County Awards
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DERBYSHIRE CLUB OF THE YEAR 2019: THE PIONEER CLUB – COAL ASTON
Dronfield and District CAMRA Club of The Year, the Pioneer Club on Stonelow Road, Coal Aston has been awarded Club of The Year 2019 for the whole of Derbyshire, beating off competition from several other branches. The ‘Pio’ is a strong supporter of both CAMRA and community -based events, frequently hosting branch and festival planning meetings, supplying the minibus for various branch socials, and holding well attended quiz and bingo sessions on Sunday evenings. The older of us enjoyed the pensioner’s lunch held just before Christmas! The club operates a number of sports teams with Wednesday night pool sessions being particularly popular! Four hand pulled beers are usually available, often including at least one from the local Drone Valley Brewery, so there’s always something interesting on the bar. The ‘Pio’ was the core venue for this year’s first Dronfield and District CAMRA festival, which ran from 30th May to 1st June this year, and Tony worked incredibly hard to make the adaptations to the club to provide enough space to ensure that this was a success. The recent East Midlands CAMRA regional meeting held at the Pioneer was described by a member of the CAMRA National Executive as 'one of the best she'd ever been to' - I think the pie and peas and minibus trip to Drone Valley Brewery and the Miners at Hundall may have been a factor here! Anyone wishing to visit the Pioneer club will find it just past the Greendale shopping centre, set back from the road on the left- hand side. Congratulations to Tony, Alison and the team on winning this highly sought after award. We look forward to the Pioneer continuing to develop as part of the ever improving Dronfield real ale scene.
