King Charles ‘drowns sorrows’ with pint and brewery tour after England World Cup heartbreak

By Tony Jones, Press Association Court Correspondent

Britain's King Charles “drowned a few sorrows” after England’s dramatic World Cup exit with a pint he pulled with the Queen Camilla as they toured a brewery.

Charles sipped an amber ale made by Hall & Woodhouse Badger Brewery the day after England captain Harry Kane and his teammates lost their semi-final match 2-1 to Argentina.

Aided by Camilla the king poured a pint of Fursty Ferret, a best seller with the family-owned brewery based in the town of Blandford near Poole in Dorset.

Before tasting the 3.4 per cent popular ale Charles said with a wry smile: “Maybe it’s a good day to drown a few sorrows.”

The country is reeling after the last-gasp defeat for England manager Thomas Tuchel’s players with many fans likely to be nursing post-match hangovers despite the loss.

Charles and Camilla were taken on their tour of the brewery, which celebrates its 250th anniversary next year, meeting brewing and chef apprentices, and watched as the trainee cooks competed in a Master Chef-style competition.

Founded in 1777 by Charles Hall, a Dorset farmer who began brewing beer from his excess grain, today the company produces more than nine million pints of beer every year, employs more than 1,500 people, and runs around 140 pubs across the south of England.

At one point the king chatted to Paul Barnett, the brewery’s finance director, about the impact of the World Cup on the business, which has predominantly food-led pubs which do not have screens or show the football.

Barnett told Charles: “I’m quite relieved we’re out of the football because we don’t make so much money.”

During the visit, head brewer Toby Heasman presented the king with a bottle of Ale To The King, a very limited run of Coronation Ale first produced in 2023 when a few thousand were bottled to celebrate Charles’ crowning.

Charles was hosted by Anthony Woodhouse, brewery chairman and seventh generation of the Woodhouse family to work at the brewery, while his son Matt Woodhouse, head of marketing and hospitality, is the eighth generation.

The chairman said: “Fursty Ferret is our best-selling draught beer, it’s great to see Their Majesties pull that pint and have a drink.

“Our pubs don’t generally have television screens and screen football, it tends to be more food-led and things like that, we don’t tend to play football matches, we have a few but those that do did very well.”