An Oxford cocktail bar can claim to be one of the UK's mixing masters after winning a hat-trick of industry awards.

Raoul's, in Walton Street, Jericho, was named Best Neighbourhood Bar in the UK Bar Awards and boasts a world champion cocktail maker. The Best Neighbourhood Bar award recognises bars outside city centres which serve predominantly residential areas.

In September, bar manager Tim Fitzgibbon, pictured, was crowned cocktail king of the world when he represented the United Kingdom at the World Cocktail Championships, in New Zealand.

And his shaking and stirring skills were acknowledged closer to home last week when he was selected as one of the country's top 10 bartenders to go on a week-long cocktail trip to Kentucky, in the USA.

The trip culminated with a competition between the 10 cocktail makers, but unfortunately the Oxford contender was unable to repeat his New Zealand win with his Thoroughbred Punch, made with Woodford Reserve bourbon whisky, apple juice and cloves.

Raoul's owner Matthew Davies said: "It's a build-up of at least five years' hard work. It takes a long time to be recognised outside London. The judges all said our win was down to our service, the quality of the ingredients and the variety of drinks we produce.

"It's fantastic to win and a really good reflection on the staff, who are dedicated and have real expertise."

Mr Fitzgibbon, 25, won first prize at the world cocktail mixing championships with a hot cocktail called Friar Briar's Posset Sack, which includes cinamon and vodka and is heated with a red-hot poker.

He said: "It has been a really good year, absolutely fantastic for me and the bar. With going away to first New Zealand and then America, all the guys at work are saying it's about time I knuckle down and do some work, but for the previous four years I only took five days off a year, so I think it's fair enough."

Mr Fitzgibbon's world championship-winning cocktail will be available at a special 1980s evening at Raoul's on New Year's Eve.