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Two of the town’s pubs have just finished first and second in Nottinghamshire CAMRA’s cider pub of the year awards, with Byron’s Rest on Baker Street taking the overall top spot and The Beer Shack on Derbyshire Lane finishing runner-up for the second year running.

Heather Stretton, Nottingham Campaign for Real Ale cider officer, said: “The standard of the competition was extremely high, with many good cider pubs nominated.

“Congratulations to all of these pubs for helping to promote real cider and perry so successfully, and particularly to the Byron’s Rest as our winner.

Richard Darrington, landlord of the Byron's Rest, and Mark Francis-Parry (inset), landlord of The Beer Shack, have both seen their pubs win Nottingham CAMRA cider awards

“I’m delighted that we have so many good cider pubs in our branch area.”

Winning the award carries on the success for Byron’s Rest after it finished runner-up in the urban/city category at the Nottingham CAMRA pub of the year awards last year.

It is also the only Hucknall entry again in this year’s CAMRA Good Beer Guide.

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Richard Darrington, landlord, said: “It’s fantastic, a great achievement, we set out to get somewhere near it, didn’t expect to get it, but it’s fantastic we have.

“There are a lot of traditional cider drinkers out there and we want to attract a wider audience, so we’ve got a range available, not all from Nottingham, we do we go a little further afield too like Somerset and Herefordshire.

“I think drinkers here do like to keep local to keep traditional cider-making techniques going and we want to support them.

“It’s great for the pub too, we are a friendly hub, we don’t want drunkards or idiots in here, we’ve got a nice atmosphere and people like that.

“I’m really pleased for The Beer Shack, it’s a fantastic achievement for the town and for both our pubs to have won these awards.”

Mark Francis-Parry, landlord at The Beer Shack, shared that sentiment, saying it was “fantastic for Hucknall”.

On his pub’s achievement of finishing runner-up for the second year in a row, he said: “It’s nice to get to standard and attain that standard.

"We’ve got about 20 ciders on at the moment and we’ve got a good friendly atmosphere in the pub that people really like and CAMRA like what we do too.”

Hucknall is officially the best place in Nottinghamshire for real cider lovers