The World Pie Eating Championships

Competition in the past has been so fierce that gravy has been banned from the pies as it has helped punters to swallow the pie much quicker.

There have also even been cases of contestants attempting to gain an unfair advantage by using cough syrup to make it easier to get the pie down – this approach is now strictly banned too. However, this isn’t an event for those who want to have their pie and eat it, with the difference between taking the title and losing it, a matter of milliseconds as contestants attempt to finish off a pie that’s 12cm in diameter and 3.5cms in-depth as quickly as possible.

The competition stems from Wiganers being called “pie eaters” ever since they broke a union strike with miners at the turn of the 20th century. 17 competitors were hungry enough to enter the contest and it was local lad Martin Appleton-Clare who won the title for the second time. He first won it back in 2012.

The greedy 37-year-old Wigner gobbled down the steak and kidney pie in just 38.2 seconds. It was way off the current World record that was set in 2010 by Neil Collier who managed to eat a pie in a staggering 23.91 seconds.