Photo by Jonas Ruehaak

The CAMRA (Campaign For Real Ale) Tyneside club of the year, Newcastle Cricket Club, has celebrated another successful Real Ale and Cider festival which ran from Thursday October 16th to Monday October 20th.

After the first two days of the event, the festival had already attracted 420 people, with 1,000 people expected through the door over the five days.

Attendees were offered 20 different types of ales and 16 different kinds of ciders from local breweries around the UK.

“We’ve hosted this festival since 2008,” said Peter Woodley, the chairman of bar committee. “We improve things by learning from our mistakes from previous years. We become more successful just because it gets better every year, bigger and better. More people are coming so we must be doing something right.”

Apart from ales and ciders, this festival also offered refreshments for the first time this year, provided by the Northumberland Sausage Company. “We hope that makes the whole experience better for the people who come,” said Woodley. “They don’t have to go somewhere else to get something to eat. They can just stay here to enjoy some food.”

This year the cricket club celebrated the life of a recently deceased member: Kirby Mains, a lifelong member and a big supporter of the club, who launched the very first festival.

“We lost Kirby earlier this year,” said Woodley. “Kirby was a very nice gentleman whose entire life was passion with sports. We are remembering him. He was just a dramatic character who was well known around the whole north east.”

Joseph Ellis, a first-time festival attendee, was one of the thousand expected to join the festival. He said:“I came to this festival to get good quality beer locally. It’s fantastic to have this opportunity to come here today to see my friends and try different beers from different parts of the country. It’s the first time I have been here. I hope that more people will join us as the afternoon goes on.”