Don't worry

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Taken from http://www.philtaylorphoto.f9.co.uk/black_puddings.htm

 

 

The World Black Pudding Throwing Championships

 

The best bit about shooting features is that you get to see the wackier side of life, cricket for the blind is an attempt at making a sport accessible for the disabled. Throwing Black Puddings at a collection of Yorkshire Puddings high up on a pub wall is on the edge of the insane.

 

For the benefit of overseas visitors a Black Pudding is a type of sausage made from congealed pigs blood with spices and lumps of fat, wrapped in a length of intestine. The town of Bury in Lancashire is famous for the production of this regional delicacy along with tripe (cows stomach), and elder (steamed cows udder). The Pudding Throwing takes place at the Corner Pin pub in Stubbins, a village adjacent to Ramsbottom, you don't get much better than that for comic Northenness. Perhaps the pudding ingredients explain why there have been no competitors from the Middle East when I have visited to cover the event.

 

The aim of the game is to throw a Black Pudding that has been 'swaddled' or wrapped in a pair of ladies tights at collection of Yorkshire Puddings ( if you don't know, do a search on the web for the recipe, this is a Lancashire site) on a plinth 20 feet up on the side of the pub wall. To a competitor standing on the 'Golden Grid' introduced by a member of the media in 2001 for pictorial effect, it's a difficult task as only an underarm throw can be used.

 

 

 

To anyone that doubts the seriousness of this event, let me tell you that it gets competitors from South Africa and Australia on a regular basis. 2002 saw two Australian Commonwealth Games volunteers staying on especially to compete. The puddings are of a special competition weight, prepared by Chadwick's of Bury. The Yorkshire Puddings have been the source of much controversy over the years. In rainy weather the puddings can absorb water making them heavy and difficult to dislodge requiring frequent changing. In 2002 a decision was made to use frozen Yorkshires, this caused the puddings to freeze together which caused some of the lowest scores ever.

 

There's always a lot of media attention with crews from the regional TV stations and Sky News. On one occasion we had six press photographers, two regional TV crews and a bemused German crew making a film about British eccentrics clamouring for shots of the winning pudding dislodging the Yorkshires, a difficult task as the best shot can only be done from the ladder leading to the plinth holding the target.

 

Interviews are always done in absolutely deadpan fashion, as after all it's a very serious sport. I've seen cameramen trying hard not to snigger as the complexities of such terms as 'lob on' and the controversies of the Australian pudding line throwing method are explained for the benefits of a world audience.

 

In 2001 the event was sponsored by Kellogg's Fruit and Fibre who provided the prizes for the 'throw a wobbler' award, judged by Ben Le Vay, author of eccentric Britain. Ben was astonished as entertainer Clyde Harbottle from Oldham dressed as a six foot white rabbit prepared to throw his puddings. Ben said, "I thought I was hallucinating when I saw the rabbit next to me." Clyde won the 'throw a wobbler' competition for the most eccentric throwing technique.

 

In 2002 the winner was Stephen Pilkington from Greenmount, Bury. He was just passing, decided it would be fun, and gained himself the accolade of the Golden Pudding. Will big Jim Riley be back from Brisbane this year or will the youngest ever winner Sean Taylor from Stubbins who at the age of 8 became joint world champion in 2001 win again.

 

The work on this page was commissioned by Kellogg's in 2001 and by Ananova in 2002. It has also been used by the Bolton Evening News, Radcliffe Times and Bury Times usually as a double page spread. If you are sent to cover this event don't forget Pudding Throwing is taken very seriously up North.

 

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Don't worry pudding fans , i was not hurt in this extream use of black pudding projectiles !

 

 

all the best yis yp :yp:

[red_stag88]

:yp:

 

I love the stuff.