As well as live sport on the TV, it has a dartboard and cribThe Criterion pub (Image: Bristol Live)

Welly wanging, egg dropping and Dorset knob lobbing – just three of the competitive sports on offer at The Criterion over the past year or so.

Not inside the pub – health and safety comes first of course – but in the street outside and all to raise money for local charities and causes.

Tucked away just off the seafront at Weston-super-Mare, behind the crazy golf course, The Criterion is thought by many to be one of the town’s oldest pubs.

Sepia Victorian images of Upper Church Road show The Criterion bearing signage for Bristol brewery Georges & Co, although these days it’s a rare free house.

Anthony and Karen Thomas have been running the pub for the past decade and they have truly stamped their personality on the place.

This is very much a locals’ local and although ‘strangers’ (usually daytrippers and people on holiday) are welcome, it’s sometimes hard to clamber through the crowd to get a place at the bar as the rows of high stools are inevitably occupied by regulars there for the duration.

A traditional, dog-friendly pub with well trodden carpets, high ceilings and dartboard, the walls are plastered with old photos of Weston-super-Mare and snapshots documenting customers over the years.

The timeless interior of The Criterion(Image: Bristol Live)

There’s an original Victorian fire in the front room, a smaller area on a second level, and high shelves are packed with knick-knacks including Toby jugs, china birds, cast iron scale weights and various work tools.

On the bar, there are coin collections for the RNLI and Birnbeck Pier regeneration trust, local causes that give this seaside community pub a sense of place.

Live sport is shown on large screens, and the pub also runs its out crib tournament, with participants competing for ‘Maggie’s shield’.

Under the current owners, The Criterion has built a strong local reputation for the range and quality of its real ales – on this occasion they included Dartmoor Jail Ale, St Austell Tribute and London Pride – with Thatcher’s ciders, Asahi, Korev, Red Stripe, Guinness and Inch’s also on draught.

And it’s a pub with a sense of humour with plenty of laughter in the air on the afternoon I visited.

An amusing sign behind the bar reminds staff that ‘you don’t have to be crazy to work here we’ll train you!’.

They don’t tell you that on catering and hospitality college courses.

The Criterion, 45 Upper Church Road, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 2DY.