BRANCH AWARDS
I
n normal times, there is a regular pattern to branch awards. However, over the last 2 years, this has been thrown into disarray, so this article is a good place to catch up on what has happened and look to the future. The 2020 Pub of the Year competition was featured in Ale Cry 125, although the result of the vote came too late to be included in 126. It was disappointing to note how few of our members actually voted, but in a close fought contest, the GUILD ALE HOUSE came out slightly ahead of the BLACK HORSE to win for the second time in three years. The 2020 Club of the Year award went to the LONGTON VM CLUB, with the 2020 Cider Pub of the Year award going to the BOB INN. Due to restrictions, we were unable to make any formal presentations of these awards, but we did manage to hand over the certificates and Pub of the Year shield during the summer opening period. With the pubs being closed over last winter, none of these competitions were held in 2021, but things will return to normal for 2022. It has become customary to decide the George Lee Memorial Trophy winner at the branch Christmas Social meeting. In 2019, the BLACK HORSE in Preston won the trophy, and it was suggested at the time that they would be the last winners as the shield was full and we now had a Pub of the Year award. We have subsequently decided that it is time the trophy was retired, which of course raised the question of what we should do with it. It has been agreed that it would be nice to display the trophy at the MOORBROOK – which is the spiritual home of the branch, being the pub where we held our first meeting all those years ago and where George Lee served such great beer for so many years, and licensee Richard has agreed that we can do this. The last time we made a Pub of the Season award was back in Spring 2020, with the RED LION in Wheelton being chosen.
18
Ale Cry
ISSUE 127 WINTER 2021
Almost immediately, all the pubs closed, and by the time we were able to present the award, over a year had passed. So we changed it to Autumn 2021 and handed the certificate over in October. The Winter 2021/2 award has been decided and you can read about that on page 14. A couple of years ago it was decided that we would make a special award to any pub that appeared for 10 consecutive years in the Good Beer Guide. It is quite an achievement to manage this, as competition from new outlets or changes of licensee frequently force us to omit a great pub for one year. Every award needs a name, and it was agreed there was no more fitting a name that the Dave Linley Award, after our friend who sadly died in 2019. Dave was a great contributor to the branch’s GBG selection and an enthusiastic traveller and visitor to new GBG outlets around the country and it seems appropriate that this award should bear his name. In 2019, the ANCHOR in Lostock Hall was given the award and in 2020, the CONTINENTAL and the BLACK BULL in Penwortham reached the milestone. It is a rare event for one of the branch pubs to win a national award, in fact I don’t think it has ever happened before. Back in February 2020 we were delighted to learn that the PLAU in Preston has won CAMRA’s National Design Award in the conversion to pub use category. In the words of Andrew Davison, chair of CAMRA’s Pub Design Award judging panel: “Jeremy Rowlands and architects/designers Loe Design have turned a disused and run-down building into a highly attractive pub, its refurbishment informed both by the known history of the building and by features uncovered during the work. It uses the long narrow plan and the height of the building to the full, from the vaults in the cellar – with its reopened medieval well – to the split-level ground-floor bar, with a more secluded
room behind, and the dining room on the upper floor, with its open roof-trusses and boarded roof lining. All has been done with great care, and with quality materials. The result is striking – a traditional pub re-imagined for the 21st century!” As so often happened in 2020, the ‘presentation’ was a virtual one and it was not until late 2021 that we finally managed to get the certificate to Jeremy for display in the pub. We are now looking to select the branch Pub of the Year for 2022. When we opened up voting for this competition to all branch members back in 2018, we had hoped that many of our members would contribute to the decision making process. However, very few members have actually voted and the decision has been made this year to change the way we select our branch winner. The committee has drawn up a shortlist of six, with pubs being selected taking into account the criteria applied to the national competition. Pubs are judged on the following points: • Quality and condition of product • Promotion and knowledge of product • Cleanliness and staff hygiene • Service, welcome and offering • Style, Decor and Furnishing • Community Focus and Atmosphere • Sympathy with CAMRA aims • Overall Impression and Value During November and December the committee members will be visiting the pubs that have been selected and scoring them against the above criteria. The six pubs that have been chosen for the shortlist are: BLACK HORSE (Preston), DOLPHIN (Longton), MARKET ALE HOUSE (Leyland), MASONS ARMS (Chorley), PLAU (Preston) and RED LION (Wheelton). We will be announcing the overall winner early in 2022 and there will be a full write up in Ale Cry 128. A D R I A N S M I T H
