the left spotted somewhere called the Dew Drop Inn, but it wasn’t easy to see if it was open, there certainly wasn’t anyone in – it will have to wait until another day.

Back on the main road, looking on Apple maps for The Castle, we came across The Lounge, which wasn’t boarded up and, as it had a small group of punters outside for a fag, seemed open.

It certainly doesn’t look like a castle and even less like the schooner mentioned in its address, then again, when you walk in you quickly realise it’s not much of a lounge either. I think I can guess why this place has had a few different monikers, I could be wrong, but I suspect it may be keen to leave its past behind (not to mention a few unsavoury characters and/or incidents) and recreate itself.

I don’t know what it was before but it’s now a cheap sports bar with a fairly large choice of bog standard drinks at reasonable prices. It’s certainly not so bad you’ll be wiping your feet on the way out, but it’s fair to say you won’t need to dress up.

The reason you know it’s a so-called sports bar is because there are football shirts pinned to the ceiling with, very sensibly, a Seagulls flag and bunting in prime position.

There’s also a table tennis table, two pool tables and two darts boards – strange isn’t it, even with all this sporting equipment you won’t see a less sporty looking clientele anywhere.

But maybe that’s because the footie was on all the many screens – and who wouldn’t be glued to a 0-0 draw between Cardiff and Newcastle?

Both barmaids carefully ignored the football and concentrated on calling everyone “darling”, which I like. Though I suspect the last PC in here wasn’t political correctness.

There were several tables set out for either breakfast or lunch – four place settings at each. At first, they looked a bit strange, totally empty at 1.30pm, but then I cottoned on, this place doubles up as a bit of a hotel on the side.

Pricewise it was very fair, £6.80 for a pint of Doombar and a Kronie – the Kronie was 20p more expensive, can you do the maths and work out the price?

And, when a couple of guys did finally sit down to eat, it looked good. It’s very much at the baked potato, ham and chips end of the scale but well presented and very reasonable. You certainly couldn’t miss the lady doing the serving and cooking – now that’s what I call a turquoise pinny.

It’s a big old place with a “wood-look” floor that may have received some redecoration fairly recently and there’s a decent sized decked area outside, although it only looks out over the car park and is used solely by smokers.

Stepping into the gents I assume this got a brush up too, though it’s not as obvious. To be fair only one of the two cubicle doors has had a hole punched or kicked into it. The short stainless-steel urinal is what you’d expect but the oval hand basin is far, far too trendy for this gaff. In a space where the hand-drier was/should be there’s a sign which reads “Sorry for the inconvenience of hand drier”.

Several regulars take the “sit on stools at bar” choice but it’s wide open enough to allow everyone to get served easily. I particularly liked the ancient charity box featuring a waving Sooty – incidentally, he still welcomes foreign coins and old currency.

This is never going to win pub awards, but to be fair I don’t think it would expect to. Instead, it knows its place and fills a gap in the market somewhere on the lower end of the scale.

There were disco lights like the ones I got from Maplin for my shed, two fruit machines, a jukebox, free pool on a Monday and Wednesday, a ridiculously simple wi-fi code and ample stools and tables.

There is a clear and obvious zero drugs policy – I refer you to my previous point on name changes. But, on the plus side it’s open until 2am on a Friday and Saturday.

My son shifted from Doombar to a sickly sweet energy drink on tap so I felt it was high time we started the family picnic and set off to find his mum.

The Lounge,  The White Schooner, 205 South Coast Road, Peacehaven BN10 8LA

Decor: **

As the advert says, it does what it says on the tin, it’s a scruffy tin though

Drink: ***

It is standard fare, but is well kept and well served

Price: ****

Have you worked it out yet? It’s really very reasonable

Atmosphere: ***

Fine for watching the footie, if that’s your thing

Staff: ***

The barmaids were both on decent form and as friendly to visitors as regulars

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