Darlington Snooker Club, Darlington

A decidedly unwelcoming entrance leads you up an even less-welcoming flight of stairs then you find yourself in a large hall with an impressive 10 snooker tables. The small and fairly basic bar is to the left, with a cluttered sort of lounge room just beyond. The draw however is the splendid selection of mainly local beers, which regularly changes as the array of pump clips round the walls confirms. In theory a members' club but open to CAMRA members and Good Beer Guide holders, however they do not seem too fussy.

This is an unusual place to say the least. The entrance is situated just down a side road on the West side of the main drag going North from Darlington. You have to ring the bell and they open the locked door from the bar which is up a few flights of steep stairs. Here there is a large area with a small bar at one end. Being a snooker club almost the entire area is taken up with an array of tables leaving little room to sit and drink. There is a small lounge to one side of the bar which nobody was using on my visit. The tables in here had some copies of the latest episode of Real Ale Twats from VIZ magazine. The bar has eight pumps of which six had clips on. These all seemed to be from local breweries most of which I had never heard of. I did note Great Hack Simcoe but went for the Black Hill Three Quarters which was in good nick and was priced at just over £2.50. It is an odd place to come for a drink but the lady behind the bar was very friendly, it's cheap and does seem to sell unusual beers. Although it is shown as Darlington North it is only a short walk from the Half Moon.

Another visit for another beer festival and this one was superb. More handpulls set up and we enjoyed beers from Abbeydale, Breconshire, Dent, Keltek, Yard of Ale and Yorkshire Dales breweries in a good session. Reasonable priced food on offer too.

Excellent ales won Camra club of the year many times normally has 4 real ales plus beer and lagers not to mention 10 snooker tables, runs a few beers festivals through the year well worth a visit.