GBMC form official Club Committee

Davie Easton, President of the Glasgow Beard and Moustache Club sends us this rundown of their new Committee structure.

“We now have a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Sergeant at Arms and Fixer.

“I am President, Gregor Miller is VP, Tim Stables is Secretary, John Cuthbert is Sergeant at arms - making sure club meetings run smoothly etc and Lewis Simister is our fixer - he will be our club go-to guy for beard products and advice for members.

“Our plans for the coming year; we will be having a beard club meet every 4-5 weeks as usual with two larger events lined up - our first birthday bash in May and then World Beard Day. We will also be heading down to Bath for the Championships.”

The GBMC is going to The Beards gig on 1st of March, and are having a meet prior to the gig at The Old Hairdresser's, Renfield Lane, Glasgow. Early start at 5pm so they can all be properly lubricated for the gig!

The Beards honour members of our Thatches!

If you are a The-Beards-lover, or just a Beard Lover, you can't have escaped hearing that the “World’s Foremost Bearded Ambassadors are returning to Europe to continue their beard-themed rock n roll assault.” The Beards' Euro-bout To Grow A Beard Tour comes to the UK and ROI starting on 17th February.

We are happy to announce that The South Saxon Beardsmen are holding a PRIZE DRAW for tickets to the Brighton Gig on 24th February, shown below in red. Go to SSB's Facebook!

We are hoping to give away MORE FREE PRIZE DRAW tickets, kindly provided to us by our Favourite Band, The Beards to one or more of the other Gigs below.

Keep an eye out for a Further Announcement shortly!

Here's a list of Tour Dates in the UK and ROI.

British Beard & Moustache
Championships 2014 is on!

This year the The British Beard and Moustache Championships 2014 is taking place in the City of Bath in Somerset at Bath Pavilion, North Parade Road, Bath, BA2 4EU, B&NES on September 13th.

Charities benefiting from the event are The Depression Alliance and Dorothy House Hospice.

New categories for the 2014 Championships are Full Beard (shorter than 12 inches) and Business Beard.

Tickets for spectators and competitors will go on sale on 1st April, so keep an eye out for entry details. See you in Bath!

The Liverbeards lively
January Meet at The Fleet

The Liverbeards January Meet was on Tuesday 28th at their usual “home” venue of The Baltic Fleet, Wapping Liverpool at 7pm.

Liverbeards Organiser Drew Johnson says,

“Hey all! Thanks to everyone that came out last night to The Baltic Fleet! It was a great and lively evening!”

South Saxon Beardsmen
Meet at The Prince George

Organiser of The South Saxon Beardsmen, Trev Packer organised a well-attended January Meet at The Prince George in Brighton.

Trev reports,
“Great turn out of Beards, thanks to all who came! Become a South Saxon Beardsman and get our merch at Members' prices - Join us! Sign Up Here to the Club”

“We Need Libraries” Video
by One Man and His Beard

Enjoy the We Need Libraries video by One Man And His Beard.

London Thatch meet at
The Aeronaut, Acton

First Meet of 2014 for London Thatch was at The Aeronaut, 264 Acton High St, West London W3 9BH on 12th January.

Successful Meet for The South Saxon Beardsmen
in Brighton December 15

A great afternoon was had at the first meet of The South Saxon Beardsmen at The Lord Nelson Inn in Brighton, East Sussex on Sunday December 15th.

There was great appreciation of the Lord Nelson's Sunday roasts, and we met some local members for the first time, including the team of three from local beard-grooming company, Bear Face Beard Oil. All have promised to join the Club!

South Saxon Beardsmen Organiser Trev Packer will be announcing the next meet date and venue shortly. If you missed this first meet, and would like to be part of the Club and The South Saxon Beardsmen, join us on-line now or at the next Meet!

London Thatch Meet at
The Royal Standard, Croydon on November 10th

London and Home Counties members met at The Royal Standard in Croydon on Sunday November 10th.

This was our second visit to 'The Standard' this year, and this one was a great success.

We were treated to an excellent buffet lunch and even George must have approved of the beers!

Richard's Movember
Moment after WBMC 2013

Member of TBBC Richard Evans-Lacey, a Garibaldi contestant who scored well but just missed the podium at the WBMC in Stuttgart, decided to shave for Movember after the event, and Benjamin Juergens who won 2nd place in Imperial Moustache, agreed to join him.

