We speak to long-term Rover's Return manager Mark Rossiter ahead of his departure from the beloved Douglas pub

Transcript

00:00So here we are in the Rovers return and I'm with Mark Roster here and Mark

00:03there's a quite a big announcement come out with the Rovers recently it's one of

00:06my favorite pubs tell us a bit about why decisions being made and where you guys

00:10are going. So yeah so myself and my brother have been here for quite a long

00:13time Guy especially. Guy's been around the pub for about 18 years I joined him a

00:18long time ago. I was his assistant manager for quite a long time and when he moved on I

00:23moved into the landlord role. Yeah just time to move on out the catering game

00:28unfortunately the hospitality I'm not getting any younger. Did late nights

00:33early mornings you know it's one of those things so unfortunately it's time

00:36to move on from a long career been doing it since I was about 16 so. Wow it's a

00:40long time and there's I'd say the Rovers is quite a unique pub but what do you

00:44think makes it so special why do you think people enjoy it so much there's

00:46always a regular busy crowd and isn't there so. Yeah it's it's not just a pub

00:49it's more of a community you know we don't just do things individually

00:52everyone gets involved and you you're next to your lawyers your brickies your

00:57clubbers everyone just gets on anyone from the finance sector you know it's

01:00it's just a community everyone has fun. Absolutely and you've been here for that

01:05long now you must have some nice memories and vivid memories of some of

01:09the some of the nights gone by can you tell us a few of them. Yeah there's a few

01:12I can tell you there's a few I can't I can tell you that as well there's been a

01:16few instance with mobility scooter racing that was a that was an interesting

01:19one obviously the the team and the customers themselves are a big part of

01:24the pub as I've just mentioned it is a community and the customers themselves

01:29Sean pop his head around the corner trying to be funny when we do things

01:34like the Viking longboats we wouldn't fancy dress for five years in a row

01:37really well that was like miss myself Anita and brother guy Hoss Quayler but

01:43was literally 40 was we did the Roman Centurions one year we did Lego

01:48characters another year yeah so it's just a bit yeah just a bit of fun you

01:53and people will be watching this and they'll be concerned that the Rovers is

01:56going anywhere you can reassure us that the Rovers is staying but you're not is

01:59that what's happening that's that's exactly it myself and brother this place

02:02will always be here we'll still come down have a pint it was here a long time

02:06ago it was here in our time it'll be here long after so can you tell us

02:10anything more about what the future looks like or do you not know yourself

02:12it's just gonna be the same it's the Rovers I mean you don't want to change

02:16anything it's not broken so why fix it you know