Cricketers Arms named St Helens and Districts Pub of the Year 2025

PRESS RELEASE

21 March 2025

 

The Cricketers Arms named St Helens and Districts CAMRA Pub of the Year

Beer EnGin retains Cider Pub of the Year and Haydock Reading Room retains Club of the Year.

 

The Cricketers Arms has been named Pub of the Year 2025 by St Helens and Districts Campaign for Real Ale.

The pub, who won the National competition in 2017, beat off very stiff competition from across the branch in another closely fought contest, to be voted the best pub for real ale by local CAMRA members.  

The Cricketers Arms was one of eight establishments across the branch to be shortlisted for Pub of the Year – narrowly beating The Lamb Inn, who was awarded second place, and last year’s winners The Turks Head who came in third.

Landlord Andy Evans said:

“I’m ecstatic that we won this so thanks to everyone who voted. We’ve put a lot of hard graft into making some changes to the pub over the last year like renovating our toilets, having a full-time pizza menu in the pub – but more importantly, we are the only pub in the branch with our own on-site micro-brewery and that has gone from strength to strength.

“It was wonderful to win the national competition 8 years ago and I hope we can get there again this year.”

The other pubs in the shortlist, who will receive a Pub of Excellence award, were The Beer EnGin (Whiston), The Firkin, The Kirkfield (both Newton le Willows), The Star Inn (Rainford) and the Watch Maker (Prescot).

The Cricketers Arms are the only pub in our branch to have ever won the National Pub of the Year competition and they hope to hit those dizzy heights again this time round.

Ian Pye, Pubs Officer for St Helens and District CAMRA said:

“Huge congratulations to The Cricketers Arms. They really pulled out all the stops this year and are worthy winners. A special mention also goes to The Lamb Inn who came second and The Turks Head in third. All eight shortlisted pubs fully deserved their place in the competition.

“The shortlist is determined by those pubs who have had their drinkers scoring the beer on the CAMRA website throughout the year. The eight pubs with the highest, most consistent scores get shortlisted for the Pub of the Year competition.

“People often assume it’s a small group of people that make the decision in these competitions, but every one of our 800 members has the opportunity to participate at each stage of the branch awards and vote for the Pub of the Year. I’m proud of all the pubs that were in the competition.”

In the other competitions which run alongside the Pub of the Year contest, the Beer EnGin has retained the Cider Pub of the Year accolade. They narrowly beat the Turks Head, Cricketers Arms, Skew Bridge Alehouse and The Firkin who were all shortlisted as pubs that regularly sell real cider, this is cider that is made from pure unconcentrated freshly pressed fruit juice with no other sugars or artificial additives, meaning good quality real cider is 90% apple juice.

In the UK for something to be sold as a ‘cider’ it only has to be 35% apple juice meaning the majority of the drink can be a mixture of over 40 different ingredients including aromas, vinegars, E numbers, and other processed carbohydrates or sugars, salts, and various gases.  

Haydock Reading Room retained their crown as Club of the Year for the third year in a row. They made it to the final 4 in the national competition last year so fingers crossed they can go all the way this year. The club went up against former winners Prescot Reform Club, Rainford Labour Club, Rainhill Recreation Club and West Park Rugby Club who will all receive a Club of Excellence award for making the shortlist.  

Clubs play an important part in their communities in bringing people together, and the range of clubs in our competition show the different ways they do this. At a time when more clubs are struggling it’s great to see real ale sales growing within these clubs and membership increasing.  

The Cricketers Arms, Beer EnGin and Haydock Reading Room will all go forward to the Merseyside Pub of the Year, Cider Pub of the Year and Club of the Year competitions respectively where they will be up against the winners from Liverpool and Districts CAMRA, Southport and West Lancs CAMRA and Wirral CAMRA. 

 

ENDS

Additional info:

• Real Cider should be cider that is made from pure unconcentrated freshly pressed fruit juice with no other sugars or artificial additives, meaning good quality cider is 90% fruit juice.
• Some of the popular mainstream ciders are made from as little as 35% fruit juice (which can be from a concentrate not too dissimilar to cordial) with the rest being water, sugar syrup and other additives to make it taste and smell like fruit.
• Pub of the Year, Cider Pub of the Year and Club of the Year are annual accolades awarded by the Campaign for Real Ale to the best real ale pub, real cider pub and real ale club in the district and is voted for by CAMRA members who are asked to visit each pub on the shortlist and score it out of 10 for eight areas – Quality of ale/cider; Promotion/Knowledge of real ale; Cleanliness & Staff Hygiene; Décor/Style & furnishing; Service/welcome/offering; Community focus and atmosphere; Sympathy with CAMRA’s Aims and Overall impression & value.

 

Notes to Editor:

• St Helens and Districts CAMRA comes under Merseyside and Cheshire region and currently has over 700 members. It is a not-for-profit organisation made up of volunteers who campaign for quality real ale, cider and perry in thriving pubs across St Helens and surrounding areas and advocates pubs and clubs as social centres in the local community and promotes the benefits of responsible social drinking.

 

• Branch meetings usually take place on the 4th Wednesday of the month. The meetings are informal and fairly short and are a great way to have a general catch up with local brewery, pub, and social news – always held at local pubs that serve real ale.