Fest of fun: Moorgreen

What's the most attractive sight at a country show? Onions the size of a child's head? Horse riders in skin-tight trousers wielding whips? Or the beer tent? When it's a well-run CAMRA bar offering thirty handpumped beers, I'm more smitten by the thought of Jaipur rather than jodhpurs.



The Moorgreen show is an annual event held over the late August bank holiday. It's only a short walk across the fields from where I was brought up, so this year I met up with my Dad for a Sunday ramble over to there.

It was a pleasantly warm day, ideal for wandering around the forty acre site and taking in the attractions on offer. My Dad proved to be a mean shot at the archery and a dab hand at manipulating a JCB. When I wasn't getting my thumb in the way, I quite enjoyed shooting a crossbow. The displays were fun, too; recalcitrant birds of prey, diggers doing things at angles you don't see them reach on the M1 and a tent stuffed with freakish vegetables.

No, I don't mean the beer tent. That was refreshingly free of denim-clad bottlers; instead there was just a whole bunch of people drinking and having a fun time. Mansfield CAMRA put on a fantastic array of largely LocAle beers from thirty brewers such as Amber, Holland, Leadmill and the bar sponsors, Thornbridge. There were several beers here that I hadn't tried before, but Reluctant Scooping decreed that I drank as much Thornbridge as I dared to. Pints of Jaipur and Jaywick were dispatched quickly; I also plumped for Leadmill's Ginger which wasn't quite as refreshingly spicy as I'd hoped. More Jaipur kept my palate sated later on. I didn't try the ciders or perrys, but there was always a bustle at that bar which seemed to suggest they went down well.

It was good to see such a professional set-up; one long bar, all casks on handpump, served just cool enough so only a few were over-lively in the plastic glass. The bar was rightly busy towards late afternoon as a decent pint proved to be the perfect respite from the sunshine. Here's hoping that other CAMRA branches take up this kind of 'outreach' activity and provide bars at other such events