1. Both pubs in a tie are visited on the same day, rated and then compared. The pub with the highest rating on the day goes through to the next round
2. Judging must be undertaken by the three of the four regular judges. Guest judges may join for some ties after being vetted.
3. Judges each record their own marks and must not discuss the marking until their marks are written down

4. The marking consists of 10 categories which are marked out of 5. The marks are totaled up, averaged between the three judges and then doubled to produce a percentage. The categories are as follows.

5. 1	Beer Range	Range of draught beer is most important
   2	Beer Quality
   3	Beer Price
   4	Bar Staff Efficiency
   5	Bar Staff - Attractiveness
   6	Atmosphere	Includes friendliness and clientele
   7	Décor	Includes seating
   8	Music	Marked up for live bands & jukeboxes, down if too loud to talk
   9	Toilets
   10	Misc	5 points for other items, including late licenses, pulling

6. Marks of 2 are average, 1 & 0 are less than average, 3, 4, & 5 are more than average. From this, a mark of over 40% is above average.
7. Pubs are drawn in a home team and an away team. The away team is visited first and has the disadvantage of more sobriety, the home team is visited later.
8. If an away pub is closed at time of visit, it is marked down and home pub is visited first, away pub is then returned to. If home pub is not open, or if away pub is still not open upon return then they are deemed to have forfeited the round. If both are closed, tie is replayed.
9. ADDED 10/03/02 Any pub that refuses entry to a member of the judging team for reasons of race, clothing, footwear, religion, accent, occupation / lack of or sexual orientation will be disqualified from the competition.

For the 2nd round we have recinded rule 2. Pubs are now marked out of 10 and catagory 6 is now Bar Staff appearance.