Barmaid Gemma Humphries pulls in customers by memorising their favourite tipple.

Gemma, who works at The Red Lion in High Street, Islip, picked up the Inn Partnership award for committing the drinks of 100 regulars to memory.

She said: "We serve a really wide range of drinks at The Red Lion, so it takes some remembering to match the regulars to their tipple!"

Now Gemma, 20, who lives in the village, is a member of the 100 Club, which aims to maintain top standards of customer care. Landlord Frank Butler was confident that Gemma, who has worked at the pub for a year, would soon be able to memorise 200 customers' orders.

He said: "Gemma is very popular with all our customers. She has a great rapport with them and, because she is a local girl, she finds it very easy to remember what people are drinking. "She is so good at it that some people say she must have a photographic memory.

"I see no reason why she shouldn't reach the 200 mark, because she reached her 100 total so quickly.

"Working behind the bar is a hard job, particularly when we are busy, so when Gemma has a night off she sometimes pops in for a relaxing pint of lager."

Gemma won a £25 gift voucher and badge.

Story date: Tuesday 04 May

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.