The Stag’s Head, Westbourne is having a beer festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend (that’s Aug 28–30 if you don’t have your diary handy) with up to 25 different beers and ciders. There’ll also be a hog roast, live music in the evenings, and a tug of war competition during the day, as well as limited over cricket and other activities.

Camping will also be available: handy since the nearest station is a fair walk away!

Contact Fred Gordon on 01243 372393 for more details.

The White Swan in Bosham closed earlier this year, but the locals aren’t taking it lying down: they have formed a campaign to buy the pub and run it as a community-owned facility. The meeting held last week was well-attended (and started half an hour earlier than the local paper said, so we missed most of it, alas) and showed strong support for the plan.

Details of the campaign to save the White Swan, Bosham are available at the Bosham Community website.

(The White Swan is a former branch pub of the year: another local example of a community-owned pub is the current branch pub of the year, the Duke of Cumberland Arms, Henley.)

The Olive Branch (formerly the Black Dog) in Yapton has been closed for a few months now, with occasional signs of work taking place. It has now opened again (on May 15, just in time for the Yapton Beerex!)

We’ve not had any reports so far (plenty of us in the area last weekend, but we were a tad busy) though it’s believed to be selling Greene King beers. (Update: last Sunday, the beer range was Greene King IPA, Fuller’s London Pride, and Courage Best, though the Best was turned around at the time.)

Down the road, the Shoulder Of Mutton And Cucumbers has an “under offer” sign outside. Whether the offer involves it staying as a pub is unknown…

The branch’s Pub of the Year is the Duke of Cumberland Arms in Henley.

This country pub has an unspoilt interior, beers (including Langham Hip Hop and Harveys Best) served on gravity, and some original gas lights. The large rolling gardens feature trout pools, and there’s a real log fire in the smoking area!

The food’s pretty good, too: the cod and chips was the approximate size of a whale…

This got to us a bit too late for the Sussex Drinker, but there’s a beer festival coming up at the Eastgate, Chichester. It’s on June 20–22, with 10 beers on stillage (plus the usual Fuller’s/Gale’s range on the bar) and a hog roast on Saturday.

Looks like we have an Internet campaign underway: to get Alistair Darling barred from every pub in Britain.

You can download the poster for the window of your local, and there’s a Facebook group, too — 143 members at the current count.

The only Sussex pubs I’ve spotted on the list so far are all in Lewes (including the Gardener’s Arms) but I’m sure we in Western Sussex can increase the total.

(Could we bar him from all the petrol stations while we’re at it, too?)

The Seal, Selsey, is Western Sussex CAMRA’s Pub of the Year for 2008.

A large, friendly pub offering a good range of beers, often including Dark Star, the Seal is a breath of fresh air on the Selsey scene and a worthy winner. Congratulations!

After spending most of the evening counting 2p coins, we now know the final total from the charity pile at the Maypole, Yapton:

A grand total of £3101.25 and a shilling was raised for St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

(Plus assorted foreign currency, including 3 Trinidad & Tobago Dollars. Oo, paper money! Turns out it’s worth about 23p, so probably not worth troubling Intercash over…)

Alan and Kate are leaving the Maypole, Yapton on Sunday November 4, after several award-winning years (including CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year 2004).

No official word yet on where they’re going, but hopefully they won’t be defecting to a neighbouring branch :)

If you like loud clattering noises, Alan will be pushing the charity 2p pile over on Friday night.