You can help raise awareness and understanding of the health risks men face by visiting Richard's donation page link below.

Surprise Subscriptions for
Four Friends at Borth Beardfest

Four bearded gentlemen - all friends - named Simon, Ryan, Philip and Matt, each with their ladies met up for a Mid-October long-weekend holiday in Borth, Ceredigion, Wales.

The boys got the surprise of their recently-bearded lives when their four ladies simultaneously presented each of them with a TBBC Membership pin.

The Pogonophilic Plot to make them all members had been hatched by their four ladies weeks beforehand.

Vanessa says,

“It really was fantastic, and they had no idea! The photo of them all was taken immediately after the presentation at the Friendship Inn, Borth.”

We're delighted to welcome the four friends to the Club, and look forward meeting them and their ladies at a Meet soon.

Rolling Out The Old Ale at
Harvey's Brewery, Lewes

Our annual visit to Rolling Out The Old Ale at Harveys Brewery in Cliffe High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, started minus our dedicated Essex Beardsmen thanks to rail delays, but by the time we got to a packed and heaving Snowdrop Inn, a ten minute walk along Cliffe High street, we were almost up to usual strength.

After lunch the Essex Beardsmen relaxed from their difficult journey with a spot of retail therapy among Lewes's good selection of vintage clothes and antique shops.

The Harveys Old Ale had also been up to strength a little earlier, and ran out at lunchtime, as usual.

King's Whiskers meet at
The Duke of Wellington, Soton

The King's Whiskers September meet in Southampton, Hampshire was much enjoyed.

Paul Wright, above centre prodigiously bearded, says,

“We had a lovely afternoon sat in the sun outside the Duke of Wellington.”

Wessex Beardsmen Meet At
Thorncombe Cider Festival

Here are The Wessex Beardsmen, along with a couple of prospective members, at The Thorncombe Cider Festival in Dorset on August 31st.

Competitor Registration
opens for WBMC 2013 in
Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany

Competitor registration for the World Beard and Moustache Championships 2013 on November 2nd in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Stuttgart, Germany is now open.

The following information is taken from the Belle Moustache WBMC 2013 Web site:

“The entry fee for all participants is €25 until the registration deadline on 1st October 2013.

Members of beard clubs especially should respect this deadline. If registration or payment takes place after the registration deadline, the fee will be increased to €30.

However latecomers or bearded men without membership of a beard club have the chance to register at event day till 10:30am.

The entry fee must be paid together with the registration. For this there are following options by online available:

Germany: Via debit note / remittance / PayPal or your club is paying
Europe: Via PayPal
Europe within EC: Via PayPal or remittance
Outside Europe: Via PayPal (As the charges are very high, we also accept the payment of €30 by cash on the event day)
Without full payment no participation is possible.

Please note that registration deadline is 1st October 2013. Afterwards the entry fee will be increased to €30. Clubs who pay for their competitors will get an invoice with relevant participation list.”

It appears that Spectators do not require tickets for entry.

GBMC's August meet at
Pivo Pivo - A great success!

Glasgow Beard and Moustache Club (GBMC) Organiser Davie Easton says,

“I was so happy to see so many beards turn up tonight. Thanks guys, you have made my weekend.

After the great success of Saturdays meet up, we are having our next official gathering on October 5th at the 13th Note on King Street.

Before that we are also having a couple of unofficial meet-ups next weekend (31 Aug).

First one is at Broadcast on Sauchiehall Street for the Dixie Fried gig the on Saturday at The Classic Grand on Jamaica Street for a night of dancing and drinking.

Saturday is also our admin John's birthday and he is having a night in Glasgow starting at Hootenannys at St Enoch Square.

If you want to join us at any of these nights out, come along.”

What's 19in long (47.5cm)
And 4½ Years Old? A Clue...

We have just received the latest in a series of growth-progress photos from our Club Member and Paul Wright, legendary long-beard grower from Hampshire, UK and one of the founder members of The King's Whiskers. Paul's latest image joins the rest of the collection at Paul's The World's Longest Beards Web site.

What a Paxo Palaver
about a Beard!

