Croydon Pub of the Year 2003

The "Croydon Pub of the Year" for 2003 is the Princess Royal at 22 Longley Road, Croydon, off Sumner Road in Broad Green.
The presentation of the "Pub of the Year Certificate" took place at the pub on Wednesday 20 August.

The branch chairman, Steve Collins made the presentation to licensee Karen Slattery.

The pub serves a fine selection of real ales, fine wines, good food and good company in a very traditional, country style atmosphere. Real ales on offer include Banks Original (Mild), Greene King IPA & Abbot plus 3 Guest Ales from family brewers.

A large contingent of branch members turned out to applaud the presentation and an enjoyable time was had by all.

Sutton Pub of the Year 2003

The "Sutton Pub of the Year" for 2003 is the Little Windsor in Greyhound Road, Sutton, in the Sutton New Town area.
The presentation of the "Pub of the Year Certificate" took place at the pub on Tuesday 16 September during the interval in the regular Tuesday evening Quiz Night

The branch chairman, Steve Collins made the presentation to licensee Alan Cresswell.

The Little Windsor won this highly coveted award for the second year running for the excellence of the beer, the good service, the genuine friendliness of it's staff and cutomers and for being, in the words of the chairman as he presented the certificate, "an all round great pub"! The Little Winsdor sells the full range of Fullers beers - Chiswick, London Pride, ESB and the seasonal beers, plus, normally a non Fullers Guest Beer, usually from one of the smaller brewers. Please visit to find out what makes this small, back street pub so popular!

Pubs of the Year 2002

The "Pubs of the Year" for 2002 were Croydon Pub of the Year 2002 and the Sutton Pub of the Year 2002

Beer of the Festival 2002 - Joint Winners!

At our 9th Croydon & Sutton Real Ale Festival last October, a large number of you voted for "Beer of the Festival", and the result, after several recounts was a dead heat.

So, we have great pleasure in announcing our joint winners of the 2002 festival in Wallington:

Fuller, Smith & Turners "Draught 1845"

Dark Star Hophead

As you know, Hophead was last year's winner as well (see below) so congratulations to Dark Star on making it two in a row and many congratualtions to Fullers for this well deserved win for a beer which is rarely seen outside a bottle - can we perhaps hope to see it on draught more often in future?

As usual, we have now presented certificates to the winners - see news items below.

May we take this opportunity to thank all who attended and helped to make the festival such a success, and especially those people who took the time to vote for "Beer of the Festival" - it really helps us when deciding what to order for the next year!

If any one has any suggestions for beers for the next festival - 9th - 11th October 2003, please email the beer orderers!

Presentation to Fullers for Draught 1845

On Tuesday January 14th, a small party of branch members assembled at the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick at 11.30am, the object of the visit (besides having a few bevvies) to present to Fullers Head Brewer and Director of Brewing, John Keeling, the certificate for winning "Beer of the Festival" with the draught version of "1845".

We were met at Reception by Simon Robertson-McLeoud, National Accounts Manager for Fuller, Smith & Turner (which means he is responsible for pushing Fullers beers into all those pubs belonging to the big pub companies such as Punch and Enterprise). Simon was heavily involved in Fuller's successful sponsorship of the 9th Croydon & Sutton Festival.

Simon escorted us across the road to the "Hock Cellar" - Fullers excellent hospitality centre in the old ale racking cellars, where John Keeling was waiting for us.
Four draught beers were available - Chiswick, London Pride, ESB and the very last of this year's Jack Frost and we were expected to try numerous pints of each, so not to be rude, we of course did just that!

The branch chairman, Steve Collins then made the presentation to John Keeling with Simon looking on as shown in this photo! As you can see, Fullers were very pleased to receive this acolade!
Note that, as they didn't have any 1845 on draught we are all clutching bottles of the (equally) excellent bottle conditioned 1845 - but the presentation is actually for Draught 1845!

A fine buffet lunch was then served and then we were taken on a guided tour of the brewery by another John, who, although now retired, except for doing tours, had worked at the brewery for many years and had many tales to tell, all of them unrepeatable on this site! It was at this point that we thought perhaps we should have been slightly more reticent when accepting pints of beer - negotiating all the stairs in the brewery is not so easy after a couple of jars!

Then back to the Hock Cellar for more beer! All in all, an excellent visit, many thanks to John Keeling, Simon Robertson-Mcleoud and Fullers Brewery for everything

As we had been sampling Fullers beers courtesy of Fullers, we thought it only right to sample them at our expense in a nearby pub, so we adjourned to the "Dove", an ancient pub beside the Thames a short walk towards Hammersmith from the brewery. After this, we staggered back to Croydon via Victoria, well pleased with the day's activities.

Presentation to Dark Star for 'Hophead'

At our 9th Croydon & Sutton Real Ale Festival last October Darkstar Hophead was elected joint "Beer of the Festival" by the festival drinkers (see above for the ohter joint winner!).

On Saturday April 5th , a party of Croydon & Sutton CAMRA members and friends drove down to Darkstar Brewery at Ansty in a minibus (driven by our long suffering driver Andy Harrison) to sample the wares of the brewery and to present the certificate.
It was a glorious day and a good time was had by all!

The brewery is in an old dairy on the Moon Hill estate. The buildings were converted by the estate into a purpose designed brewery as they wanted to keep the building in industrial usage and a fine job they have made of it. We were welcomed by Rob Jones, the owner who has been around in the brewing trade for many years. Some of you may remember the old Pitfield Brewery in Hoxton, run by Rob and his partner (who has now resurrected the name, and brews at the Beer Shop in Pitfield Street, not far from the original brewery). Latterly, Rob was involved with Pete Skinner at the Evening Star in Surrey Street, Brighton, brewing Skinners and Dark Star ales on a tiny brewery in the basement of the pub. When Pete left to do his own thing, Rob took the opportunity to expand at Ansty and the basement brewery is no more, although Dark Star still owns the Evening Star as it's brewery tap. Following sampling of the beer which won the award - Hophead the presentation was made to Rob by the festival organiser, Steve Collins, who congratualted Rob on winning two years running and thanked him for looking after us so well, including laying on such lovely weather! After further imbibing, Rob Jones accompanied us to the 'Linden Tree' in Lindfield, where an excellent buffet was laid on, courtesy of the brewery and some more Dark Star ales and other guest beers where sampled. Click on the photos to see them full size.

Steve Collins presents the award The Croydon & Sutton CAMRA members enjoying the beer and the sunshine outside the brewery The Linden Tree in Lindfield