A RECORD-breaking pub landlord who has raised thousands of pounds for charity will join the management team of another Basingstoke pub.

Richard Curtis, manager of the Portsmouth Arms in Hatch Warren, has announced he will also be working for the Hall and Woodhouse sister pub the Holly Blue.

The pub, at the Island site in Beggarwood, opened during lockdown.

Rich, 32, says he is looking forward to the challenge and wants the pub to be involved in more community fundraising.

"I am here to bring it up to the standard we got the Portsmouth Arms up to," he told The Gazette.

"For me it is a beautiful pub, it is Basingstoke's newest and most well invested pub and it is to bring some of the successes to the Holly Blue as well."

He added: "This is a really exciting time to be working in one of Basingstoke's newest and most beautiful pubs, me and my family have really made this town home, I can’t wait to meet more of the Holly Blue's lovely guests."

Originally from Hertfordshire, Rich moved to Basingstoke two and a half years ago to take over at the Portsmouth Arms, and says that after living in many towns, he's that his future is settled.

Last year, he took the town by storm after breaking the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest marathon as a quiz master with a quiz that lasted 34 hours and 11 minutes. He also raised £21.5k for The Pink Place Cancer Charity in Basingstoke in the process.

And he was given a British Empire Medal in the New Years Honours for his services to charity and to the community in Hampshire during the Covid-19 response.

Rich's exact role at the pub will be confirmed in January.