THERE is plenty of competition for the money of Spondon's drinkers, with a stack of pubs in and around the village centre added to by very well-regarded Conservative and Liberal clubs. Back in my youth, the village was a popular place to go for a pub crawl, taking in the Vernon, Malt Shovel, Prince of Wales and White Swan in that order before finishing at the Crown on Nottingham Road ahead of a bus back to Derby.

I was back at the Prince of Wales in Sitwell Street this week for a look at a new initiative they've launched to try for a bigger slice of the cake.

The Designated Premises Supervisor (as licensees are called these days, apparently), Adam Cockerham, has spent a deal of money doing up the neat little public bar at the back of the pub.

You enter it down a few steps, so it's like going into a cellar bar except that, since the pub is on a hill, the bar is the same level as the lounge on the other side.

With a tiled floor, a new traditional fireplace and new seating, it's a comfortable little bolt-hole.

Quiz questions written on small blackboards around the room provide a talking point.

Pete McCourt, who is managing the pub, says they held a competition to get regulars to name the room. So it has now been affectionately named "Guzzler's Nook".

Of principal interest is the fact that there are six different beers available – which would have been unthinkable in an Enterprise-owned pub not so long ago.

But the pub giant is opening up, at last, to the fact that customers like choice and the Prince of Wales probably now offers the biggest choice in the village.

Abbot Ale, Theakston's XB, Castle Rock Harvest Pale and Thornbridge Jaipur are certainly not too often seen alongside each other but they were this week.

As were the ubiquitous Bass and Pedigree. Other local breweries have also featured and more will follow.

"We've a club on one side and a pub and a club on the other side of us but we think there are still people who have a bit of a crawl and there's business for all of us," says Pete.