Rules

The below rules have been set out by the Worth a Butchers (W.A.B) committee.

Last update: February 2024

W.A.B committee

The W.A.B committee are ultimately responsible for the organisation and running of the W.A.B competition.

Definition of a pub

W.A.B defines a pub as being a designated building dedicated to the primary consumption of serving alcohol and drinks and registered as a Public House. A pub may serve food, and have a function room but this should not be at the expense or prevent people from having a drink.

W.A.B does not visit bars (including sports bars), hotels, clubs (private or public), restaurants, theatres, breweries and distilleries (unless they have a dedicated tap room), night clubs, coffee shops (including those with an alcohol license unless they serve keg or cask beer) or cafés (including those with an alcohol license unless they serve keg or cask beer) . W.A.B does include micropubs, tap rooms and craft beer houses.

A venue which has previously been included in the competition and has since been renovated may be included in the competition on legacy grounds.

Competition date

W.A.B will take place once per calendar year. Whilst the event will normally take place during the summer months, the event can take place at any point throughout the year.

The date of the event will be determined by the W.A.B committee and published in advance.

Location

W.A.B takes place in Maidstone, Kent, United Kingdom.

Every pub is visited within one mile of the centre of Maidstone. The centre of Maidstone is defined as 1 mile as the crow flies from the Queens Monument (What3words: ///back.pops.tribal).

Duration

Every pub is visited within one standard trading day.

If a pub is unable to be visited on the day of the competition, they may be included in the competition if they have been visited by a minimum of two people within two weeks of the competition.

There is no minimum or maximum time duration that each judge must stay within a venue, however each venue must be given sufficient time to fairly and equally be judged.

Judges

Anyone who participates in the competition and meets the minimum requirements will be considered as a ‘judge’ for the day:

A judge must have visited a minimum of 60% of the pubs on the day of the competition.

There is no requirement for alcohol to be consumed to be a judge, however the judge must have consumed a drink (soft or alcohol) in a minimum of 40% of the pubs visited.

A judge must have purchased a minimum of two drinks throughout the competition. This can include purchasing rounds.

A judge may visit a pub(s) regularly outside of W.A.B, therefore care should be given to prevent unfair biasness to these estabilishments.

A pub may be ‘judged’ and therefore included in W.A.B if it’s been visited by a minimum of two people.

Scoring

The competition is ranked using the mean average scores of five categories: Real Ale, Friendliness of Staff, Facilities, Value for Money, and Atmosphere.

Every category is marked out of a score of 100, meaning every pub has the chance to score a maximum of 500 points.

Each year a member of the W.A.B committee is assigned the role of adjudicator. This person is responsible for collecting in the score sheets at the end of the night and calculating the scores.

At the end of the competition every qualifying judge will hand their scoresheet into the adjudicator.

The adjudicator should mark all scores within 48 hours of the final pub being visited. They may ask another member of the W.A.B committee for support.

The adjudicator will use the mean average to calculate every category score for every pub, taking care to make sure that each pub is only averaged by the amount of judges who visited and scored that pub.

Once all averages for every category for every pub is calculated, the average score from each category is added to give that pub their average total for the year.

Once all pub totals are calculated, they are ranked from largest to smallest. The winner will be determined as the pub who has the highest average score. Second place will be the pub which has the second highest average score and so forth. This will give the total score table for the year.

In the unlikely event of a tie, the pubs tied will share that position within the league table unless they have finished first.

In the event that first place is tied, the winner will be determined using the follow metrics:

1. Highest total average score

2. Highest Real Ale average score

3. Highest Atmosphere average score

4. Highest Value for Money average score

5. Highest Friendliness of Staff average score

6. Highest Facilities average score

7. The highest improvement from the previous years score.

If the score still remains tied, then the W.A.B committee will vote to determine the winner.

In the event that a category is tied, it will be up to the W.A.B committee to vote to determine the category winner.