A bloke has been crowned winner of a sausage-throwing contest after hurling a banger a whopping 110ft – further than the length of three school buses.
Todd Rothwell managed to out-throw his competitors by launching the porky missile the impressive distance at this year’s Harwich Sausage Festival earlier this month.
But he didn’t manage to beat his own 2019 record, which saw him fling a sausage a staggering 171 feet thanks to a ‘strong tailwind’ at the festival in Harwich, Essex.
Credit: Kennedy News
Joint festival organiser Richard Oxborrow revealed that the key to Todd’s sausage-slinging success is not touching it until just before take-off.
Richard, from Dovercourt, Essex, said: “It’s quite funny to watch the newbies to the competition who are all trying to scrunch their sausages up to try to make them into some form of a projectile.
“But if you watch Todd, he doesn’t pick his sausage up until just before he throws it.
“He says if you heat it up too much or over-manipulate it, it will break up in the air.
“Strangely enough that’s what happened to a few of the throwers who were attempting to build aerodynamic projectiles out of their sausages.”
The 56-year-old software engineer said newcomers could use this insider knowledge to challenge Todd next year – but the 2019 win will be hard to beat.
Richard said: “The year he made the champion 171-foot throw was with a very strong tailwind, which he took full advantage of by lofting the sausage higher than normal.”
The competition on November 5th saw 12 contenders taking turns to throw two sausages each as far as they could in front of a crowd of around 200 people.
Their attempts were then measured and adjudicated by the festival’s sausage marshals.
The competition was then followed by a blind-tasting competition of sausages from butchers in north-east Essex.
The festival has been running each year since 2011 and is organised by the Tendring branch of the Campaign for Real Ale.