Hucknall real ale stalwart awarded golden honour for 50 years of service to CAMRA

Andrew Ludlow has been presented with a golden award for decades of service with the Nottingham branch of CAMRA which has seen him take on various roles over more than 30 years, including being branch chairman and secretary – the latter post he still holds today.

A volunteer each year at the Nottingham Beer and Cider Festival, Andrew has also been responsible for several innovations and schemes down the years, including the Hucknall beer festival.

He joked: “I think this is an award for longevity for someone like me who has been around for a long time and is still relatively active.

"When I first joined CAMRA back in the early 1970s, I went to pubs like everyone else and in those days there was so much keg beer around and no-one could tell you the difference between keg beer and real ale.

"But when you drank one, it was fizzy and very often cold and tasteless and then you’d have another one and it would be really rather impressive.

“And in all the pubs there was no real differential between the keg and the real one unless someone told you.

"So you’d have a pint in one pub and think ‘that was awful’ and then go to another pub and have what appeared to be the same beer and it would be brilliant.

"It was effectively a game of chance and so when CAMRA came along, it was an opening of the eyes moment and a chance to travel the country trying all the local breweries that were still going and realise that we have an incredible range of different types of beer in this country.

"And Hucknall is an absolutely great place to go and drink these days.

"When the tram first came to Hucknall, only a few years after I moved here, a lot people thought ‘great, an opportunity to get into Nottingham’.

"Now, it’s the other way round and Hucknall is the destination.”

And as the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, Andrew stressed that it was vital that people continued to support local pubs.

He said: “I know we’ve all had a tough time and it was great the Government had the furlough scheme.

"But many of the smaller outfits are family-run and they didn’t really get any advantage of the furlough and they really struggled.

"In the end, it’s the old adage – use it or lose it.”