I've been rummaging, getting stuff sorted for the walls of the new clubhouse. It seems strange to thinking that we're finally, after some wilderness years, going to have a home of our "own" again. for an old lag of the Club it means a great deal.
Most of the current membership won't have known old Park Avenue...it was a bit tatty round the edges, especially in latter years, but there was always a good atmosphere after the games. Part of that, for the men anyway, was the beer. The beer was legendary, always some good stalwarts and then some adventurous guest brews. Over the years I must have tasted hundreds of different ales, even before the era of craft beer and the renaissance of real ale.
The story of West Herts Sports Club and real ale (and CAMRA) is intertwined to a large degree, and culminated with the awarding to the Club, in 1988, of the CAMRA "Club Of The Year" trophy. I remember that the then licensee, Jack Carter, was extremely proud of it.
Jack was a hockey player, a goalkeeper, a Cornishman and a plain speaking man (to say the least) , a veteran of Bomber Command in WWII. Jack really did fly in Wellingtons.
In 1996 the Hockey Club was celebrating its 75th anniversary, and raising funds for the astroturf- which ultimately would take us away from Park Avenue- and for that we made a commemorative brochure. Jack wrote a piece for that about the history of the Club and its position as an oasis of "proper" beer in a desert of keg slops.
I transcribe here what Jack wrote back then as it seems appropriate as we approach a new era in the Club's history.
1947- In the old wooden pavilion we had Benskin's bitter and mild served from nine gallon barrels by tap at the rear of the bar.
1966- The new pavilion opened and we had beer called "Super Draught" (by Ind Coope), a cask-conditioned beer served with a blanket of gas- drinkable as the beer was naturally conditioned in normal barrels.
1973- Without consultation a new type of keg beer was introduced called "Special Bitter", in eleven gallon kegs. A highly gassed, pasteurised and homogenised beer.
It seemed to be a non-alcoholic drink and had no effect except win and acidity plus a peculiar taste of rusty tin cans. This started us all wondering what was happening to our beer. We decided to cease trading with Ind Coope as the brewers told us no other beer was available. We then tried Tartan, the bar you pass (we're talking 35 years ago here) all the pubs with it in; still not happy we then tried Charrington who promised Bass and Worthington's draught- we got "E" and Bass and Toby Keg, excuse being we had no hand pumps, We were still unhappy.
1974- We now had a steward who knew the Young's rep' Tony Crow; at this time real ale was practically unobtainable. He told us if we wished to sample Young's beer a tiny free house called The White Horse in Hertford kept it. The hockey club 2nd XI was playing there the next week so we paid it a visit. It was kept by an old lady, (and) was indeed tiny, but we had a grand evening with a sing-song on an old piano plus a complaint about the noise. We decided to try Young's at the club and had a barrel of "Special" at the hockey dinner. Imagine going from keg beer to Young's Special...the result was devastating; many wives had to be called to fetch the bodies...
We then decided to have Youngs, but the Bitter. They fitted a hand pump- the one pump sold more than the rest put together.
1975- A second hand pump was fitted for Young's Special. The problem was that despite all the hand pumps taken out of pubs, they were deliberately being destroyed, they were not obtainable, the last remaining supplier, Gaskell & Chambers were packing up.
Now, a new club member who was an original CAMRA member, John Handscombe, came to the rescue- he offered us two yellow pumps, we accepted and had them fitted. Now we had Fullers (London) Pride and ESB as they had decided not to go to keg beer. It was still very difficult to obtain real ale, the Only other ones available were Sam Smith's and Ruddles'. We now had a member- John Whittaker- who had seen the club in the (Good Beer) guide, he joined and became treasurer. He said he knew a publican who kept the Angel-on-theBridge at Henley-on-Thames and he would contact Brakspears.
After a visit by the head brewer who passed our cellar etc, we had Brakapsears, we also obtained and fitted a fifth handpump. The real ale sold here (Park Avenue) was an oasisi in a seas of keg.
1977- Still going strong, but very little keg beer sold.
1978- McMullens, after seeing success at the Farriers Arms (in St Albans), started real ale for the free trade. We now had three main suppliers- Youngs, Brakspears and McMullens.
1983- A change of steward- David Gahan ("Beardy Dave" as many will remember him) started work, with myself (JC) as part-time Administrator.
1985- Decided on a new policy having got all the pumps serviceable, that we would have three pumps for Youngs, Brakspears and McMullens plus two pumps for guest beers. It was now easier to obtain other beers as previous ideas that real did not "travel" were proved a fallacy. Agencies and small brewers were now supplying the free trade.
1987- David's efforts reached the grand total of 100 different guest beers. Club members gave him a season ticket for Watford FC plus cash in thanks for his efforts in keeping the beer in fine fettle, a job still of prime importance.
1988- Our efforts finally rewarded in getting the "Club of the Year" award, I think justly earned as "our" history is almost the history of CAMRA. Uniquely British Beer had been saved from extinction with the help of the Club.