"ALL hail the ale!" was the cry of landlord and locals when a Poulton pub won a prestigious award.

The Thatched House was given the Pub of the Season Award by the Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde branch of the Campaign for Real Ale at a special presentation on Monday (February 21). And the award ceremony signalled the start of what is a red letter week in the real ale calendar, with the Fleetwood beer festival at the Marine Hall starting today (February 24)).Thatched House landlords Brian and Valerie Ballentine, pictured here with their award, have been at the pub for eleven years and are delighted with the recognition the award brings.

The recipient of the award is decided by a ballot of CAMRA members who take into account not only the range of beers on offer, but how the landlord stores, promotes and presents his beers.

Real ale, or cask-conditioned beer, is said to be a "living" beer which is claimed to have more taste than the new, more chemically produced beers. Brian is a big fan of real ale and it has always been his ambition to expand the number of beers on offer.

"At the moment we have three guest beers available at any one time and we rotate them throughout the month," said Brian.

"When we first had the pub, and the bar was much smaller, it was always my ambition to expand the serving area and increase the choice of beers on offer to the public."

Brian also prides himself on having a very traditional pub with three open fires, no food, no children and no music - but plenty of conversation.

Alan Doggart is the editor of "Fylde Ale", CAMRA's quarterly news letter in the region and a regular at the Thatched.

Explaining CAMRA's role he said: "We're not all about telling people what they should and should not drink."

"We just feel that real ale has more flavour and life to it than most commercial beers and we want to keep the choice." Anyone is welcome to join CAMRA which meets regularly, with the AGM at the Bispham Hotel on April 19.

CAMRA will also have a stall at the 19th Annual Fleetwood Beer Festival which starts tonight (February 24) at 7pm in the Marine Hall at Fleetwood.

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