St George's Day Focus: Think of England
Hunting Dragons is thirsty work, as regulars at the Reformation in Gallowstree, Oxfordshire, will tell you.
On April 23, the pub gets right into the spirit of St George's Day with a dragon hunt on tractors. Locals in fancy dress ride around the countryside in trailers attached to vintage tractors, chasing a green man on a bike. Publican Allan Quelch explains: "There's a local guy that's a cycling fanatic and he dresses up in green lycra and we chase him - he's the green dragon."
After all the excitement, the hungry dragon-slayers head back to the pub for refreshments. Last year revellers celebrated at the pub with a spit roast. This year a barbecue will feature sausages, chicken breast and steak baguettes from a local butcher, priced between £3 and £4.50. The fancy dress theme for the tenanted pub - tied to the Brakspear Pub Company - this year is shields and armour. Last year's event doubled takings, attracted more than 100 people and raised more than £100 for the local parish pavilion appeal.
Of course, you don't need a tractor or a green lycra outfit to make a big deal out of St George's Day. Wells & Young's Brewing Company is also looking forward to celebrating England's patron saint, as it promotes Bombardier as the 'drink of England'.
The brewer says it has launched its biggest ad campaign so far in the run-up to the big day. It is providing pubs with St George's Day kits including bunting, pump clip wobblers, balloons, tent cards and competitions to win VIP trips to the Great British Beer Festival.
Wells & Young's spokeswoman Jo Dring says: "Pubs really need to take hold of St George's Day - it gives people a reason to visit the pub.
"You can do anything from a traditional English banquet to an English-themed quiz night."
The company has also booked more than 5,000 poster sites across the country to run an ad featuring Bombardier as the centre of a coat of arms, surrounded by English icons such as Queen Victoria, Les Dawson, pork pies, the Red Arrows and the white cliffs of Dover.
Dring adds: "It's a great opportunity for pubs that haven't stocked cask ale before to do so - this is obviously a very English thing." Wells & Young's has launched a new, slightly taller, font for Bombardier, which it says has increased sales by 17 per cent because it stands out more.
Meanwhile, Town & City Pub Company said demand for Bombardier was strong last year and it is including the beer in its headline price promotion along with Bulmers, Gordon's and Pimm's. Most sites will be offering Bombardier for 99p; Bulmers Original and Pear for £1.99, a single Gordon's and mixer for £1.29 and a pitcher of Pimm's for £4.95. The pub chain's food offering has also been given a twist, with fish and chips served on St George's cross paper and bangers and mash served in a giant Yorkshire pudding. The dishes cost between £3.95 and £4.45.
Family-run brewery Wadworth got in on the action early with the March launch of its St George & the Dragon ale in cask and bottles. It plans to keep the ale available through June so that football fans can enjoy it during the World Cup. Wadworth describes the beer as full-bodied and robust and says it is a "perfect" accompaniment to lamb and other red meats due to its hints of orange and blackcurrant.
Greene King Brewing Company is offering drinkers the chance to sup Abbot Ale out of a limited-edition stainless steel tankard - although they need to buy six pints of the beer to take up the offer. Point-of-sale material highlighting the deal will be available.
London pub chain and brewery Fuller, Smith & Turner is taking a charitable approach to the theme of national heroes. It plans to donate 25p per pint of London Pride sold in its managed estate to Help for Heroes, which helps wounded members of the armed forces. Last year the chain raised more than £3,000 and this year it hopes to raise even more.
Pickled eggs, cockles and jellied eels will be on the bar for visitors to Young's pub the Nightingale in Balham, South London, this St George's Day. Young's bitter and Bombardier will be on offer at £2 a pint all day and the managed pub will be showing the 1966 World Cup final. The menu will feature English food such as homemade pies and staff will don silly hats. And manager Lee De Villiers says the intention is to have a bigger celebration than they have on St Patrick's Day.
Picnics and the English obsession with the weather is the theme Geronimo Inns has chosen to play on for St George's Day. The pub chain will offer visitors a plate of picnic food featuring ham, pork pies, quiches, English garden salad, homemade chutneys, mustards and a pudding, all for a tenner. Those in the company's loyalty club will be charged only £8.
Commercial director Ed Turner says: "Hopefully people will be able to sit outside - it's only British people who will sit outside and have a picnic in all types of weather." He adds that the picnic idea "showcases fresh food" and the pub chain's
confidence in serving this fare. Quizzes on all things English will feature and all proceeds from sales of homemade lemonade will go to Action Against Hunger.
The pubs will be decked with "proper" bunting made from material, not plastic, adds Turner. Bunches of carnations and fairy cakes, on the picnic menu, will also be used as decoration. Geronimo pubs also plan to run a three-thirds promotion, where customers can choose a third of a pint of three different beers for £1 per third. The range of beers to be included in the promotion has yet to be finalised.
Meanwhile, the Market Inn in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, is planning a "right royal cockney knees-up" to celebrate St George's Day - as well as reminding landlady Nicola Harvey of her roots, as she was born in London's Bow. She and landlord Paul Harvey will be dressing up as a Pearly King and Queen and manager Blake Powell will dress up as one half of Chas and Dave. A piano player has been booked to play cockney chestnuts such as My Old Man's a Dustman at the Enterprise Inns-owned pub. Having a London theme for St George's Day isn't that eccentric says Powell as, "the area we are in there's a lot of people from the London overspill".
St George's Day tips from Bombardier
• Have an England theme day: for example, host an English fancy dress competition or feature English food - whether it's free snacks or a medieval banquet.
• Hold an event unique to England - morris dancing, cheese rolling or pram racing.
• Serve traditional English dishes such as sausage and mash or roast beef and Yorkshire puddings.
• Offer your customers red roses to wear - you could sell them and raise money for charity.
• Hold a beer festival and celebrate English cask beer.
• Dance your socks off to English music - anything from Land of Hope and Glory or the Beatles to the Spice Girls.
• Relive England's greatest sporting events, for example the 1966 World Cup.
• Decorate your pub with St George's Day kits or get creative with bunting, flags, red and white table linen, posters and streamers.
• Find out about the Champion of England at www.championofengland.co.uk
