They've really had their chips
and live on Freeview channel 276
A dozen avid fans of Britain’s traditional takeaway dish braced themselves for a possible battering in the chippy challenge – to see who could eat the most fish and chips in just 10 minutes.
And to make the event even more lively, they even had a bloke down the chip shop who swore he was Elvis – in this case, tribute singer Eddie P, from Fleetwood.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWhile Eddie performed favourite songs by The King and prepared to judge the event, the contestants got stuck in to the challenge on Bank Holiday Monday.
There were two joint winners – Lytham man Gordon Stuteley, 24 and Blackpool’s Jamie Brighty, aged 20, who both consumed 11 fish, chips and gravy meals – more than one meal a minute!
But the pair were almost undone by a surprise outsider, 15-year-old schoolgirl Cat Jones, who was on course for possible victory but fell just short, chomping through eight meals to clinch runner-up.
Liz Tyler (inset), owner of The Cottage, on Newhouse Road, Marton, said: “When we advertised this event on our Facebook site, we didn’t expect this kind of response – about 1,000 people wanted to take part.
“It was just a bit of fun for the bank holiday.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“We managed to randomly pick a dozen and on the day the atmosphere was brilliant, it was really raucous.
“Gordon and Jamie did equally as well and were worthy winners, but the big surprise was Cat, she weighs only about seven-and-half stone sopping wet, but she gave them a run for their money.”
The joint winners will share the first prize, enjoying free fish and chips every Friday night for the next six weeks.
Runner-up Cat gets free fish and chips every Friday for three weeks.
The contest has proved such a success that Liz plans to do it all again on another bank holiday later in the year.