GROWING up, I spent enormous amounts of time and money collecting Panini football stickers.

I’d spend hours wading through bundles of spares looking for an elusive Luton Town striker, or the Greenock Morton goalkeeper.

Now, out of nowhere, I suddenly find I’m at it again. Not with football stickers though – but pubs.

I picked up a copy of York Camra’s new Ale Trail challenge last week and am hooked.

The task is to visit as many of the 24 pubs as possible by the end of August and, as proof, to pick up the relevant sticker at each one.

It is simultaneously a great and an awful idea. Brilliant because it helps encourage people to get down their local pub, which can only be good for landlords in these difficult times.

Awful, because I can see it turning me into a geeky collector again, trying to work out if it's feasible to get from the office to Fulford or Acomb and back again, just to plug a gap on my card.

So far I’ve clocked up five of the pubs in as many days, which is a reasonable start I think.

The pick of the crop for me so far was in my current local, the Waggon and Horses in Lawrence Street, where I had a pint of Hook Norton’s Haymaker (5% ABV).

I’d never encountered it before and was hugely impressed – it’s sweet, fruity and was brilliantly refreshing on a hot summer evening.

I was going to say it’s well worth a try, but when I popped in again last night the stock had run out. In its place was Everards Sunchaser (4% ABV), a similarly light and enjoyable ale but not as crisp as the Haymaker.

Before I go, I ought to offer some form of belated introduction here. The Press used to run a “Bar talk” column, which fell by the wayside when its regular writer departed a few years ago.

Somewhat belatedly, I am now taking over. I feel a bit like this post is the first pint on what will hopefully be a long, long bar-crawl!

If any of you landlords, brewers or fellow drinkers out there want to drop me a line with suggestions, news or details of your forthcoming events, it’d be great to hear from you.