Monday 12 March 2018

Just to keep you guessing



Saturday’s Pub of the Year tour worked out well in the end, despite a mix-up over the initial  pick-up time, which saw us milling around outside Tunbridge Wells station, kicking our heels and champing at the bit.

Fortunately all was not lost, as having been advised of the revised collection time, we were able to reschedule our itinerary and  “knock off” one of the Tunbridge Wells pubs first.

We had a really good day and visited six excellent pubs; all potential winners of Pub of the Year, and all fine establishments in their own right. One thing many of us found, and I know I did, is scoring pubs according to the strict criteria laid down by CAMRA, is hard work. People might scoff at this, but it really does require a lot of thought and consideration to  score pubs accurately and as objectively as possible.

I would like to think I did this to the best of my ability, and I’m pretty certain that my travelling companions will have done the same. It’s all a lot different to the situation the branch found itself in a decade or so ago, when several regulars from one particular short-listed pub, booked themselves on the tour, and then promptly awarded that pub full marks in each section. As if they hadn’t already revealed their bias towards their favourite pub, they then proceeded to give low marks to the remaining five pubs.

Fortunately this attempt at vote swinging was so blatantly obvious, that it stood out like a sore thumb, and the votes of these individuals were discarded. Regrettably, it left the branch feeling wary of running this type of tour in the future, so Saturday’s trip was  deliberately kept low-key, in so much that it was not widely advertised, and restricted to members who were known and trusted.

Some might view this as elitism, but in truth the fact that such a tour was taking place, was made known to all those who bother to attend socials, or other branch events, and therefore those who put in the effort to turn up at CAMRA functions were those given the opportunity to participate in this important selection process. Personally I think this is not only fair, but also a just reward for all those who make the effort in the first place.

A full report of the pub tour will follow in due course, but for now I'll just say that whilst all six finalists were of a very high standard, there was one pub which for me, stood head and shoulders above the rest. Whether my fellow travellers/pub surveyors, thought the same, remains to be seen, but we will find out the results soon enough.

In the meantime the photos might provide a few clues as to the identity of the six finalists; especially to anyone living locally, or familiar with the pubs of West Kent.

3 comments:

Russtovich said...

"we were able to reschedule our itinerary and “knock off” one of the Tunbridge Wells pubs first."

Well done that! :)

"they then proceeded to give low marks to the remaining five pubs."

Ugh. :(

"Personally I think this is not only fair, but also a just reward for all those who make the effort in the first place."

Completely agree.

" especially to anyone living locally, or familiar with the pubs of West Kent."

That lets me out. (LOL)

But, with that said, some nice photos. Love the 'ladies montage' one, especially the girl on the left (rolls eyes) and reading the menu one is making me hungry! (luckily supper time is right around the corner after a walk in the woods - it got over 60F here today!)

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Interesting post and I agree about the voting. My marks were an honest opinion of what I genuinely thought of the beer, pub and community. At the start of the tour it was not important to me which pub won and I went to support the branch, catch up with people and have a good day. Sadly, this is not the case for everyone and still felt their was some bias towards a pub. To be honest, the branch needs more participation by a wider variety of people to make the voting have real value. However, it does look like the best pub came through despite this.
Love to Eileen and so pleased she’s getting better. Andrea x

Paul Bailey said...

I agree with many of the sentiments you express Andrea, especially those about the tour being a good day out, and a chance to catch up with people. The latter was particularly important for me, after not having had much opportunity for socialising during the first two months of the year.

Thank you for your kind words about Eileen. She is recovering well, and apart from being a little slow on her feet, is virtually back to her old self.

I agree it would be good if we could get more people involved, especially as we have over 600 members on our books. Getting them to participate though is a real challenge. There were four spare seats on the mini-bus, but despite the opportunity of a free trip, around some of the best pubs in the area, there were still no takers.

I’ve just learned that the official announcement of the winning pub will be made at next week’s committee meeting. I won’t spill the beans, even though I now know the result; but this sort of secretive behaviour is unlikely to encourage “armchair members” to play a more active role.

ps. Really glad I’m no longer on the committee!