A Twitter ‘storm’ broke after Jeremy Paxman sensibly decided to return to work on BBC 2's Newsnight programme after his holiday, with a short, neat, trimmed beard.

TBBC members have been working overtime fielding questions from numerous Local Radio presenters about ‘Paxo's beard’, pogonophobia (irrational fear of beards) on the BBC and whether the popularity of beards has passed its peak!

Here are some of these interviews for you to Listen Again to, if you'll excuse the grammar!

Frazer Coppin talks to BBC Radio Cambridge's Drivetime presenter Ronnie Barbour:

David Dade talks to Radio Sussex Presenter Sarah Gorrell sitting in for their Morning Show:

Tony Mead talks to BBC WM Presenter Graham Torrington:

Wessex Beardsman Andy Teague spoke to BBC Radio Devon's Lunchtime presenter Bill Buckley:

Mycroft Milverton from The Liverbeards, our North-West Thatch talks to Radio Merseyside Drivetime presenter Simon Hoban:

Mycroft mentions Jodie Schofield, lady creator and inspiration for Liverpool Beerdfest, which takes place again this November, and here she is, talking to Radio Gloucester presenter Anna King:

Don't you think Jodie Schofield should join our ranks of British Beardswomen members as well? Tweet @producerjodie with the suggestion!

On Saturday 17th August Radio London 94.9 presenter Robert Elms talked to BBMC 2012 Full Beard Natural Winner Andrew Balls about his beard, the rising popularity of beard-growing with younger men, and The British Beard Club:

More wise words from our British Beardsmen and women as we get them!

Wessex Beardsmen's First Beard Competition is a Triumph!

The Wessex Beardsmen's First Beard and Moustache Competition in Yeovil, Somerset on 13th July was a brilliant occasion of fun, sun, and facial fur.

On one of the hottest weekends of the year 42 contestants wooed the judges in 9 facial hair categories, brilliantly conducted by Co-organiser and experienced stage host, Andy Teague.

Through the sterling organisational efforts of Andy and all of The Wessex Beardsmen, the event at The 94 Club in Yeovil raised £1000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the charity that grants magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening conditions.

Here are the Category Winners with their beautifully-designed and hand-finished plinth-mounted stainless steel trophies:

Now you may think you've seen some faces more than once, but in fact thanks to some quick-thinking all round, (and a little judiciously-timed antiseptic hand-wash!), just enough Styled and Natural Moustache Category entrants were found.

The judging team of The Moreorlesque Sisters, Bethany Blue and Paloma Violet, Tom Mottram from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Hayley 'Tigerfly' Lynch, Mike ‘Mr Pickle’ Stocks and ebullient Dave The Bear, furry burlesque entertainer and body-hair acceptance media consultant, variously stroked, prodded, sniffed and kissed their way through assessing the hopeful contestants, while the spectators whooped and cheered the house down.

Andy Teague's triumph was confirmed as he closed the show by asking the audience this question, “Shall we do it all again next year?”
The answer was a resounding cheer of “YES!”

See you there!

Oh, and remember - in the mean time...

St. Wilgefortis London meet
Saturday July 20

Fourteen saintly members struggled through the steaming London tourist crowds to The Buckingham Arms in Petty France for St. Wilgefortis' Feast at lunchtime on July 20.

The row of Youngs ales pumps didn't impress George who would have liked more Guest beers, but the bar food menu was good.

One new member and one lapsed member arrived later, and so we took the “Take 2” group photo to include them. Everyone enjoyed the meet, but I'm not sure that St. Wilgefortis was in everyone's mind all the time.

The Buckingham Arms
Where is it?

A Very Short Talk about Very Long Beards!

Wessex Beardsmen co-organiser Andy Teague and BBMC 2012 Full Beard Natural British Champion Andrew Balls talk very briefly with Radio 5 Live's Men's Hour Scruffsman Tim Samuels about beards, and we hear some of the benefits of being bearded from Dr. Martin Wade. Don't cough or you'll miss our men's pearls of wisdom...

Hit Play to hear the interview.

Emma strokes Andy's beard On Air!

Wessex Beardsmen co-organiser Andy Teague talks to Emma Britton of BBC Somerset 95.5FM about the upcoming Wessex Beardsmen's Beard and Moustache Competition on July 13 and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Hit Play to hear the interview.

