Two lifelong Stockport County fans say it's a 'pleasure and a privilege' to launch a gin for a departing Hatters legend.

Paul and Cheryl Sharrocks, who started Stockport Gin from their garage seven years ago, are set to distil the special tipple to mark the testimonial of Edgeley Park goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe.

The 38-year-old shot-stopper will leave the club after a farewell match against his hometown club Preston North End on August 1, but he also has a series of events over the summer to mark the end of a special career.

"He's got a golf day, he's got a game, he's got a gala dinner, and he just approached us and asked if we'd be up for making a celebration gin," Paul told Nub News from his St Petersgate base. "We snapped his hand off."

"We've got a gin school upstairs, so he's been in and developed it, telling us what he likes and what he doesn't.

"It's a classic dry gin. It's distilled with plenty of juniper, but it's also got blackcurrant, blackberry and pink peppercorns. It's a completely different combination of botanicals to anything else we make, so it'll go in the still and be in full production next week in time for the launch.

"We've set a launch date for June 22 at Bask. We put tickets out for it last Friday and it had already sold out by Saturday lunchtime."

Some of the delicious gins available at Stockport Gin (Image - Ian Burke)

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Paul and Cheryl are both County obsessives and met when they played Torquay back in 2006. It's a passion they've passed onto their two kids, sticking with the club through the dark days when they seemed stuck in the National League North, which is where the Hatters were when ex-manager Jim Gannon signed him in 2016.

The family have seen all the great moments of the past few seasons, in which Ben made more than 400 appearances, became the first Hatters goalie to keep more than 100 clean sheets, and claimed three league championships to become their most decorated player.

"He's one of the all-time great County players, right up there as a Hall of Famer," Paul said. "We'll never see another player do what he's done at County.

"Ben will be there at the launch at Bask on June 22nd and that'll be people's first chance to get hold of a bottle of the gin. It'll go on general sale to the public the following day. One batch will do us around 85 bottles, but we think that we'll need two or three batches. There'll be plenty to go around.

"It's £40 for a 70cl bottle – we're not doing any miniatures – and proceeds from that will go towards Ben's testimonial fund, as will proceeds from the tickets from the launch event. He's using the fund to support a local charity as well, so anything we can do to help him is a pleasure and a privilege."

Hinchliffe may be the first goalkeeper to have a gin named after him, but he's not the first custodian to be honoured by drink.

Former Derby County and Estonian number one Mart Poom had a beer called The Poominator brewed for him by an ecstatic Sunderland fan after he scored an equaliser for them against Poom's old club in 2003.

Find more information about Stockport Gin here.

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