Sausage Throwers Duke It Out At Black Pudding Championship

This year’s World Black Pudding Throwing Championships, a more than 100-year-old tournament centered around hurling blood sausage, was won by the first thrower.

The competition was held on Sunday in the northern English village of Ramsbottom, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Manchester. Each contestant had three chances to knock as many 6-1/2-pound (3-kg) Yorkshire puddings off a plinth as possible by throwing black pudding at them.

Gavin Ogden, a 50-year-old from nearby Rochdale, was first to throw and took home the title by knocking down three puddings.

The event draws thousands of people to the town, and the tradition of pudding throwing dates to a battle in the 15th century War of the Roses. According to local lore, troops who ran out of ammunition resorted to throwing Yorkshire and Black puddings at each other.

Yorkshire pudding is a British dish consisting of baked batter. Black pudding is congealed pigs’ blood, fat and rusk encased in pig intestine.