BEER FESTIVALS

• SPEAKER

  Just outside our area, the SPEAKER in Great Peter Street, SW1 has two weeks of East Anglia Ales from 23 August — 03 September.

  See the pub’s page on Facebook for details.

  The Speaker’s website is www.pleisure.com/pubs-the-speaker.html

See our Beer Festivals Page for details of these and other festivals.

BRITAIN’S CHAMPION BEER ANNOUNCED

CASTLE ROCK’S HARVEST PALE IS KING

• 

  The Champion Beers of Britain 2010 were announced at the Great British Beer Festival on Tuesday 3 August. (Photos by our webmaster, Mike Flynn)

  Overall winners

  • Champion Beer of Britain - Castle Rock, Harvest Pale (3.8% ABV, Nottingham, Notts)
  • Second - Timothy Taylor, Landlord (4.3% ABV, Keighley, West Yorkshire)
  • Third - Surrey Hills, Hammer Mild (3.8% ABV, Guildford, Surrey)

  See the CAMRA Press Release for full details or watch a video of the Champion Beer of Britian 2010 announcement on YouTube.

CAMRA GREATER LONDON PUB OF THE YEAR 2010

THE HARP IS VOTED TOP LONDON PUB

• 

  Congratulations to the HARP in Covent Garden which has been voted the winner of the prestigious CAMRA Greater London Pub of the Year for 2010.

  This popular Free House is at 47 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HS, directly opposite Charing Cross Police Station.

  For the second year in succession the winning pub’s licensee is a woman, in this case the landlady is Bridget ‘Binnie’ Walsh.

  The second placed pub was the The Olde Mitre in Holborn which is down an alleyway off Hatton Garden. As this is a Fuller’s tied house it was an exceptional achievement for the pub to do so well.

  See our London Pub of the Year 2010 Page for full details and more pictures.

SAMBROOK’S PRESENTATION

• 

  SWLCAMRA’s Chris Cobbold presents Duncan Sambrook with the Battersea 2010 Beer of the Festival award on Thursday 20 May 2010.

  The presentation to Sambrook’s for their Junction being voted Beer of the Festival at this year’s Battersea Beer Festival took place at the brewery on Thursday, 20 May 2010.

  See our Sambrook’s page for details or see some more photos on Flickr.com.

MOST IMPROVED CAMRA WEBSITE 2010

• 

  The www.swlcamra.org.uk website has won the award for “Most Improved Branch Website of the Year 2010” at the CAMRA AGM which was held over the weekend of 16—18 April 2010 at the Villa Marina, Douglas, Isle of Man.

  CAMRA’s Brett Laniosh said: “the website has a crisp appearance with a good use made of pub photos and the judges commended the way that news is displayed on the front page”.

  The award for “Branch website of the year 2010” was won by the very impressive East Lancashire CAMRA website. They also won in 2007.

LOCALE

• The CAMRA LocAle initiative is the accreditation scheme to promote pubs that sell locally-brewed real ale, reducing the number of ‘beer miles’ and supporting local breweries.
• Several pubs in our area now have LocAle accreditation. This entails a pub permanently stocking at least one real ale produced within thirty miles of the pub.
• For more information and a list of accredited LocAle pubs in our area see our LocAle page.

BOOKS

• LONDON HERITAGE PUBS - AN INSIDE STORY by Geoff Brandwood & Jane Jephcote is the definitive guidebook to London’s most unspoilt pubs. The lavishly illustrated book details 150 pubs which still have interiors of genuine heritage value...   See Books Page for more.
• PUBS OF WIMBLEDON VILLAGE (PAST & PRESENT) by Clive Whichelow was originally published in 1998 and quickly sold out its first two print runs. It is now available once again...   See Books Page for more.
• You can also see our on-line Guide to the pubs of SW19(N) for a current pub list.

CAMRA’s ON-LINE HERITAGE PUB GUIDE

• The National Inventory is CAMRA's pioneering effort to identify and protect the most important historic pub interiors in the country. It has always been part of the campaign's mission to not only save real ale but also Britain's rich heritage of pubs. See for yourself at www.heritagepubs.org.uk.

CRICKET

• We had a good 2009 season, winning 11 of 18 matches. Our home pitch is on the Nursery Road ground, behind the Princess of Wales in Morden Road, SW19. If you would like to join our list of willing players of all ages and abilities for the 2010 season feel free to contact Tom Brain either by phone on 07796 265972 or email tbrain@haysmacintyre.com.
• There was a Spring Bank Holiday weekend trip to Wiltshire at the end of May 2009, with a match played against a Redlynch & Hale XI at their ground at Woodfalls, which is up the hill from Downton. This game was played in the afternoon following a morning tour of both the Downton and Hop Back breweries. This may explain why our team came second in the match. Both our top two batsmen collected ducks and several of our team drank more pints of Quadhop afterwards than they made runs during the match. A return fixture at Nursery Road at the same time in 2010 is eagerly awaited.

OBITUARIES

• Read the online Obituaries [http://batterseabeerfest.site90.net/obits.html] for some SWL CAMRA stalwarts who have passed on.