THE big frothy list is confirmed. There were exactly 10 pubs which carved out a slice of Boddington territory into Greenall-Whitley land.

And the date of the transfer of those former Greenalls watering-holes to Boddies was February, 1973. It coincided with a reverse swap, whereby Greenalls, for so long a St Helens town-centre brewer, snapped up eight of the Manchester-based company's pubs in Eccles, Hyde and Wilmslow.

Which brewery benefited most from the transfer arrangements is anybody's guess. But the bunch of St Helens froth-blowers who brought up this boozy subject can now stop all their wrangling about just how many local pubs were involved in the big switch-over.

For Danny and Teresa Shawcross, who ran the Phoenix in St Helens at the time of the change-over, have supplied all the evidence required, in the shape of a full-page advert which appeared in the local press, and a copy of the Boddingtons house magazine of the time.

The takeover 10 were: the New Vaults at Peasley Cross where mine hosts were Dot and Bill Appleton; the Phoenix; the Royal Afred in Shaw Street (licensees, Stan and Jessie Arnold); the Vine Tavern, Thatto Heath (Millie and George Molyneux); the Coppersmiths Arms, Sutton (Joe and Joan McGuire); The Talbot, in Duke Street, since renamed The Sportsmans (run then by rugby legend Duggie Greenall and his wife Vera); The Union (Jean Klimek); the Bulls Head, Fleet Lane (Bill McMillan); the Queens Arms, Higher Parr Street (John and Adeline Lomax); and the Park Hotel (Mr and Mrs F. Whalley).

I'm grateful to Dan and Teresa Shawcross, now living in retirement at Penketh, who were alerted to the pub-swap yedscratter by their St Helens-based daughter, Carole McCormick. The Star had only hit the streets a matter of hours, before the couple journeyed over with the evidence.

Thanks, also, to T. Taylor of Nutgrove Road, who points out that (obviously heartened by making inroads into Greenalls territory) Boddies built their own pub, The Fusilier, in Prescot, about seven years later.

And he adds this intriguing bit of detail: "In the late 1970s, Vine Tavern even played their darts matches in Boddingtons Manchester league."

THE theme even attracted attention in Queensland, Australia! Win Smith forwarded this e-mail message: "My husband, Ken Smith ( ex-Vine regular) reckons the Pig & Whistle, Sherdley Road, was a Boddy's house."