Lager confession of Croydon's real ale pub champ Ray Snadden

By aline nassif aline.nassif@essnmedia.co.uk

Aline Nassif  

aline.nassif@essnmedia.co.uk

A LANDLORD who has just seen his pub named the best in Croydon for real ale has confessed "I'm a lager drinker".

Despite his personal preference, Ray Snadden is delighted to see The Cricketers, in Shirley, named CAMRA's (Campaign for Real Ale) Croydon pub of the year.

The 51-year-old publican bought the pub in Shirley Road with his wife Teresa in 2004, and won the same award in 2007.

"It's always nice to win something in recognition of what you do," he said.

"This pub concentrates on what it does well, which is bringing in a wide selection of real ales and getting ideas from customers on what they want to taste.

"This is a traditional pub, there's nothing swanky or modern about it – I even got rid of the juke box."

Ray serves up six real ales at a time – five of which change on a weekly basis.

Many of these are sourced from exclusive micro-breweries around Britain. But there is a certain irony about winning the prize, as Ray admitted: "The funny thing is I'm a lager drinker."

That has not stopped Ray serving more than 300 different real ales in the last four years.

"When I first bought the pub, the only real ale that was served was Courage Best, which wasn't very popular," he said.

"So I replaced it with Harveys, and more people started drinking it.

"I then got another pump and it just built up from there. Now we have enough pumps for six real ales at a time and the customers appreciate the choice."

Regular Roy Jarrett, 62, said: "I've been going to this pub for 40 years and until Ray showed up we only ever had ordinary bitters. I love the choice of the real ales. The CAMRA award is well deserved – he's really made the pub stand out."