Beer Festival sets new records!

Posted on July 10, 2008

Again, at the 5th Eaton Bray Beer Festival we saw record numbers turn up over Friday 6th and Saturday 7th June.

As usual, when we met on the Tuesday before the event the weather forecast was horrible. Have we got too many burgers, potatoes, beers, ciders, perry? And I, the panicking old GI, was the most worried of all, but wait, on Friday it got worse, poor Norman dropped something on his shin and had to excuse himself to go to the A & E for a bit of bandaging. Luckily apart from having to miss the event he is now fine. So we all juggled our duties and got going.

Saturday it looked dull until about 1pm when the sun came out as did a lot of people, families, serious beer drinkers and a lot of keen amateurs, Fancy trying to drink all 17 ales on offer!

When we dragged ourselves away at midnight on Saturday, 464 people had passed through the door and drunk all the beer, cider and perry, which our gallant CAMRA friends had supplied for the event, Over 280 burgers had disappeared into people's mouths, along with 125 sausages and numerous baked potatoes (they never count theirs precisely like us BBQ'ers).

A special thanks to Neil Hines who gallantly gave up half an hours drinking time to help us get some more burgers from their shop. A life saver to some hungry drinkers!

The exact result will not be known for a few days, but will exceed last years £3,400. This will be going to Phase 3 which starts on August 4th so we will soon have a new kitchen (can we get a permanent BBQ in there Mr. Chairman?) a disabled toilet and a lovely meeting room. Where will we put the rubbish next year?

Having cleared the hall out on Sunday morning I spent a very pleasant hour on Sunday afternoon helping my neighbour by sitting on the gate at the Open Gardens event. I enjoyed all the praise about "my" beautiful garden. It was very difficult to admit that I was only the neighbour and had nothing to do with its beauty except to always feel guilty when they are lovingly tending their garden whilst I sit and read a book next door.

We are not stopping with Phase 3 as there is still plenty to do at the Hall, Our next event is the Quiz, Saturday 11th October, jointly with Tennis Club. We then get together again on November the 22nd for a spectacular Race Night. This should be a nice change.

We also run a 200 Club. This involves a max of 200 people paying £2 each month and every month there is a first prize of £100 followed by 4 prices of £25 each. That is a 1:40 chance of winning. A lot better than the lottery. Do give it a go. Contact me, Ross.

Source: Focus, July 2008