Pub crawlers make it to 20,000th boozer

Midland members of the Black Country Ale Tairsters, who slept in a graveyard following their inaugural visit to a pub in Wales in 1984, arrived in a minibus to toast their latest milestone at the Knot and Plough in Stafford.

The group's co-founder Pete Hill was among those who considered calling time on the epic odyssey in 1985 after successfully ticking off hundreds of ale houses run by Wolverhampton-based Banks's.

But the friends decided to press on – darkening the door of more than 1,000 pubs in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire before embarking on a tour of Britain's coastline and then every bar in Wales.

As more than a dozen members of the group raised a glass to their 20,000th pub, Mr Hill celebrated with a well-deserved pint of Marston's 61 Deep pale ale.

The retired engineer, whose father Joe died in 2014 after fulfilling his ambition of "conquering" Wales, has knocked back 46,632 pints during the Tairsters' journey.

The 60 year old said: "Last May when we'd done 19,000 I took my lump sum out of my pension to get to 20,000 and I have spent the bloody lot.

"Today is a bit emotional to be honest because it was my dad's ambition to get to 20,000 and it would have been his birthday tomorrow."

Mr Hill, who has collected around £24,000 for charity from licensees around Britain by asking for a £1 donation at each pub, joked: "I am the Samuel Pepys of my day. On every pub crawl everything is documented – from the beers in the pub to the decor.

"Every detail is recorded."

The unofficial group leader regards an ability to drink a gallon of beer as a minimum requirement for membership and advises drinkers to make a will before joining up.

"You never know when you might go the way of Oliver Reed," he said. "He's the hero – though I try not to go over 1,500 pints a year.

"If I'm in danger of going over the annual limit I stop in for a couple of days.

"And I had to keep to my local for the past two weeks to make sure today was the 20,000th different pub."

The West Bromwich-based Tairsters moved its focus to 12 Midlands counties in 1991 before embarking on a seven-year tour of Wales back in 2006.

Several veterans of the group, including stalwarts John Drew, 53, and 72-year-old Malcolm Maynard, attended the event at the Knot and Plough, where they were given free beer.

A spokesman for Marston's, which runs the two-year-old pub, said: "Pete and his friends' journey is a brilliant achievement.

"The fact he's raised thousands for good causes while having a great time is a tribute to him and the Great British pub."