Summer screen test at the Tharp Arms

Green and eager to impress, in 2005, when I was told that the biggest mistake the previous licensees had made was never having enough staff on, I ensured that on a Friday night there were three of us ready to serve. I quickly realised that in my small pub with just one pump for each product, by putting three of us into the cramped servery all that happened was that we were queuing behind each other for the same product.

Another customer told me that I must get some Canadian Club, “because it’s all the rage”. I stocked up, only to discover that he was the only one that liked it and, actually, he didn’t drink that much of it anyway.

It didn’t take me long to learn that what I really needed to do was simply nod, smile politely at the customer’s suggestion, and then get on with running my business the way I wanted to run it anyway. But when the requests started coming in for a bigger TV for this year’s sporting events, I was a little more firm. Spending a four-figure sum on a great big TV was unlikely to generate a return on itself and it would look ridiculous in my relatively small pub.

I stood firm, until a friend told me they were selling a fifty-inch plasma display. It’s not, as such, a TV but rather a giant high-definition computer monitor, with no standard connections that you can plug a Freeview or Sky receiver into. Because of this, he wanted a ridiculously small amount of money for it, so I decided to go for it, to much head-shaking by my wife.

Powered by a TV-receiving PC, the screen now dominates one wall, but will provide the basis for this summer’s coming events, from the Queen’s Jubilee to Euro 2012 and on to the Olympics. Powered by our media PC, the audio will be pub-wide and we’ll also be able to use it to display announcements and even act as a giant menu board between events.

Combine that with the big barbecue area we’re building for this year, and I reckon we’ve kept it simple and cost effective. So I’ve acquiesced. I’ve given them their big-screen TV. Now I just need them to come and prove me wrong.

Mark Daniels is licensee of the Tharp Arms​ in Chippenham, Cambridgeshire​