Bedfordshire
Pub of the Year (POTY)
CAMRA’s
Bedfordshire Pub of the Year 2011 is the Engineers
Arms in
Henlow.
After close competition between the three branch winners, the
Engineers Arms in Henlow has won its sixth Bedfordshire Pub
of the Year title. The other two branch winners were the
Bedford Arms in Souldrop (North Beds) and the English
Rose in Luton
(South Beds).
The Engineers Arms was re-launched in the early 1990s as a
free house serving mainly micro-brewery beers. Under owner
Kevin Machin, it soon became widely recognised as one of the
premier real ale pubs in Bedfordshire.
Ten regularly changing real ales are usually available, three
real ciders and perry. This is a drinker’s pub with no
regular food, but there are live bands, discos and games nights
almost every week. The pub’s winning formula is good
beer, a lively atmosphere and a friendly welcome, attracting
a good mix of customers.
It is great news for both the Engineers Arms and for Bedfordshire
that the pub has gone on to win
the East Anglia Pub of the Year title, against
competition from county winners in Cambridgeshire,
Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. This is the pub’s
second regional Pub of the Year title,
having also won the award in 2003. The Engineers Arms will
now compete with the best pubs from
other regions for CAMRA’s national Pub of the Year title,
to be declared early in 2012. We
congratulate Kevin and partner Claire and wish them every success. Latest:
Now one of the final four pubs in the competition!
The
Stagecoach M1 service from Bedford to Hitchin stops near the
pub. Even better,
there is a late bus back to
Bedford that calls down the road opposite the Crown at 10.49pm!
Breweries
A short list of Breweries in and around our
branch area.
This
list does not constitute any recommendation by CAMRA or it's
North Bedfordshire Branch of the listed Breweries or their products.
A
comprehensive list of pubs and breweries throughout
the country
can be found
in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide
2011
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
The
North Bedfordshire’s CAMRA Pub of the Year
2012
is the Cricketers Arms in Bedford 
CAMRA’s
North Bedfordshire Branch Pub of the Year 2012 is the
Cricketers Arms, Goldington Road, Bedford.
The Cricketers Arms, just outside the town centre near
the Bedford Blues ground,
has been a popular local for many years, especially
among rugby fans. Licensees
Paul Davis and Stephanie Law have also made the pub
a favourite watering hole for
real ale drinkers. It is a great example of how much
committed, hard-working
publicans can make of a modest pub, even a pub leased
from Punch Taverns, one
of the often criticised national pub chains.
The Cricketers opens only in the evening (from 5pm,
Sunday 7pm), except on Blues’ home
match days or for Six Nations matches, when the bar
is usually busy from 12
noon and games are featured on TV. This is a rugby
supporters’ pub, but what would
you expect of one run by a Welshman in exile? Food
is no longer served, but there is
always a good choice of real ales, which often include
beers from local
microbreweries.
The pub was one of the first in Bedford
to join CAMRA’s LocAle
scheme for promoting locally brewed beers.
This is the second time Paul and Stephanie have earned
CAMRA’s local Pub of the
Year title – the first was in 2007 – for
consistent attention to beer quality and for
running a popular, welcoming pub. The Cricketers is
also enjoying its seventh
successive appearance in CAMRA’s best-selling,
annual Good Beer Guide, a
distinction shared by only 50 Bedfordshire pubs each
year. But Pub of the Year is a
title awarded to only one pub each year, the one that
local CAMRA members think
deserves it most. You cannot buy CAMRA awards – they
are given only to the best
pubs and to the hard-working people who run them.
The Cricketers Arms will now compete with the winners
of similar awards in
CAMRA’s South and East Bedfordshire branches
for the title of Bedfordshire Pub of
the Year 2012. The county winner will then be up against
the best in the region to
become the top pub of East Anglia. Devvie wins Most Improved Pub 
Local CAMRA members have also awarded
a Most Improved Pub title to the
Devonshire Arms in Dudley Street, Bedford, a popular
community pub close to the
Embankment and Russell Park. Although the “Devvie” was
already among the
selected few listed in the Good Beer Guide when they
took over in 2010, partners
Martin Bartlett and Naomi Stanford have made big
improvements and have attracted
new customers from a wider area. Like the Cricketers
Arms, the Devvie does not
normally offer food, but there is always a choice
of Wells & Young’s and changing
guest beers served in top condition.
North Bedfordshire CAMRA will present framed certificates
to both pubs within the
next few weeks.
FIND
A PUB IN BEDFORDSHIRE The
BedsPubs website is a database of all Bedfordshire
pubs maintained by BedsPubs.org.uk. Open it here.
If you have any problems using this
database please contact webmaster@sbedscamra.org.uk
"LocAle" is
a scheme to encourage pubs to offer beers from local breweries.
North Beds CAMRA launched its own scheme at the last 2010 Bedford
Beer & Cider Festival and is now rolling it out to local pubs.
Read the full story here
|
|
