THIS week, Pub Spy was struggling – plenty of pubs have already been visited while many that haven’t either don’t serve food or had stopped serving on Saturday afternoon.

Having called up two or three in Worcester to no avail, PS moved further afield and found The Castle in Droitwich.

On Worcester Road, this place is described as a “flaming great pub” on its website – and the “perfect place” for flame-grilled steaks, burgers and “flaming challenges”.

The first challenge was set by me – were they showing the Derby vs Leeds match at 5.30pm?

“Are you showing the football?” I asked the woman who answered the phone.

“The Wolves game?”

“No, the other one – the Leeds match.”

“We can do.”

The Castle had passed the first test, so I jumped into my car and headed down – the rain clouds above looked ominous and I was wondering when would be too late to arrive at Worcester Beer Festival.

I was starving when I got to the Castle, having not eaten since breakfast, and quickly knew what I wanted – the Dip It, Drench It Burger stood out from a menu with plenty of choice.

The description said “prepare to get messy” – maybe later at the beer festival.

The flame-grilled beef burger is topped with cheese, fried onions, crispy beef burnt ends and burger sauce.

But here’s the key selling point – a little pot of beef dripping gravy for dunking. Is this a staple at Greene King pubs? I’ve never been to one before.

With a packed pub waiting to watch Wolves take on Everton, I sat in a section at the front with a big screen right ahead of me.

After some confusion over the Sky remote, the other match was on and I was sipping a Diet Coke and waiting for the food.

The tragedy of the situation was that only the commentary for the Wolves match was playing, then even that went off. One of two teenage guys who’d also come to watch the Leeds game described it as like playing Fifa late at night without the sound – “you’ve got no idea what’s going on”.

I was reading over the menu again when the rain came thundering down – is that the end of the summer?

There was a little pull-out asking: “Can you tackle The Hell Hound?” – a platter challenge consisting of two packed sub sandwiches – including jalapenos – as well as corn on the cob, onion rings and fries on the side.

It was only on offer until the end of September.

Maybe I’d ordered too quickly?

The food came fast enough considering there were a lot of people waiting to eat – including family groups – and was served with fries and coleslaw.

I’d gone for the regular burger at £7.99, resisting the temptation to upgrade to XL for £9.49 – or pay 99p for waffle fries.

The game turned into a demolition job by Leeds and that description wasn’t far off what I did to the burger.

I was very hungry, but it was surely the best pub burger I’ve ever had – and a lot of that was down to the beef dripping gravy, but everything about it was as perfect as Marcelo Bielsa’s tactics.

I’d certainly go again – perhaps I’ll even move to Droitwich to cut out the drive, and so I can also have a beer or two.

RATINGS

Atmosphere 9/10

Decor 8/10

Staff 9/10

Drink 9/10

Food 9/10

Overall 9/10