Looking back through my reviews of pubs visited in 2019, I have scored 14 pubs on 8, three pubs on 9 and three more on 10. I've always been cautious about awarding 10s (only eight in the previous eight years I've been writing reviews), so a word of explanation is needed. In April I went on a bike ride, or rather a series of rides linked by train journeys, in the south east. My purpose was to visit some of the pubs that had been recommended by members of this site (see this thread). So it's hardly surprising that two of them scored 10. The other was a well-deserved upgrading of one of my regular haunts in Sheffield.

10

The Blake Hotel, Sheffield
Halfway House, Brenchley
The Bell Inn, Aldworth

9

The Swan with Two Necks, Pendleton
The Red Lion, Preston, Herts
Black Horse Hotel, Preston, Lancs

And of course, it's not a coincidence that three out of these six are among the four finalists in Camra's national pub of the year, as I went to two of them after they had been announced, specifically to complete the set.