The annual World Pie Eating Championship is usually held at ''Harry's Bar'' on Wallgate,

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The competition has been held since 1992. In November 2006, a vegetarian version was added after "relentless pressure", from The Vegetarian Society's Keith Lorraine and Phil English. In December 2006, in the competition, the

meat and potato pie Meat and potato pie is a popular variety of pie eaten in England. Meat and potato pie comes in many versions and consists of a pastry casing containing: potato, either lamb or beef, and sometimes carrot and/or onion. They can often be bought in a ...

s 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

1992

Dave Smyth, a painter from Hindley, won the inaugural contest in 1992, when he ate four pies in three minutes.

1995

Dave Williams of

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distri ...

1998

Scott Ormrod of Aspull,

, Greater Manchester, eleven pies in thirty minutes.

2005

Anthony "The Anaconda" Danson, a weight trainer from Lancashire, managed to eat seven pies in three minutes, setting a new record.

2006

Matt Dunning Matt Dunning (born 19 December 1978) is a former Australian rugby union footballer. He played as a prop for the Waratahs and Western Force in Super Rugby, and represented Australia. He coached the Balmain rugby club in Sydney 2013/2014. Early ...

(

Australian Rugby Union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named the Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It ...

2007

Adrian Frost (42) from

who downed his pie in a record breaking 35.86 seconds

2008

Fred Wyatt, a sixty one year old warehouse packer won the 2008 Championship, which was broadcast live on the internet by pie per view.

2009

Barry Rigby, a warehouseman won, eating a pie in forty five seconds.

2010

Neil Collier, aged 42, won this contest, with a new World Record of 23.91 seconds.

2011

James Robinson, aged just 24, won, with a time of 23.49 seconds. He retired from the competition following this to focus on taking up the trade professionally.

2012

Martin Clare won, with a new record time of 22.53 secs.

2013

Ian Coulton of Wigan took the title, albeit with the slowest winning time ever of 1 minute and 6.61 seconds.

2014

Former champion Barry Rigby once again recorded the best time.

2015

2012 champ Martin Appleton Clare regains his title after missing 2013 and the "wrong size pie" incident of 2014.

2016

The reigning champion, Martin Appleton-Clare registered a record breaking third win to take the ''2016 Championship''.

2017

It is the third time in a row for Martin Appleton-Clare.

2018

Martin Appleton-Clare won the new category of "Chicken and Carrot" with a time of 19.6 secs after a fierce Pie Off

2019

Ian Gerrard won the contest with a time of 34.5 seconds.

2020-2022

Cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

2023

Barry Rigby won the contest for a 3rd time, with a time of 34.5 seconds to which was previously set by Gerrard in 2019.

Controversy

Imported pies

In December 2005, controversy was caused, when pies were imported from nearby

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4.3 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Historically in Lancashire, Farnworth lies on the River Ir ...

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, and local Wigan pies were sidelined as it was believed they were substandard, resulting in a four-man strong protest, which included Lee Hartney of

The Smith Street Band The Smith Street Band are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, in which the titular Smith Street can be found. The band have released five extended plays and six studio albums, ''No One Gets Lost Anymore'' (2011), ''Sunshine and T ...

. In December 2009, a similar situation arose, with pies being sourced from Adlington.

Quantity to speed

In November 2006, more controversy was caused, when 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.

Lack of stock

In December 2007, controversy struck again for the third year running, when the competition actually ran out of pies before the competition had finished.

Wrongly sized pies

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 ''Judge Rinder'' is a British arbitration-based reality court show that has been on air on ITV since 11 August 2014. The show depicts Robert Rinder as an arbitrator overseeing civil cases. Rinder began his career in criminal law in 2003. ...

'' because of this, 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 A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

, when Wigan miners were starved back to work, before their counterparts in surrounding towns and were forced to eat "

humble pie Humble Pie are an English rock band formed by guitarist and singer Steve Marriott in Moreton, Essex, in 1969. They are known as one of the first supergroups of the late 1960s and found success in the early 1970s with songs such as " Black Cof ...

References

{{Pies Competitive eating Pies Wigan Events in Greater Manchester