A pub in Wallingford is celebrating after winning beer and cider awards.
CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) runs a national competition to find the country's best pubs.
This starts with each CAMRA branch awarding its own Pub of the Year, and this year South Oxfordshire members have voted for their winning pub to be The Cross Keys in High Street.
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CAMRA's branch spokesman Graham Hards said: "All the pubs in the area are judged by CAMRA members against a range of factors - their atmosphere, welcome, inclusivity, community-focus, service, value for money and, of course most importantly, a great range of cask ales served in excellent condition, preferably some of which come from the great new local breweries that have sprung up in recent years.
"The Cross Keys scored very highly against all these criteria and strongly demonstrates what a great pub should be."
Landlord Dave Howse said: "We are very pleased to get these awards - we have now received four CAMRA awards in two years.
"We have a standard ale from XT brewery, three guest ales on rotation and five ciders.
"The Bunkfest festival started out here in 2002 in the pub car park."
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The Cross Keys was formerly a Brakspear pub, and was bought by the Thame-based pub company, Oak Taverns early in 2022 and reopened with Mr and Mrs Howse at the helm in May of that year.
Mr Hards added: "The pub has gone from strength to strength ever since, and is now extremely popular and serves a great range of ales, in consistently great condition.
"It is, quintessentially, a proper pub!
"Being Oak Taverns-owned, it is also a 'wet-led' pub, and doesn’t rely on providing a food service, although the regular visiting pop-up street food vendors are proving to be a more than welcome alternative.
"It is quite something that the Cross Keys is a marked counter to the all-pervading trend that pubs have to be fancy eateries to be successful.
"It is great to see that a welcoming, hospitable pub, where anyone can pop in for a decent pint and conversation, still has a place in today’s world."
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The CAMRA award was presented on occasion of the pub’s Easter Beer and Cider festival, where over a dozen or so different cask ales, from independent breweries from around the country, and across a range of styles from pale ales, to best bitters, English and New World IPAs, and coconut and imperial stouts were served.
The branch also presented an award for The Cross Keys to recognise it also provides a great selection of real ciders.
To CAMRA, real cider means ciders made from the whole juice (100%) of freshly-pressed apples or pears, and where natural sweetness is retained by the cider-making process - with no use of concentrated juice or adding artificial sweeteners or sugars.
The pub now goes forward into the regional phases of both competitions (where it is competing against the best of the 2,000 or so pubs in Oxfordshire, Berks and Bucks), which then leads to the national finals later in the year.
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Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here.
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