Location: London Road, Twickenham, West London, UK

The Cabbage Patch is well located and caters for visitors with a good rage of facilities.

Just opposite Twickenham Station, the pub is split in two (and has two entrances) with dining and bar snacks on the right and amusements on the left. The food is well regarded here, so that's a good reason to come but it's the amusements we're interested in here.

There are four pool tables, three quiz machines, two fruit (slot) machines and a single pinball - a Williams Star Wars Episode One.

I know this game (and indeed the Pinball 2000 platform) is not well regarded in general but this particular lunchtime, the game provided plenty of entertainment and proved a worthy adversary. Set at 50p per game - which now seems to be standard pricing in London - it was a fair price and the tilt was set to a sensible level permitting the occasional heavy nudge but not allowing anything approaching silly behaviour. That makes good sense in a pub environments as any tilts which occurred can only be considered as fair and don't incur any anger from the players. Anger, when combined with alcohol can be a dangerous mix, so the setting is totally appropriate.

The game functions well with all the features working and the flippers strong and consistent. They seem to be angled a bit low but that's something I've seen on other SW-E1 games too so it's only a minor criticism.

Unusually, the game has been set to award an extra ball at the first scoring level and a replay at the second. This works very well, giving fair and achievable rewards for doing well.

The game is positioned just inside the left hand entrance to the pub and close to the bar, so it could be a bit crowded on busy nights but it does make ordering another drink very easy. Speaking of which, the beers on offer are really very good with draught Becks for lager lovers and London Pride, Marston's Pedigree and Brakspear for real ale aficionados. There are even two draught ciders available - Scrumpy Jack and Strongbow. All the usual names are also on tap; Stella Artois, Fosters, Guinness etc.

In conclusion, this pub provides good food, good drinks, good amusements and good pinball. A great combination and it's certainly worthy of a visit. Beware of days when there are major rugby games at Twickenham Stadium because the Cabbage Patch - like all the pubs in the area - are usually packed out, so try to chose a quieter day.

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