Pictured L-R, Hywel Roberts, Ancient Briton cellar manager, Ancient Briton landlord Gerald James and NPT CAMRA Sub-branch Chairman John Skinner.

July 21^st 2014 saw the regular bi-monthly meeting where the usual agenda items were discussed, on this occasion in quite an efficient and timely fashion, – it has to be said that it doesn’t always happen that way! There was a strong turnout of most of the usual suspects from the Swansea, Neath & Afan Valleys.

Probably uppermost in many of the attendees minds was that the event would also include the presentation of the Branch’s “Highly Commended” CAMRA Certificate in the 2014 Pub of the Year Competition, to the Ancient Briton landlord, Gerald James.

This was done at the end of the meeting where Chairman John Skinner commended the attributes of the Ancient Briton despite having missed out on the top spot in the competition this year. John used his speech to confirm that the judging for the Pub of the Year was this year done according to CAMRA’s six criteria of excellence and that 13 members participated in the survey of the shortlist of three pubs.

All attending agreed with John’s comment that to get the CAMRA ’Highly Commended’ Award was something many pubs would give their eye-teeth for. In accepting the award Gerald felt that he had to give his own thanks to his cellar manager Hywel Roberts without whom his pub would not have achieved its reputation for a fabulous range of excellent real ales and ciders.

By Colin Rees – Publicity Officer –Neath Port Talbot CAMRA Sub Branch