MORE than 200 people crammed into church for the funeral of retired pub landlord Micky Honnor.

The popular former publican’s friends and customers filled the Hope United Reformed Church in Weymouth with dozens standing in the packed entrance hall to listen to lay preacher Geoff Tizzard-King’s service.

Micky was remembered for the 40 years that he ran the Chapelhay Tavern in Weymouth with his wife Eileen and Mr Tizzard-King remembered his own trips to the pub.

He recalled Micky banning the ‘yuppies’ that visited when the pub was listed on the prestigious Egon Ronay food guide.

Mr Tizzard-King said Christmas was ‘a great time of year to say farewell to a great character who lived his life to the full and who – as we can see in this packed church – touched so many with his humour, sense of fun and generosity of spirit’.

He asked the visitors to raise an imaginary glass and say ‘cheers Micky’, before saying ‘time at the bar’ for him for the last time.

Micky lost his two-year battle with bowel cancer at Dorset County Hospital on Tuesday, December 14, aged 75.

He was cremated at Weymouth Crematorium after the service and his friends then gathered at Weymouth Working Men’s Club to share their memories.

Barry Talbot, 76, of Westhill Road, Weymouth, said: “He was a character and I’m proud to have been one of his friends.

“He was a wonderful man and everybody here had a wonderful time when they were with him.

“You’ll never meet a better bloke.”

Cliff Taylor, 65, of Dorset Close, Weymouth, remembered how Micky came to see him when he worked in South Africa and stopped his car at the side of the motorway to ask for directions.

Mr Taylor said: “He wanted to go to the zoo so the police escorted him there and waited outside to bring him back to my place when he’d finished.”

Micky’s sister Carol Hayne, 68, said she was proud to see so many at the funeral and how pleased the family had been with Mr Tizzard-King’s service.

Micky’s wife Eileen put £1,000 behind the bar.

She joked that if Micky was watching, he would have said ‘look at all those people drinking away all my money’.