Midsummer Beardness
2013 “A splendid turnout!”

The Meet Attendance record “Black Book” was signed by 30 people, which is the best yet for Midsummer Beardness.

The day started with the Shard looming over us under leaden skies as usual with intermittent drizzle. Half a dozen early arrivals seated themselves indoors at the bar, and tucked in to the George Inn's menu, with Duck Breast Salad being favoured.

Happily the drizzle began to ease off, and the cloud thinned and the sun poked out and began to smile on us, just as more and more members started to arrive.

We welcomed several first-timers and some new faces too. An impromptu moustache waxing tutorial was given by Frazer to the two Chris's - new recruits who had come along just to see what we were about, and we're hoping they will become members soon, and await their applications!

After lunch more members of the public arrived, and the usual questions were asked of us - what and who were we, followed by the photo requests we've come to expect.

As we all assembled for the group photo above, there was rush from the rest of the pub clientele, phone cameras in hand, to capture the moment - no doubt for numerous Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr pages. All good publicity!

London Lunch Meet at The Royal Standard, Croydon on April 7

London and Home Counties members gathered on Sunday April 7th at The Royal Standard, Croydon. The sun shone, conversations and beer flowed, and the baskets of sausages, chips, onion rings, chicken strips, spring rolls and battered mushrooms went down a treat, all served delightfully by George's daughter Jo. Here we are outside in the Royal Standard's garden - shutter clicked by Pete's wife Suzanne. More photos soon.

The March Meet at
The Queens Head London

Members from London and the Home Counties met at the Queens Head, Acton St near Kings Cross on March 2. The QHL was well-recommended by Del (centre left) and proved to be a great meeting, eating and chatting place for us in central London.

Behind the bar was Mark, a keen beardsman himself and he has promised to join us. How he managed to serve us all pints of interesting ales as well as preparing and bringing out what seemed like endless wooden trays of thick crusty Tiger bread and tangy cheddar and other cheeses, pickles and pies to all of us, was a wonder to behold.

We shall return to the Queens Head in the future, as we all agreed that it's easy to get to for most members in and around London.

Beards are Back! BBC WM talks to Frazer Coppin

Beards are suddenly sprouting everywhere, at the BAFTAS, on the catwalk, in the fashion mags and on the street, as more younger men are asserting their beard-growing birthright.

BBC WM 95.6FM presenter Paul Franks talks to Frazer Coppin about the Club, his beard and why beards are back. Hit Play to hear the interview.

So Paul, and Johnny the travel reporter agree to grow their beards for three months - so let's hold them to it! Call BBC Radio WM on 08453 009956

“I'm a man. I've got a BEARD!”

WWE superstar Daniel Bryan tells it like it is!

Something to get stuck on!

Trev posted this image on our Forum. He says,

“A good musical friend of mine who is growing a beard sent me this link to a image that has left me slightly perturbed but also extremely hypnotised...”

Yes, you are feeling very wise - and very sleepy...

Meet Jesus Hooligan

Club member Steve Brunton's wife Karen has the right attitude! Steve says,

“ I sing in a Tribal punk band called Jesus Hooligan. We play songs with barrels, didgeredoo's and chains.

I don't actually own a beard, it's my wife's, and she has always said if I leave her she will take two things and one of them is my beard. The video above explains everything.”

South Saxon Beardsmen
Merch raises funds for our cancer support charities

The South Saxon Beardsmen, fast-growing Sussex and Kent Thatch of Club members have released their own merchandise, and sales will raise funds for their favourite Prostate and Bowel Cancer charities.

SSB Organiser Trev Packer says,

“Our South Saxon Beardsmen T-Shirts come in black Fruit-of-the-Loom Super Premium quality 100% cotton, and our Kick-ass SSB logo, designed by Dan Kelby of The Norfolk Beards Thatch, is expertly screen-printed in two colours by Andy at Sideline Screen Printing in Brighton.

“We've almost sold out of the first batch, and we only have size XXLs left at £10.00 to TBBC Members and £15.00 to non-members. The XXLs also make great nightshirts for beard-loving lady partners and mothers-to-be!

“You can pick one up at our next meet when the date is announced shortly. If you want it posted, add £3.00 Post and Packing. Overseas orders are also welcome, and the shipping charge will be between £4.95 for Europe and around £7.20 for North America and Australia, depending on destination.

