PATHOLOGIST Mike Penney has a pressing weekend assignment. At work he is at the frontier of forensic medicine, off-duty his attention turns to the age-old skill of turning apples into cider. Ceri Hillier reports.

The finest produce of the orchards of Gwent will be taken, tested and tasted at the first Welsh Cider Festival.

And among the proud producers will be Mike Penney - a pathologist with a penchant for perry.

Mr Penny - director of pathology at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport - will be among those exhibiting their cider and perry at the festival.

Although he has not yet decided what to take he has plenty to choose from - his cellar contains 2,000 bottles, 1,000 of which are 1995 vintage perry.

Dr Penney started making Troddi Seidr when he moved into his Earlswood home more than 17 years ago.

He realised the orchards produced more fruit than could ever be eaten - and turned to cider-making.

He said: "We went to the then Usk College where they had a cider-making press. People used to go from all over the area and take a few apples and get the juice. That's what started me off."

In 1985 Dr Penney planted proper cider apple trees and later 90 pear trees to make the perry.

He said: "Last year we made 3,500 litres. We get through 300 litres ourselves and sell the rest at beer festivals. But I have to sell wholesale because we are not licensed premises." Mr Penney mashes the fruit in his 18th century Scratter mill and the finished product sells at £5 per gallon for cider and no less than £4 a bottle for perry.

The Welsh Cider Festival and Championships takes place between May 10 and 12 at the Clytha Arms - regular meeting place of the Welsh Cider Society - on the old Abergavenny to Raglan road.

Pub owner Andrew Canning - thought to be the only publican to make his own perry for sale - said seven cider makers from around Wales would put up 12 ciders and perries for a blind tasting by judges.

Mr Canning, 45, made 40 gallons from the pears off the trees in the pub garden and from other perry pear trees last year.

He said of the festival: "This is the first we are doing and we don't know what the response will be but I expect we will sell out of cider by the Sunday."

The Welsh Cider Society was formed last June and work on organising the Welsh Cider Festival and Championships has been undertaken since Christmas.

Cardiff-based Alan Goulding, who along with colleague Dave Matthews, makes Dave's Cyder out of fruit picked in orchards near Raglan, said the society was formed to help people make cider.

Details about the society can be found at its web site at www.welshcider.co.uk.

*PICTURED: Mike Perry with his cider press.