I’m no beer lout

Adrian Davies, licensee of the the Falstaff has hit back at another pub’s battle with Camra members and laughed off suggestions that members indulged in loutish behaviour there.

Geoffry Miller, licensee of the Hightown Hotel, had complained to the headquarters of the Campaign for Real Ale about a group of members disrupting a quiz night, one of whom was Adrian Davies of The Falstaff on King Street.

However, Mr Davies has since give a different version of events, saying only one member of the real ale organisation was with the group – a Welshman well known to local Camra members – and that this person had “conducted himself as a professional and a true Camra member”.

He added that the group had not behaved in loutish way but had merely been high-spirited.

Mr Davies said that he was part of a group of six people, including staff members from his pub, who visited the pub after a training day in Liverpool.

“We visited six or seven different bars to see how they operate and taste the beers,” said Mr Davies. “We stopped for a pleasant pint at the Hightown between trains. It was a lovely end to our evening.

“Our visit to the pub involved quiet conversation, a good pint and a game of pool. It was a  complete shock to see the claims of Mr  Miller.

Currently fronting his own campaign for “real chips”, which has been  backed by Coronation Street star Liz Dawn and many others, Mr Davies rejected the suggestion that his group had disrupted the weekly quiz with “obnoxious” behaviour.

Insisting that Mr Miller had not expressed any bad feeling towards the group during their visit to the pub, Mr Davies added: “Having been in the trade for over 15 years I am experienced enough to know that when someone is behaving in a loutish way I should approach them, and that some things should just be put down to a bit of pub banter.”

No doubt the Southport Drinker will be hearing from Mr Miller again soon. Come up, chaps. It’s a storm in a beer glass.