It's World Cup fever in Booths' beer aisles

l Booths' beer buyer Dave Smith with some of his World Cup squad

April 15, 2006: Booths supermarkets are offering a selection of 18 beers from competing World Cup countries for the duration of the tournament.

Booths also has an array of more than 120 English ales available throughout the tournament, each of which will be on promotion on the day of each England match.

For his international beer squad, Booths' beer buyer Dave Smith has spent months searching for the very top performers from the competing countries and has amassed an impressive line up with premiership beers from England, Germany, Poland, Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden, Argentina, the Netherlands, Mexico, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Australia, Japan, France, South Korea, Spain and the USA. Each international beer will be available to taste at Booths stores throughout the competition.

The final list of English ales remains Dave’s closely guarded secret until England’s first game. But with over 120 of the UK’s finest ales at the peak of physical condition, Booths is believed to hold the widest World Cup selection of this nation’s favourite tipple.

Dave, who has been Booths’ beer-buyer for more than 15 years, is convinced he has chosen a line up that will appeal to England fans.

He said: “I’m very confident with the line-up we’re playing in our opening match against Paraguay. I’ve got a solid 'four-four-112-plus' formation including an unbeatable front line, with top players like Bateman's XXB, Copper Dragon Challenger IPA, Hawkshead Gold, Young's Champion Live, Black Sheep Emmerdale Fine Dale Ale, JW Lees' John Willies Champion Ale, Hop Back Summer Lightning, Thwaites Premium Thoroughbred and Badger Tanglefoot.

“Our last trophy was the beer supermarket of the year 2000, and we’re confident we can repeat that award-winning performance with our World Cup beers. I only hope England is as well-prepared."