The World Pie Eating Championship is an annual contest usually held at Harry's Bar on Wallgate in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The competition has been held since 1992.
History The competition was first held in 1992.
In 2006 the competition was changed to meet government healthy eating guidelines, from the number of pies consumed in a given time, to the fastest time to consume a single pie. A vegetarian version was also added with the organiser citing "relentless pressure" from The Vegetarian Society, but this practice was discontinued from 2007.
In the 2006 contest, the meat and potato pies were all 12 cm (5 in) in diameter with a depth of 3.5 cm (1.5 in). In the separate vegetarian contest, the pies were 10 cm (4 in) by 3 cm (1.2 in). In December 2007, in the competition, entries included a competitor's dog, Charlie, who had eaten twenty pies and damaged a further ten the night before the competition, nearly jeopardising the event.
Winners Year Winner Pies Time 1992 Dave Smyth Four pies 1995 Dave Williams 1998 Scott Ormrod Eleven pies 2005 Anthony "The Anaconda" Danson Seven pies 2006 Matt Dunning 2007 Adrian Frost One pie 2008 Fred Wyatt One meat and potato pie 2009 Barry Rigby One pie 2010 Neil Collier One pie 2012 Martin Clare One pie 2013 Ian Coulton One pie 2014 Barry Rigby Half an oversized pie 2015 Martin Appleton Clare 2016 Martin Appleton-Clare One meat and potato pie 2017 Martin Appleton Clare 2018 Martin Appleton Clare One chicken and carrot pie 2019 Ian Gerrard One pie 2022 Barry Rigby One pie 2023 Ian Coulton One meat and potato pie 2024 Michael Chant One pie 2025 Tom O'Neil One pie
Channel 5 filmed the 2024 event for their TV show 22 Kids and Counting, as the show's star Noel Radford supplied the pies for the competition. The championship's organiser and "piemaster", Tony Callaghan, dropped and partly broke the trophy. Hits Radio interviewed Callaghan afterwards. Several newspapers were also present.
Controversy In 2005 pies were imported from nearby Farnworth in Bolton, and local Wigan pies were sidelined as it was believed they were substandard, leading to a four-man strong protest. In December 2009, a similar situation arose, with pies being sourced from Adlington in Lancashire.
In December 2014, pies of the wrong size were delivered to the event, while the intended pies were sent to a nearby divorce party. The contestants competed with halved pies, but the results were nullified. The head of the World Pie Eating Championship went to court on the television show Judge Rinder, presenting a case against the pie maker of the wrongly sized pies, but was awarded nothing.
Background Wiganers are proud to be called pie eaters, but the nickname is not thought to be because of their appetite for the delicacy. The name is said to date from the 1926 general strike, when Wigan miners were starved back to work, before their counterparts in surrounding towns and were forced to eat "humble pie".
See also
The Great Aussie Pie Competition
References