Society is much more violent than it used to be: what it's really like being a landlord

YOU only really have to be good at two things – talking to people and pulling a good pint.”

Of course, Ian Crockard is joking.

He has more than 20 years experience running pubs and nightclubs across the county and left to set up a business training hundreds of licensees in a bid to stamp out alcohol-fuelled violence.

Today Ian has lifted the lid on some of the stresses and strains of being a pub landlord and he has two words to sum up the industry - hard graft.

It comes after this paper revealed how drunken thugs were jailed after they headbutted, punched and even glassed landlords in an ‘appalling spree of offences’ in Wimborne.

“It is part of the job,” said Ian.

“Society is much more violent than it used to be. People get drunk and you never know what mood they will come in with. Most of the time, the landlords handle it but occasionally it goes wrong.”

Ian is no stranger to violence. He has fended off a group of yobs brandishing baseball bats, wrestled a knife from a drunk who tried to stab him and has even had a thug threaten to come back with a gun and shoot him.

“You get people coming in after too much to drink swearing and shouting at bar staff. You ask them to leave and suddenly people want to kill you.

“We spent one evening on the door of a nightclub with police positioned up and around the street because they had intelligence someone had bought a gun and was coming back to shoot me.

“Another time, a young drunk chap decided he was going to try and stab me because we’d asked him to leave. He tried to stab me, he missed, I took the knife off him and we gently persuaded him to go home.

“Then a group of guys were irked we had barred them for misbehaviour and decided the best way to discuss the matter was to turn up with baseball bats. Luckily enough, friends turned up at the same time and the baseball team decided it wasn’t such a good idea.”

The extreme violence may be rare but for landlords long unsociable hours, often more than 90 hours a week and relentless pressure from a changing industry is the norm.

“It’s a hell of a job,” said Ian who got into the industry as a glass collector at 17 and left his last pub The Oak in Burton 13 years ago to set up Innpacked, a licensing consultancy firm based in Wimborne that offers courses across the UK.

“People seem to have an idealised vision of how brilliant it is to run a pub chatting away to customers and serving drinks.

“I was once told being a good landlord is treating being behind the bar as if it’s a stage because paying customers don’t deserve to come into pub and see a miserable landlord.

The 52-year-old, added: “It can be tough though. The beer bit is the easy bit. A typical day is up at 8am and working through until 1am the following day so there are days you literally just exist. It is a lifestyle though, not a job and I’ve had some brilliant times and made some brilliant friends. Most people who go out really enjoy themselves and that makes it worthwhile.”

As well as the risk of violence and unsociable hours, publicans have disasters to contend with too, which for many can put not only their business but their homes on the line.

Teela and Dee Liberty-Spark run 18th century thatched pub The Woolpack in Sopley which has boasted guests including Sir Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Hollywood star Greta Garbo.

It may look idyllic but the couple’s strength and determination has been tested to the limit.

Dee lost everything she owned when the pub was devastated by a fire in March 2008.

Before the 90 firefighters arrived on the scene, Dee recalls clambering onto the roof in desperation as flames ravaged its thatch.

“I could see the fire dancing along the top and I was desperately trying to put it out,” she said.

“I never once thought what was I doing on the roof. I never once thought this was stupid. I just had to try to save everything. It was devastating.”

One year later, Dee, who was previously a marathon runner and keen mountain biker, broke her back and after the breakdown of a long term relationship, left the village pub where she had worked as head chef for 10 years to travel in Australia.

Her luck changed in 2013 when she was overjoyed to take on the pub with her partner Teela.

That luck was short lived. The coffee machine broke in the first week costing £3,000 to install a top of the range replacement and the pub was flooded four times in the first year including some of their busiest days on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day.

Teela, said: “Looking back it was hell. There was water everywhere.

“We still managed to serve Christmas Day lunch for 60. We told one lady in her 80s we were concerned about the palettes we had put down and she just said: ‘Don’t be stupid, we are British.’ That summed it up and that is what kept us going, our customers.”

Last month the pair suffered yet more trouble when there were four crashes in as many weeks outside the pub which has wrecked fencing, lighting and landscaping in the grounds.

Dee said: “Life isn’t as glam as people think it is but I guess we are lucky we’re more ‘the glass is half full’ type of people.

“We’ve got such thick skin from the things we’ve overcome, that we won’t let anything get to us and I think that’s why people say it’s so homely here. Rather than dwell on problems, it’s about overcoming them.

“That’s what we all have to do. It might be a tough life but it’s pub life, and we wouldn’t change it for the world.”