CAMRA is not only about great real ale – but about great pubs. Our Pub of the Year (POTY) Competition also considers décor and cleanliness, service and welcome, community focus, pub atmosphere and alignment with CAMRA principles. The winner of our competition progresses into a County competition and can, ultimately progress through East Anglian Region and on to the National competition. We encourage members to join our judging teams. Our POTY year cycle starts in July.
July…
At the Branch Meeting a Branch POTY Co-ordinator is appointed.
October – November…
For POTY our Branch is split into four Zones loosely based around a similar number of pubs. At the October Branch Meeting four Zone Co-ordinators are appointed. The next part of the process then takes part in the four zones. By November the Zone Co-ordinators must have enlisted the help of at least 5 other local Branch Members (there is no upper limit) who are willing to judge and score all of the nominated pubs within that zone.
November – January…
The POTY selection process is confidential whilst it is taking place. The pubs ultimately to be considered are those that pass the final selection process for the forthcoming edition of the Good Beer Guide. Between late November and the end of January the Zone judges visit each of the pubs nominated and score them using CAMRA’s national POTY scoring sheet.
January…
With judging complete each Zone Co-ordinator totals the scores received for the pubs in their Zone and the names of the two highest scoring are passed to the Branch POTY Co-ordinator.
February…
The four Zone Co-ordinators and the Branch POTY Co-ordinator then form the Branch’s final judging team with the mission to visit and judge all eight (two per Zone) of the qualifying pubs.
March…
This final judging team (plus a female co-opted member should all of the Co-ordinators happen to be male – or vice versa) together anonymously visit all of the pubs, once again using the CAMRA national POTY scoring sheet. The scores are totalled, the highest scoring pubs winning Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards. In addition, Highly Commended awards can be made. The Gold winning pub then progresses through to the County competition.
April – May…
Award ceremonies (Branch socials) are then arranged between April – May to present the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. Articles are prepared for our magazine Pints of View.
Please visit the Members Section of this Website to find fuller details of our Branch POTY procedures and further information of the Hertfordshire, Regional and National rounds of the competition.