“To pre-order for collection at a meet, just e-mail me with your T-shirt size using the contact form below, mentioning your TBBC Membership number if a member, and I'll reserve one for you to buy from the next batch we order. DO NOT send money until requested!

“To order for postal delivery inland or overseas, include your full address in the e-mail, and I will tell you the Sterling/UKP (only) amount required and the PayPal e-mail address to make your payment to. Sorry to say we cannot accept cheques or foreign currency. Again, DO NOT send money until requested!

“Our 100mm glossy vinyl white-background stickers will also be available at our meets for £2.00 each, and by post plus the cost of a stamp.

“Pick one up at the next Meet if you can, and save postage and save us the PayPal fees too! Looking forward to seeing you at our next South Saxon Gathering!”

‘How to groom and style a long beard’

Long Beard grooming and styling advice from Eric Bandholz of beardbrand*, “located in the beautiful northwestern state of Washington, USA.”

*This is intended neither as an endorsement of nor an advertisement for beardbrand products.

London Thatch Meet on
Saturday December 21

London Thatch members met in the East End and at various other inns on December 21st.

We look forward to the two visitors above, Nick and Rich with his partner Stig becoming members of the Club in the very near future!

Thatch Organiser Del says,
“They were all keen to get involved with The British Beard Club so they gratefully took cards and will be considering joining us at the Aeronaut on the 12th January.”

The Essex Beardsmen Meet
at The White Horse Bar & Lounge, Chelmsford

The Essex Beardsmen, our original founding Thatch of The British Beard Club started their new monthly meets on November 15th at The White Horse Bar & Lounge in Chelmsford.

THE BIG MO MEETUP IS CANCELLED!

Solent Students Union have been forced to cancel this event scheduled for November 30th because the council have just refused their fundraising licence! What spoilsports! I bet some of the council employees are growing Movember moustaches too!

Vice President Engagement, (uh?) Hannah Mullarkey says,

“Instead, we are going to concentrate the same Movember plans throughout the university campus all next week.

sure you will be pleased to know that we still intend to fundraise as much money as possible for Prostate UK, it is just a huge shame that we can no longer include the local community in our efforts.

“I apologise for having to cancel, it would have been a delight having you!

London Thatch October
Meet at The Queens Head

London Thatch spent a delightful afternoon indoors at The Queens Head (while the rainstorm raged ouside) in the interesting company of two photographers on Sunday October 20th.

Though there was no sign of the elusive Todd from Australia, we sat for Polaroid portraits by David Pexton and later on for the We Love Your Beard Blog, represented by a charming lady called Victoria from Beardrevered.com.

Hover/Touch on the green links above for a preview!

Victoria has said some very nice things about us in Beardrevered Beard News.

GBMC's October Meet at
The 13th Note

Our Glasgow Thatch, The Glasgow Beard and Moustache Club excelled themselves with a bumper attendance on 5th October.

GBMC Organiser Davie Easton says,

“We had a fantastic turn out at our beard and moustache club gathering with over 30 people coming along.

“A big thanks to Ian, Drew and Ian for travelling all the way up from Liverpool from The Liverbeards club. We are looking forward to a road trip down in December.”

“Was great to see so many beards in one place. Not sure the 13th Note knew what hit it.”

Lucky Wessex Wedding Day
for Sarah and Andy Walbrin

Andy Walbrin, long-term TBBC member and founding member of the Wessex Beardsmen, married his girlfriend of nine years, Sarah Thomas at The Bull Hotel in Bridport on Friday 13th of September.

Andy's Lucky number is 13, and after proposing on the couple's 7th anniversary of courtship on the 13th of September 2011, when they realized that in 2013 their anniversary fell on a Friday, they knew it was a good omen and chose that day to wed.

Carshalton Straw Jack
Procession Surrey September 7

One of our London group members literally took a supporting rôle in the Carshalton Straw Jack procession - “a harvest celebration of man and nature working together” - when Rob volunteered to enter and carry the heavy straw-covered Jack-frame for several legs of the procession. We assured him that he would be let out again before the ritual burning of the Straw Jack later in the evening.

