Retreat Support Camra's LocAle scheme Reading CAMRA launched LocAle in this area this month. We are proud to participate and showcase beers brewed within 25 miles of Reading, not only for the green credentials that low beer miles confer, or because local brewers put money and jobs into the local economy, but primarily because our local SIBA brewers produce beers of excellent quality.
Songwriters' Sunday December 14th 3 to 5pm All local singer-songwriters are invited to attend Further information from sarajanekim@yahoo.co.uk
November Sunday Jazz - has been arranged as a regular last Sunday in the month event. Sunday at 30th November will be the next one, starting slightly later at 3.30pm and will feature the Stuart Henderson Quintet with Stuart Henderson, Trumpet Andy Crowdy, bass ,Anatoliy Vyacheslavov, sax, Chris Nickolls, drums and Pete Billington keyboards
Sunday Jazz -Simon Price's Christmas Cracker. December 30th's event will feature Peter Billington on keyboards, Andy Crowdy on bass, Denny Ilet, guitar Stewart Henderson, trumpet Anatoliy Vyecheslavov, sax (tbc) and Simon Price, Drums
November Wine Talk Michael Pitt, gourmet and bon viveur of this parish has volunteered to do another of his interesting and informative wine talks. This will be on the wines of the Loire and will take place on Sunday 4th November at 7.30pm.
November Art Exhibition Photographs by Shane Gunning. Shane has worked as a photographer for many years, but these pictures reflect his recent interest in landscape photography. He is a very successful artist with an international clientele and has exhibited his work all over, and you can be sure to find him on the annual Whiteknights Studio trail in June. Anyone interested in buying Shane's work can contact him on 0118 9867981 or through his website www.shanegunning.co.uk
Peter Kirby Postcard Appeal An old personal friend, and long-time customer of this pub Peter suffered a severe stroke during the summer and while it is remarkable that he survived at all, he has a long road back and is unlikely to go the distance to full recovery. He has still to regain the use of his right hand side and is having difficulties with speech and reading. This is devastating for a proud, intelligent and independent man who loves the outdoors. He has been moved to a specialist stroke rehab unit at Evesham Hospital where the staff are caring and cheerful and he is receiving various therapies. Even with their work and the love and support of his wife, there will be times of boredom and unhappiness. The hospital comprises old MOD barrack hut style buildings which do not have much of a view of outdoors, which will not help. We thought we would ask people to send him a postcard, whether funny, scenic or whatever. Don't bother with a long message- just a few words "thinking of you" or similar. It will liven up his days and if you in your turn could go through your address lists and pass this message on, could result in him having a supply of postcards to cheer him up, since he will be there up to the end of November and possibly longer.
His address is
Willow Stroke Rehabilitation Unit
Evesham Community Hospital
Waterside
EVESHAM
Worcestershire
WR11 1JT
Retreat wins CAMRA Regional cider pub of the year. We were delighted to have won this award for the second year running and held a special cider event from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd August to celebrate .
Trappist Guest We have a new guest beer La Trappe a Dutch Trappist Beer come and try while stocks last!.
New Belgian Permanent Beer We are pleased to introduce Hoegaarden, a pale clouded wheat beer with traces of coriander and bitter orange.
Publicity from an unlikely source our man from the Torygraph drank beer here and lived! Click here for details. Eugene, Rachel and Agatha get honourable mention too.
Pubwatch Awards We are delighted to announce that we are winners of a Reading Pubwatch/Evening Post award for Best Traditional Pub in the South and East Pubwatch area. Many thanks to Ollie Pembridge for nominating us and to all who voted for us. We are in illustrious company with the Hobgoblin (Town Centre), Nags Head (West Reading), The Victoria (Tilehurst) and The Crown on the Bridge (Caversham).
New Wine List We have introduced some new wines for sale by the bottle for special occasions click here for details..
Battery RecyclingOne of our neighbours has undertaken to recycle batteries for us so we now have a jar on top of the piano for all your dead domestic batteries
Hugo award presented at Retreat
Local Reading author and Sci Fi buff David Langford is presented with the Hugo award for best fanzine in the Retreat. (The Hugo’s are the Science Fiction equivalent of the Oscars). The presentation was made by Martin Hoare (right in the picture), who had attended the presentation ceremony in America on David’s behalf (and had to smuggle a model rocket back through airport security).
