Pub fan Alan clocks up a century...but there’s still plenty more to come!
Alan Footner, from Brampton, with (l-r) deputy manager Emma Bull, deputy manager Natahn Doyle and friend Paul Emberton. - Credit: Archant
An 80-year-old man from Brampton paid a special visit to Huntingdon on Friday, as he celebrated visiting his 100th JD Wetherspoon pub.
Alan Footner spent the day surrounded by friends at the pub chain, complete with balloons and champagne to celebrate the milestone achievement.
The day was organised by family friend, Paul Emberton.
“Did you see the price of beer?” he joked, after being asked why he was so loyal to the chain.
“You know what you’re going to get at JD Wetherspoon and there’s always good company. I thought it was great when they said they were going to build one in Huntingdon. The whole thing is just about my level.”
Mr Footner still remembers his first trip to JD Wetherspoon in Bedford, but decided to start his mammoth pub challenge after visiting a branch in Scotland.
“We went to one at Wick in Scotland and they did the best haggis ever in there – a great big bowl of it,” he said.
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Now, whenever he goes away, Mr Footner and his wife are always on the hunt for the pub chain, even taking their grandchildren in Exeter for breakfast at the company. “We go on holiday and follow the cricket and are members at Northampton and Lords, so we follow it all summer. We always find a Wetherspoon’s.”
He did admit though, it’s slightly harder to eat out at the chain in Brighton, since his other grandson runs his own pub there, as well as the fact his wife is actually teetotal.
Nevertheless, his list – which he keeps safe on his computer at home – so far includes pubs in Peterborough, Cardiff, Bristol, Warwick, and Fort William, with The Sugar Loaf, in Harborough, marked as his next stop.
In total, Mr Footner, a former serviceman at RAF Brampton, hopes to visit 800 of the chain’s 900 outlets across the country.