After visiting quite a number of hostelries, and a welcome finger-food refreshment break at Rosie's, the procession arrived at The Hope pub, now filling rapidly with revellers, and it was time for baked-potatoes-and-chilli and other tasty dishes served in the garden.

London Meet August 25 at
Tapping The Admiral, NW1

Del's choice this month for London and Home Counties members and friends was Tapping The Admiral, CAMRA North London Pub of the Year 2013.

The weather and the beer were great, the Thai food was delicious and the company included an unexpected bonus of a chance new member, Chris!

GBBF 2013 Olympia meet
with The Handlebar Club August 15th 7pm

It was time to wet our whiskers again! Members of The Handlebar Club and The British Beard Club joined up at the Great British Beer Festival on Hat Night Thursday again this summer.

More pictures celebrating the evening to follow!

The Liverbeards Enjoy A Grand July Day Out!

The Liverbeards Grand Day Out kicked off in the historic Philharmonic Dining Rooms, Hope Street, Liverpool on the 6th of July. Here's Drew Johnson, our Liverbeards Organiser and reporter.

“On offer was a superb collection of local ales of which we had to sample a large proportion of (it would have been rude not to). Although this did then lead to the 'running of the tourist gauntlet'.

“The gents lavatories in the 'Phil' are considered some of the finest. It is not uncommon to find large groups of male and female visitors to the city taking a peek!

“Whilst at the Phil I revealed the brand new Liverbeards T-shirt design. These will be available very soon!

“The choice was then made to move the party outdoors. Although Liverpool has some of the finest ale houses, they do lack outdoor space. This led us to tranquility of the Kazimier Gardens. Here you are surrounded by live bands, herbs growing, rustic furniture and barbecues.

“As the evening came closer the group moved onto their usual home of The Baltic Fleet. Here we mixed with a wedding party and people going to a boxing match in the arena. The ukuleles made an appearance (of course!) and a lot of laughs were shared.”

“The Grand Day Out was a great opportunity for all the Liverbeards, their other halves and friends to come together, meet and share a great day. We hope that we can make it a growing regular event!”

The Liverbeards August Gathering, in September, (!) will be on Tuesday 3rd Sept at 7pm as usual in The Baltic Fleet.

Pith In The Park
with The Essex Beardsmen

Essex Beardsman Frazer Coppin reports on their annual TBBC Thatch meet at Chelmsford Beer Festival.

“Pith in the Park was less busy this year with a turnout of about 11; numbers were down considerably compared to last year. I managed to capture 9 Pith owners, but the two others did not fully join in with the fun and free beer.

“The beer ‘Taking the Pith’, brewed by Charlie at Farmers Ales especially for Pith in the Park was particularly marvellous and a pint was given to each Pith wearer free of charge.

[Charlie meantime was preparing to take First Place in Freestyle Beard at the Wessex Beardsmen's Competition in Yeovil! - Ed.]

“Nigel was busy behind the bar all evening while Colin, Andy and myself enjoyed the vast amount of attention we were getting due to our facial hair. We had our photos taken by and with many fascinated youngsters of both sexes and I handed out loads of cards to potential Beard Club Members.

“We all had a great summer's evening in the sun, drinking beer and chatting to interested and interesting people. I am looking forward to next year's Pith in the Park and with some good promotion from the Club's popular Facebook page we may attract even more interest.”

A Great Night Out!
The Liverbeards May Meet

The proven recipe of Ukuleles, Beards, Beer and Banjolele made a great musical night out for The Liverbeards May meet at The Baltic Fleet.

Seventeen go to Soho

Seventeen Club members, partners and one daughter met at The Old Coffee House at 49 Beak Street in Central London on Saturday May 25th. To get there we had to negotiate the crowded Soho streets of weekend London, serenaded lustily by a throng of German football fans anxious to support one or other of the opposing teams for the Wembley Champions League final, both of whom were over from the land of Bier and Wurst.

Best bitter from Brodies with sausage and mash were the favourites among the assembled members of The British Beard Club, and the conversations touched on the usual subjects of music, beer and beards. More pictures from Bob's Flickr page below and from Frazer's phone shortly.

We'd like to specially thank Barry, the manager of the Old Coffee House for setting aside the upstairs bar for us, and arranging for the extra staff to pull pints and cater for us.

