Sheffield have just announced their pub of the year 2013.
The KIT has won it for the last 9 years, but this years winner is Shakespeares its near neighbour.
Sheffield have just announced their pub of the year 2013.
The KIT has won it for the last 9 years, but this years winner is Shakespeares its near neighbour.
A pub is for life not just for Christmas
Which might now be the ideal time to get those pics of it shuttered and boarded relegated away from showing on the main listing!?
Done. Sorry, should have thought of it before.
Come On You Hatters!
I'm reliably informed that out of 1300 Camra members in the Sheffield area, 42 submitted voting forms. This comment is not meant to suggest that the Shakespeare is not a worthy winner, because obviously the same argument could be applied to the previous nine years when the Kelham Island Tavern was voted the pub of the year here in Sheffield. I am just a little disturbed to discover that a decision that can have large consequences for the livelihoods of the people who work in these pubs is taken by such a small proportion of the electorate.
Come On You Hatters!
When I was involved with the CAMRA branch many many years ago GBG selections were decided by the Committee, although I'm sure members who turned up to the branch meetings could bend their ear about alternatives.
I think your concerns about the livelihoods of the KIT staff are unrealistic. The GBG and CAMRA doesn't really have that much clout in my opinion. I've heard of the KIT and have never been to Sheffield! If the Shakespeare is literally round the corner then people other than regulars will visit both. The only problem is if one of the pubs has excessively higher prices than the other.
I think that most people doing a real ale crawl of Sheffield will do both. We did a couple of weeks or so ago when last up there. Don't think it will affect either that much.
On the voting, I think most members fail to do scoring of pubs which is a shame, but that is the way of it in most voting cases. The minority who care enough will win the day so those who don't vote can't moan.
Alcohol doesn't solve problems .... but then again, neither does milk.
I think more people would vote for GBG entries if they didn't have to write a 5,000 word dissertation about the place. I took one look at my local branch's form and gave up immediately. All they need is a few lines, the rating of the beer in the pub (1-10), the date visited and a Yes/No should the pub go in the GBG. An optional description should be provided to explain why it was found to be brilliant, complete rubbish or just average.
I have been doing the stubbies or scoring for 11 years now, and I have never seen such a form. I go on line now on the CAMRA site, find the pub and enter the date and give it a score from 0 to 5. That's it. I think the form you mean is the one they complete when they do the surveys.
If a branch can enter 20 pubs in the guide, I think they look at the top 25 to 30 pubs from the stubbies which are completed (for all pubs in the area, not just GBG ones). They then go round those 25 - 30 to do a full survey, and from that they select the 20 for the GBG guide. That's my understanding of the system, but I may be wrong.
Alcohol doesn't solve problems .... but then again, neither does milk.
Thanks for pointing that out Gill, I've been looking at the local branch site, and yes the form is one that is used for the actual survey so is useless for just making a suggestion.
I'll have a look at the main CAMRA site, I only recently discovered that the 1974 and the prototype GBG are downloadable from there.