A Telford pub has narrowly missed out on a national award after being named as the Best Cask Beer Pub in the East and West Midlands in the Great British Pub Awards.

Yesterday John Ellis, the licensee of the Crown Inn, Oakengates, travelled to London for the ceremony at the London Hilton.

Mr Ellis said it was not the first time they had been successful. They were selected as the East and West Midlands free house of the year last year at the Morning Advertiser awards.

And the Market Street pub had been a runner-up for the guest ale pub of the year three times before.

At present the pub has 14 handpull ales. Between October 2 and 6 it will host a beer festival when there will be 34 beers available to try.

Morning Advertiser editor, Andrew Pring, said: “The winners of our awards really do deserve to be called heroes and heroines – they run wonderful pubs to the highest standards, keeping their customers happy and cementing together so many communities across the country.”