Regional pub of the Year

(Judging with West Suffolk)

By Dob & Annie

Another sunny morning on 1 st August found us on our way to ‘The Boat’ Whittlesey, Cambridge Pub of The Year’. A full range of Elgood’s beers were on offer here and possibly as many ciders. I think it’s safe to say that all enjoyed the fine food that we had here for lunch, I certainly enjoyed the ‘Boatman’s Lunch’ (a ploughman’s by any other name).

Our next stop, my favourite of the tour was ‘The Half Moon’ at Hitchin, Hertfordshire’s Pub of the Year. After some unbelievably fantastic parking by our more than capable driver in an awkward (and steep) car park our reception on entering the pub was wonderous. With hardly one foot in the door there was ‘hello, welcome, how can I help, nice to see you etc etc. This, coupled with the excellent range of real ales, and the friendly locals in this fantastic market town traditional pub and the Mighty Oak Oscar Wilde Mild was almost too good to be true. Howard and Wendy were excellent hosts and I very much enjoyed being in their company. Howard told myself and Kevin that when they took over the pub they wanted to run it as one that they would like to visit themselves. They have certainly succeeded; all the very best to them.

Moving on, all too soon, we headed for our digs for the night, ‘The Kitts Inn’ Dunstable. Chosen by our social secretary, Billy, and I believe with some help from Bedfordshire members, offering basic accommodation and excellent food (evening meal and breakfast) at a very reasonable price.

After dinner we all took quite a long stroll to our next pub on our list ‘The Globe’ Dunstable (South Bed’s Pub of the Year). A Bank’s and Taylor’s no frills back street pub run by Maureen ‘Mo’ Endres. On entering we were met by wall to wall, packed to the rafter’s enjoyment of a real ale pub, lively debate, far too many ales for ones own good, and an excellent atmosphere, even if a little intimidating on first entry for some.

Apparently, according to Bed’s members, approximately 80% of the customers were CAMRA members. It was also good to meet young member’s secretary, Adam Croft who is spreading the word to the few who are younger than myself (no beard required). Impossible to list range of beers, (Barry and Col did attempt to list them). But they were changing too quickly to keep up with.

Anyway, after great difficulty, we wrenched ourselves away from the bar and negotiated a quite well controlled stumble back to our digs, leaving the chair and his guardian to carry on the meeting with the Bed’s members.

After a hearty breakfast, myself and two others sharing a ‘spare’ one and communal dipping of the yolk we hastened to the bus and were on our way to the next stop ‘The Wheatsheaf’ at Writtle, a small part of the Gray & Sons estate.

Arriving at Writtle before opening time we stopped off at a country park nearby to stretch our legs. It seemed to me that dogs outnumbered people in Writtle by at least 3:1. After quite a long stroll and a very educational talk on the wonders of fungi and blackberries by ‘botanical Barry’ we headed for the Wheatsheaf. A lovely unspoilt village pub offering six real ales and Aspall’s Cider we sat outside in wonderful sunshine to fill in our judging cards. Once again the Oscar Wilde Mild was excellent. My fellow judges and I found it difficult to judge between the quiet Sunday lunch trade here and last nights flat out full house at The Globe.

Once again, very quickly (subject to alteration !!!) We were on our way to our lunch stop, an excellent choice once again by Billy, a superb roast was enjoyed by all at ‘The Cross Keys’ Henley (just north of Ipswich). Not long ago this pub was closed and is now enjoying a superb return to trade with several real ales on offer all served by gravity.

With no time to spare we were on our long travels to Broome (Norfolk) where we visited ‘The Artichoke’ their pub of the year. An amazingly large choice (at least 8) was on offer here for a pub in a small village, but then they had quite a large number of customers for a Sunday afternoon at 4.30.

We are now having more difficulty than ever judging between pubs on a Saturday night, Sunday lunch and late Sunday afternoon. To continue our journey we travelled back to Suffolk to our own pub of the year ‘The Fox and Hounds’ at Thurston. Arriving here in late afternoon sunshine with someone shouting from the garden about conkers we found all beers to be in excellent condition. John G said that the Cannon Best was his nicest pint of the weekend !! (favouritism of course!)

Not surprisingly, Billy our driver for the trip was now feeling ‘wholly tired’, perhaps not so much from the driving as from the instruction from his management in the co-drivers seat!

So it was that we dropped off safely after a really enjoyable trip in the interests of real ale. Long may we enjoy.

Many thanks and well done to Billy for a great drive and organising a great weekend and to Chrisy for organising Billy.

Pictured is Barbara and Tony O’Boyle of the Wheatsheaf, Writtle who eventually won the
East Anglian PoTY competetion and are shown being presented by Andra Briers with
Mike Woods (Essex AO) looking on. – picture by Nigel Sadler

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