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.