Island Life Magazine Ltd February / March 2016 | Page 104

FOOD

Pub takeover is dream come true

S

am Shaw’s route to becoming
licensee at Arreton’s popular
Fighting Cocks pub is not what
you’d call the most orthodox!
In fact, Isle of Wight born and bred
Sam finished his ‘A’ levels at Medina
High School and looked firmly set for
a career in the motor trade when he
started full time work in the family
business, Shaw’s Garage at East Street
in Ryde.
On his days off, he would often be
found at the then Fishbourne Garage
with owner the late Ron White tutoring
him in the art of car sales. He also
enjoyed working weekends as a part
time salesman at Winter’s Garage in
Havenstreet.
However, it was yet another part-time
job that fired Sam’s enthusiasm for the
pub trade. The then owner of the White
Hart at Havenstreet, the late Alex Tracey,

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welcomed him as a member of the bar
staff in the evenings and Sam took to it
like a duck to water, vowing that one day
he would run his own pub.
The garage continued to be his focus
though, and on the retirement of his
parents, Margaret and Gerald in the
early 2000s, he put huge energy into
driving the business forward, heading
up an eventual team of 10 who put the
independent family garage firmly on the
Island map in providing a comprehensive
service to local motorists - particularly
focussing on the fast advancing world of
computer diagnostics and electronics.
Sam’s vow to run his own pub finally
materialised last year, when the
opportunity arose for him and his wife
Donna, to realise their dream of taking
over a licenced premises.
It came about in the form of the
Fighting Cocks, a flourishing business

with a great reputation built up over the
previous eight summers by their good
friends Micala and Phil Mew.
Many months of planning and
reorganisation proved a huge challenge