Yes - we visited the Plough at Peldon. Which has a very friendly dog and the usual selection of incredulous locals ("how far?|?").
A friendly place, with the standard Greene King ale selection (IPA and Abbot - although the Abbot was sold out) along with Doom Bar.
I set off a little after 8pm taking a slightly more direct route over to Tiptree (up blue Mills Hill then along the NCN1 route, apart from PotholePennsylvania Lane, picking up the main peloton's route just after Layer Marney Tower. i had little hope of catching them, but tried my best, arriving about 15 minutes behind them. It was still just about light, and warm enough for short sleeves. DL, tippers, tedshred, Tomsk, Andy C33 and huggy were tucking into their first pints when I joined them.
A couple of beers later, we set off back. It had cooled quite a bit - DL noted ~5C at some point on the way home.