The Fat Cat pub in Norwich is looking for a hat-trick of national titles, after winning this year's Camra Norwich and Norfolk Pub of the Year award.

The West End Street pub won the 'City' pub of the year in this year's local award and then beat the 'rural' pub of the year, the Green Dragon in Wymondham, to claim the Branch Pub of the Year title for the third time.

The Fat Cat will now go forward into the next round of the national pub of the year competition, which it won on both the previous times it reached this stage.

The pub, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last December, has also won the Good Beer Guide Beer Pub of the Year a record four times, and is renowned for its vast selection of up to 30 real ales. Landlord Colin Keatley said: 'I'm quite overwhelmed. The last times we won the branch title we then won the national awards, and we were the first pub at that time to win the national award twice. This is the first time we have won the local award in eight years – the other time was in 1998 – and we are very pleased.

'The interesting thing is that my brother, John Keatley, runs the Fat Cat pub in Ipswich, which won the Suffolk award, so we will we going head to head in the next round, the regional competition.'

David Bear, joint landlord at the Green Dragon in Wymondham, said: 'I think it's an excellent achievement, as we have only been here two years and we only keep four bitter pumps on. We do keep the beer well and are constantly turning them over with different beers on every day.'

The Evening News has been urging people to return to pubs in our Love your Local campaign.

To see more stories from the campaign visit www.eveningnews24.co.uk/loveyourlocal.

What are you celebrating at your local pub? Call reporter David Bale on 01603 772427 or email david.bale2@archant.co.uk.