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Pub Guide

Victoria - Huntingdon

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Pub of the Year 2008

In 2008, the Huntingdonshire Branch of CAMRA once again selected the Chequers, Little Gransden to be awarded Pub of the Year 2008, fourth year in a row that the Chequers won the award. The Chequers was subsequently judged Cambridgeshire Pub of the Year, and therefore was entered into the judging for the East Anglia Regional Pub of the Year. In early September the judges announced their decision regarding CAMRA’s East Anglia Pub of the Year - the best pub in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk … and the judge’s decision was … the Chequers at Little Gransden!

A presentation was made on the opening night of the St Ives beer festival to a surprised and very happy Bob and Wendy Mitchell, owners and licensees of the Chequers.

CAMRA gives this annual award to the pub that it judges to provide the widest appeal for its combination of good beer, atmosphere, style, service and value.

Bob and Wendy Mitchell have owned and run the Chequers, Little Gransden for 15 years and the pub has been in the Mitchell family since 1950.

Bob has a passion for real ale. Check out all the beer festival glasses - a sign of a true enthusiast. On special occasions as many as 6 real ales are available.

Bob also has a passion for good food. Friday night is fish night at the Chequers, and Bob organises an annual home made food competitions which he, numerous pub regulars and CAMRA visitors take part in.

The cosy public bar with its plain wooden seating and open fire is an unaltered gem and there is a choice of two other rooms. There is always a warm welcome at this family run pub, from Bob and Wendy and the village regulars.

The Chequers truly is a community pub, and the heart and soul of this Cambridgeshire village. Many of the regulars are country people who work in agriculture.

The Chequers is also very much a family business. As well as Bob and Wendy, their son’s Andy and David are both involved in running the pub. Bob hopes that he will one day pass this pub onto the next generation.

Bob opened a brewery at the Chequers in November 2007, the first operating brewery within the branch area since James Paine closed in the 1990's.

Since then a steady stream of distinctive beers of a wide variety of styles have appeared, as the collection of pump clips below attests. Bob freely admits that he is still experimenting, and he has yet to arrive at a series of regular brews, all beers brewed to date being “one offs”.