Country inn up for grabs in pub quiz

An entrepreneurial licensee has launched the ultimate pub quiz - offering the lease to his sixteenth century inn as the grand prize.

The winner of the quiz will be handed the keys to the Filly Inn near Lymington, on the outskirts of the New Forest, after paying just £10 for a ticket and answering two questions correctly.

John Faulder, the current tenant of the Filly, hopes to sell 52,000 tickets for the quiz, and will select a winner at random from all those who answer the questions correctly.

"The competition is a great opportunity" he said. "A lot of people dream about running a pub like this but they just don't have the money to afford it - this competition will allow them to jump in and do it."

Reassuring potential entrants that his venture is not just a publicity stunt to offload a struggling pub, John added: "I wasn't even thinking about selling the pub when I first came up with the idea, but I have been here a few years now and I want to do something different.

"I've built up a thriving business here at the Filly in spite of what everyone is saying about the credit crunch. This is a high turnover pub."

Should John not be able to sell enough tickets to make the transfer of the pub worthwhile, the winner will instead be awarded a cash prize funded by the proceeds from ticket sales.

However the pub's landlord Punch Taverns said the winner would have to adhere to its criteria before taking over the lease.

A spokeswoman said: "The licensee of the Filly Inn did not make Punch aware of his intentions to offer the pub lease as a raffle prize.

"The positioning of the prize is unclear. The winner of the competition would be required to fulfil the criteria of any new Punch licensee which includes the provision of a strong business plan, credit checks and ingoing capital."

• For details on how to enter the competition visit www.win-pub.com​.