Pub Of The Year (POTY) Trip Novices (May 08)

Last summer my wife and I met a local Sussex Branch member at the Red Lion, Willingdon Beer Festival who suggested, as we were CAMRA members, that we attend the next South East Sussex Branch meeting. We were made to feel very welcome and were encouraged to share our views on all matters discussed. We have since attended as many meetings as possible, including the AGM at the White Rock Hotel, Hastings where the manager was presented with our Branch POTY award. We were delighted to be invited on the POTY mini-bus trip in May and so it was that on a very wet Saturday morning we were waiting for the mini-bus to pick us up at Eastbourne still not knowing which pubs we were going to visit. Being a wet Saturday – it didn’t really matter!

Ali’s mini-bus arrived dead on time at 10.15 having already picked up the Hastings contingent at St.Leonards where they apparently managed to find a breakfast. After one more pick-up at Polegate we headed north east to the North Sussex Branch POTY, the Royal Oak at Friday Street. This is a beautiful pub where we were served by two very helpful ladies. I enjoyed the Surrey Hills Ranmore Ale which I had not tried before. After a couple of quick pints (the Eastbourne party hadn’t had breakfast) we were back in the mini-bus and heading for the Arun & Adur Branch POTY, the FiveBells at West Chiltington. Lunch was taken here which I washed down with a very good Palmer’s Copper Ale. As we were finishing lunch, another mini-bus arrived which turned out to be the North Sussex Branch accompanied by Roy Bray, our CAMRA Regional Director and Chris Stringer the Sussex Area Organiser, making a similar tour to ours.

Back in the mini-bus and we headed south east towards the Western Sussex Branch POTY, the Seal at Selsey. Having reached the A27 the rain must have got into the ‘Satnav’ as it quite blatantly refused to take us to Selsey. With signposts showing left for Selsey the femail ‘Satnav’ voice insisted we turn right! Even when Ali eventually ignored the ‘Satnav’ and we could see the pub ahead it still insisted we ‘turn round when possible’. Our late arrival meant that our Branch Chairman, Peter Page-Mitchell, insisted we only had time for one here. We entered to cheers from inside the pub. Was this a welcome for us…..no, it was FA Cup Final day and Portsmouth were winning! I managed to get a pint of my favourite Dark Star Hophead, so I was happy.

All too soon we were back in the mini-bus again and heading to our last pub, the Brighton POTY, the Stanley Arms at Portslade. By now Portsmouth had won the cup so there was really only one beer to try ...Irving Pompey Glory. A very helpful local lady, and her husband recommended Sharp’s Eden, their favourite, which was also very tasty but they began to panic when everyone started ordering the same.

Back in the mini-bus and heading home we made our final entries on our pub scoresheets, which were completed after each pub visited and then submitted to our secretary Peter Adams who, with great joy handed some back to people to fill-in the blanks. By this time we had all forgotten who ordered the ‘I can’t believe it’s not Bitter’ lager by mistake! We persuaded Ali to drop the Eastbourne party at the Hurst Arms where we had a swift one or two while the landlord told us which beers he had ordered for his Bank Holiday Beer Festival…..but that’s another story.

An excellent day with good selections of beers in all the pubs and great company. My wife and I would recommend all CAMRA members to become involved with their Branch activities.

Paul Bangs