Media wow The Liverbeards
as they Meet at the Fleet

The Liverbeards met on April 30th at The Baltic Fleet, 33A Wapping, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 8DQ.

The meeting kicked off early, amid much local media interest, thanks to The Liverbeards' brilliant Twitter and Facebook promotional efforts and that of their Followers and Likers.

Drew says:

“Thanks to all for a successful Liverbeards meet in The Baltic Fleet last night! Good beer, good ukuleles, good bearding and great company!”

If you missed this one, don't miss the next monthly meet of The Liverbeards at 7pm on Tuesday May 28th at The Baltic Fleet in Liverpool.

The King's Whiskers Win Winchester Vote

King's Whiskers is our new Thatch for the South Central counties. The name was chosen from a shortlist of six suggestions on Saturday April 13th by the assembled company at the Royal Oak pub in Winchester, Hampshire. After a little deliberation, all the votes were placed into the mystic pointy hat and were counted by co-organiser Joe Clarke.

Alfred The Great, born in 849 AD and the only English monarch to have been given that qualifier, inspired a clear majority of the new Thatch members to commemorate his kingship of the region by naming the group after him. It's doubly appropriate as they were meeting in his capital city of Winchester, where King Alfred died and was buried in 899 AD.

Despite the Novembral wet weather, the gathering comprised a baker's dozen of both local existing and prospective Club members as well as some well-wishing members from further afield. The Royal Oak was well liked and offers a large selection of ales, food and has an abundance of seating both inside and out.

As well as Winchester, future meet locations being considered are Woking, Southampton, Basingstoke, and possibly others more rural.

Essex Beardsmen Anniversary Gathering breaks record!

That special day in February which is the anniversary of the first ever meeting of The British Beard Club was made even more special by members of our first regional thatch, The Essex Beardsmen who gathered no less than 38 happy people to The Queens Head in Chelmsford on 9th February.

The Essex Chronicle's feature on the EB's during the week stimulated much interest too, and we gained a whole pub-full of people.

We took this opportunity to make the long-promised end-of-year donation of £600 from the members' subscription surplus to local Prostate Cancer UK representative, Ann Parrett.

Everyone throughly enjoyed the get-together, and six new members joined the Club on-the-spot, including Dave the publican, who with his able assistant kept the Crouch Vale Ale flowing and copious dinners delivered to our tables.

The Ten Best Beards in the George Inn

Using their well-considered discretion, ten of the Best Beards in the Home Counties braved the weather reports to gather at The George Inn, Borough High St, London on Saturday 19th January for a lunchtime beer, a bite and a chat.

Members made it in from Croydon, rural Essex, Harpenden, Luton, Slough, South London, Uxbridge and Brighton. For lunch The George's Chicken Casserole and Fish and Chips were favourites, and the beers and cider flowed.

Yorkshire Beard Day - Results

The TBBC Northern Beard Meet Up 2013 took place on Sunday 3rd March at the Scarborough Spa Complex in N. Yorks., and this year was titled Yorkshire Beard Day 2013.

Here are the Beard Competition results by category:

Artistic Stubble
1st place = Alec Phillip Saul Vickerson

Goatee
1st place = Paul Coupe (TBBC member)

King Edward
1st place = Mark Snow
2nd place = Ernest Acquah
3rd place = Joseph Irving

Verdi
1st place = Hayden Long
2nd place = Steve Hemmings

Natural Full Beard styled moustache
1st place = Jack Hewit
2nd place = Anthony Springall (TBBC Member)

Natural Full Beard
1st place = Michael Legge (TBBC Member see below)
2nd place = Alex Willis
3rd place = Ben Slack

Full Beard Freestyle
1st place = Dave Balmford

False Beard freestyle
1st place = Nicola Button (Hairy Boppins)
2nd place = Catherine Ware (beard by Debbie Hill)
3rd place = Lucy Marsden

Overall winner / best in show / Yorkshire Beard Day Beard 2013
1st = Michael Legge (Natural Full Beard)

2nd = Mark Snow (King Edward)
3rd = Jack Hewitt (Natural Full Beard with Styled Moustache)

The Judges were:
Dawne Louise Cooper-Racoon - International Artistic team
David Alcorn - President Leeds Met. Students' Union & member of The British Beard Club.

Split Ends 2012 Digest