<Transcription>

Ric's return

THE FALSTAFFIAN figure of Ric Saimy will soon . be seen behind a leather apron, serving foaming pints of real ale in the Dursley area once again. Many readers will remember Ric as a former licensee of the New Inn at Waterley Bottom, still a veritable honey pot for real ale buffs. He dispensed pints and much hilarity there for five years from 1978 until he became foot-loose and headed south to !, Bristol and the Highbury Vaults. From there he turned west into Wales and ran pubs at Pandy, near Abergavenny, and more recently The Old Barn Inn at Three Cocks, near Hay-on-Wye.

He is set to manage the Fox and Hounds in May Lane, Dursley, now in the process of being acquired by Lakeshield Leisure.

Ric plans to renovate the pub, not with plastic and Draylon, but the materials of the traditional English pub where mature men and their ladies may enjoy a pint of wholesome cask conditioned ale in an atmosphere free of banging dustbin music, clattering fruit machines, and the clack of pool tables.

With his wife, Eleanor, Ric plans to establish it as a simple, traditional drinking pub.

"We've been wanting to get back to the Cotswolds for years," Ric told me. "And we have had a marvellously warm welcome here."

Among the first brews Ric will offer will be from Chas Wright's brewery in Uley.

The Fox and Hounds is likely to be closed for a couple of weeks while repairs and renovations are carried out, at the end of which the pub will be a little larger but will retain all its small rooms and nooks and crannies which make it so appealing.

Reproduced courtesy of Dursley Gazette - 26th Feb 1993.