Pub crawl team Black Country Ale Tairsters aim for 300,000 miles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35204022

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A team of devoted charity pub-crawlers are confident 2016 will see them smash the 300,000-mile barrier.

The West Bromwich-based Black Country Ale Tairsters have toured more than 18,000 ale houses across 32 years.

Co-founder Peter Hill, who has downed 43,000 pints along the way, said he believed the 300,000-mile mark (482,800km) was in reach.

He said: "We are planning visits to every pub in Nottinghamshire in aid of Nottingham Children's hospital."

The Tairsters - Black Country dialect for tasters - began visiting establishments listed on a map issued by Wolverhampton brewer Banks's in 1984.

Despite some members having to bed down in a graveyard for the night after their initial visit to a pub in Llanbadarn Fawr, Aberystwyth, the group went on to complete the 300-strong Banks's list over the next 10 months.

Mr Hill was among those who considered calling it a day before deciding to visit more than 1,000 pubs in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

"After Hereford and Worcester, we were going to finish up and my dad said: 'Shall we go and do something different? We could go around the coastline of Great Britain and visit every county in England, Scotland and Wales'," said Mr Hill.

"That took four years."

From 1991, the group - which began with more than a dozen regulars - moved its focus to 12 Midlands counties before embarking on a seven-year tour of every pub in Wales in 2006.

Mr Hill, a retired engineer whose father Joe died in 2014 after fulfilling his ambition of "conquering" Wales, keeps a close eye on the figures.

He said: "I record all the mileage we do and what we drink.

"I record every type of drink, whether it's lager, Guinness or the name of a real ale - everything is recorded and we celebrate everything."

Members of the group, including stalwarts John Drew, 52, and 71-year-old Malcolm Maynard, collect money for hospital charities during their travels by asking for donations from landlords.

Their tour of Wales raised about £11,000 and the men recently handed a cheque for more than £3,000 to the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.