A shortlist of three pubs were judged against CAMRA criteria to select our Pub of the Year for 2026 and we did the same thing for our Cider Pub of the Year competition..

CAMRA criteria for both competitions can be seen here::CAMRA POTY detailed judging criteria. and our agreed Branch process for selection is set out underneath the pictures..

The winning pub for 2026 is the Bell & Bear in Emberton. So, Branch Chair, Jo Sidebottom, presented its joint managers, Reon Lewis and Joe Shipton, with our winner's certificate at a branch social on 19 March..

She also presented them with the Cider Pub of the Year certificate, which they also won:

The Bell & Bear will now go forward to the Regional pub of the year competitions:

If you want to see our Branch's Pubs of the Year since 2002, you can download a list here Branch Pubs of the Year since 2002

Pub of the Year – Milton Keynes & North Bucks Branch process:

Timescale

1.Produce a long list at the October meeting.

2.Reduce to a short list maximum of three pubs at the November meeting; no short-listed pubs should have an NBSS beer score average of less than 3.0.

3.Make final decision at March meeting.

4.Members should be emailed and invited to make recommendations for both the long list and the short list. However, although members can submit their views and scores for the short-listed pubs by email before the March meeting, email cannot be used for the final decisions at the March meeting.

Considerations:

5. We need to involve as many members as possible.

6. No requirement for visiting the pub very recently, but members will have been expected to have visited a pub before commenting on it.

7. We will organise socials at each of the short-listed pubs.

8. The same PotY should not be chosen in consecutive years.

9. CAMRA’s criteria will be used as the basis for decision making and members will be encouraged to score all short-listed pubs against the CAMRA criteria.

Final decision-making at the March meeting

10. The annual average scores – as used for GBG decision-making – will be used for the Beer Quality component of the CAMRA criteria. (A pub averaging a minimum of less than 3.0 cannot be POTY.)

11. Members’ scores for pubs (using the CAMRA criteria) should be submitted by a cut-off date 2-3 days before the meeting. These scores will be made known to the meeting.

12. Members who have been unable to score some or all of the short-listed pubs will, nonetheless, be invited to comment on the different elements of the CAMRA criteria for pubs they have visited or know about.

13. Members will seek to reach an objective decision on each pub against the CAMRA criteria, based on the scores from members and the views of those unable to score – essentially trying to reach a “feels fair” score for each pub relative to the others.

14. Our Pub of the Year will be the pub with the highest score using the CAMRA criteria.

Club of the Year and Cider Pub of the Year

15. The same guidelines will apply to any Club of the Year or Cider Pub of the Year decisions, except that pubs might also be invited to self-nominate for the long list for Cider POTY.