Due to the recent resignation of Kevin Donovan our Branch Chairman, we will shortly be arranging an EGM (date TBA) to elect a new Chair of the Branch. Full details will be released shortly

Yesterday, a small party from our Branch visited other Lincolnshire Branches Pubs of the year in order to vote for the County pub of the year.

Bill, Brian, Dave, Katie & Kevin enjoyed a wonderful day out sampling the beers on offer and even managed to add a couple of extra pubs on the journey.

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The Horseshoes, Silk Willoughby, Fenland Branch

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Lord Harrowby, Grantham

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The Strugglers Inn, Lincoln.

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Three Horseshoes, Scotton, Gainsborough Branch.

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On our journey between Lincoln and Scotton we paid a visit to the wonderful Dambusters Inn at Scampton, an absolute gem of a pub and multi award winning Lincoln Branch of overall and Country pub of the year [this year it was runner up] .

Unfortunately we could not vote for this pub, but most agreed it was their favourite visit of the day!

Finally we called in at the Marrowbone and Cleaver for one final drink! And that was 12 hours of a thoroughly enjoyable day gone!

Last night we presented The Yarborough Hotel [J D Wetherspoon] with certificates covering 3rd place in both the Town and overall Pub of the Year.

Photos below show Alisha receiving the certificates on behalf of the pub.

Please find below the Branch Pubs of the Year, in the East Midlands Regional Area:

We are pleased to announce that all our Branch core positions have been filled, thus satisfying both the requirements of CAMRA HQ. and also our constitution, these roles and names are as below:

Chair: Kevin Donovan

Secretary: Brian Calladine

Treasurer: Chris Crookes

Membership Secretary: David Moulds

Pub Data Co-ordinator: Katie Marks

GBG submissions Co-ordinator: Katie Marks

Pub protection officer: Graham Larn

Pub promotions and awards Co-ordinator: Kevin Donovan

Our full list of Branch Contacts can be found here:

Full list of Branch contacts

CHAIR REPORT – GRIMSBY NEL AGM 12.03.2025

Good evening, what a splendid turn out tonight, thank you all for supporting our Branch. Well believe it or not, this is my 3rd Annual Chair report, and a lot has gone on in the 3 years plus that I’m not sure if I was voted on, or the fact that no one else applied ? I’d like to think the branch has move forwards in this time, to the days of less than 10 attending meetings to 20-30 regularly, for the past 2 years or so.

Our meet the brewer evenings, not only at Branch meetings but in the Town too, in the last 18 months we have seen Timothy Taylor twice, Thornbridge, 8-sail, Gorilla, Horncastle Ales, Rudgate, too many to remember, we have arranged a 150 birthday special with Batemans, were our two teams in the quiz that night came third and first, modesty forbids me to tell you which team I was on. We have had regular Wetherspoon’s festival invites, rooms reserved and sometimes a day before the festival starts. We have this last year reintroduced the POTS awards, to which at the time gave other pubs not in the good beer guide a chance to win awards.

Our constitution has been updated for the first time in many a year and now represents the model CAMRA constitution.

After a torrid time throughout covid, Branch trips have been organised to York, Kelham Hall, Gainsborough, Chesterfield, Magna, Newark.

Our ITD magazine came a credible 5th place in the recent CAMRA Magazine voting, so a big thanks to Katie in the main as well as Graham and myself for this.

Also our website, again from being practically non existent before I took over achieved 5th Place in the CAMRA National awards, which I still believe is one of the most updated CAMRA websites out there, we’ve introduced lots of new feature pages and also members getting a WhatsApp message when something new is added thus bringing you updates immediately.

It is extremely hard work running a branch, yes I do have a small team behind me [which I will talk about in a minute} but the onus on being the chair is a burden at times, I have on two occasions this week worked until after midnight to reconcile the accounts, which I will give you more details in the Treasurers report. As well as other roles, sometimes the responsibility of ensuring tasks are done, seem to lay with the Chair, and being fully committed to any roles I personally undertake then this adds pressure onto the role. A year ago, this pressure took it’s toll and I was quite prepared to resign but I didn’t want the Branch to decline, and who knows where it would have gone from there, if you look at the Louth Branch it will almost certainly fold and I will attend a Lincolnshire Branch meeting this Saturday to discuss it’s future, I will update you all when I can, fortunately Brian volunteered to be secretary to take some of the strain away, so a big thank you to him, and also to Katie and Anna for their roles and also to David, Sara & Graham who have also supported the running of the club in some way.

We are described by our Regional Director as a very active branch, which is a compliment to what and how we do things, our meetings and events give our members several opportunities to take part, so again I thank you all for your attendance and support.

I’m not going anywhere so with your support in my role as Chair, let’s continue to take this Branch forward.

Thank you, Kevin

We are pleased to announce that Chris Crookes has agreed to take up the position of Treasurer of the Branch, having put himself forward at last night's AGM.

Our Chair kevin, welcomed the appointment and looked forward to working with Chris to get the accounts back on track as this is a core position for CAMRA Branches .

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SOCIAL SECRETARY REPORT – GRIMSBY NEL AGM 12.03.2025

If we look at events we have run this last year, mainly to York, Kelham Hall and Magna for the GBBF Winter, you will have seen a change in trend, we now only seem to be able to command mini busses due to the number of active participants appearing to decrease.

Thus with limited numbers we have to be careful of not making the costs too high against rail costs [Such as why we did not run busses to Bermuda triangle, Gainsborough etc} and also this means that if there is not 100% take up then we night struggle to cover costs, luckily enough all our trips this year made a small profit on each.

Our Christmas event was I believe successful, again numbers fluctuated , and my favourite saying of numbers mean nothing, deposits speak for themselves, saw is struggling towards the event, we showed a slight loss on the event itself, we had late cancellations without deposits and without a healthy raffle contribution this could have been much worse.

This year we are looking at Brewery trips to Castle Rock, Ossett and maybe Timothy Taylors, look out for more information coming soon. And it might not be too early to discuss this year’s Christmas function.

During our next Branch meeting, I will update you all with current social plans.

Thanking you, Kevin

footnote: It was suggested that a sub-committee be formed to assist with Social activities, KD asked those present to message him directly if they are interested.

Congratulations to Message In a Bottle for Wiining our Town Pub of the Year! A worthy and fantastic achievement.

In 2nd place - The Rutland Arms

In 3rd place - Yarborough Hotel [JD Wetherspoon]

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Our last presentation to Message In a Bottle.

Congratulations to the Clickem Inn that was voted winner of our Country pub of the year for 2025 and also for finishing fourth overall.

In 2nd place was the Crown & Anchor [Tetney Lock]

In 3rd place was the Station Hotel [Habrough]

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