THE Turks Head has retained its title as Merseyside’s Pub of the Year – less than 12 months after it was named among the top four in the country.

The cosy Morley Street venue has once again been singled out by members of the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) as an outstanding community pub.

Landlady Amanda Roue, aged 28, who prides herself on the pub’s old fashioned warm and friendly atmosphere, collected the award in Liverpool last week alongside her partner, Daryl Arrowsmith.

She beamed: “It’s great for our small back street pub to be recognised again – especially as we were competing against all the big Liverpool bars. The Turks Head is just a really nice community pub, serving good beer. That’s the way we like it.”

As reported in the Star earlier this year, the Turks Head was just pipped to the National Pub of the Year title in 2007 by the Old Spot Inn in Gloucestershire.

CAMRA members went undercover to secretly judge each pub according to customer service, décor, clientele mix, value for money and the quality of their real ale, described the Turks Head as: "A really great, friendly local pub which has improved imeasurably.’ CAMRA's director of pubs, Julian Hough, also commented: “There are around 60,000 pubs in the UK and to be named the very best is an incredible honour.”