A man has been crowned as the new world pie-eating champion after eating a meat and potato pie in 17 seconds flat.
Michael Chant, 43, beat the previous record holder Martin Appleton-Clare, who ate his pie in 23 seconds, at the event in Wigan, Manchester.
Star of Channel 5’s ’22 Kids and Counting’, Noel Radord, supplied the pies for the competition.
After claiming his trophy, Michael, of nearby Bury, said: ‘I’ve wanted to compete for a while but Covid stopped it for a couple of years and this was the first time since then I could enter.
‘I saw the previous quickest was 23 seconds and I thought I could probably eat two in that time. I’d been eating them in 12 seconds in practice, but these pies must be a bit bigger.’
Michael romped to victory after managing to finish his first pie in 15 seconds, but bosses said he’d dropped some filling on the floor, so he was forced to eat a second.
He’s already planning to enter next year’s competition, and said he shared his technique with the other entrants so they can have a ‘good battle’ next time.
‘He just picked it up and ate it from his hand. What I do is slap the bottom of the pie so it lifts from the foil and spin it round. That way you can eat it quicker,’ he said.
‘I’m going to watch my son’s nativity play and let him know his dad is a world champion.’
Two competitors were disqualified for eating too slowly. Dave Johnson, 54, and Gareth Jones, 49, both of Wigan, were red-carded after saying the pies were ‘too tasty’ to eat quickly.
Championship organiser Tony Callaghan said: ‘There were scandals all over the place – we had pies from outside Wigan, a winner not from Wigan and I dropped the trophy. Other than that, it was a very successful event and we love having something like this just before Christmas.’
Tony runs Harry’s Bar, which hosts the championship each year. He said he plans to send a meat and potato pie to Hallstatt Memory of Mankind in Austria.
The competition has been held annually in Wigan – where locals are known as pie eaters – since 1992.
Some say the nickname comes from local miners ‘eating humble pie’ after going back to work during the general strike in 1926.
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