Outrage as shop-bought biscuits entered in baking competition
That takes the biscuit! Outrage as out-of-town contestants enter shop-bought biscuits into annual show’s baking competition in bid to land £10 prize
- The mayor warned there was a threat to the ‘Three Biscuits on a Plate’ contest
- The annual gardening and baking show in Thornaby, Teeside has run since 1945
- Mayor Ian Dalgarno told a council meeting the cheats’ actions were ‘ridiculous’
- The council has dropped the prize from £10 to £3 to discourage rule-breaking
Rogue contestants have caused outrage by entering supermarket biscuits into a town baking competition.
The mayor of Thornaby, Teeside slammed the ‘ridiculous’ actions of out-of-town visitors bending the rules to seize the £10 prize.
The Thornaby Show in the north-east town has run since 1945 and prides itself on being one of the best shows for bakers and gardeners for miles around.
However, standards appear to be slipping and some contestants are leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of organisers .
Mayor Ian Dalgarno has warned the show committee to be on the lookout for people travelling from surrounding towns with supermarket biscuits in the hope of winning the cash prize.
The Thornaby Show in a hugely popular community festival held on the Harold Wilson showfield in the north-east town every year.
Baking contests are a key part of the Thornaby Show, with the Three Biscuits on a Plate category the competition exploited by chancers
Town mayor Ian Dalgarno warned the show committee it would have to be on the lookout for people trying to cheat in the contests for the cash prize
He told a meeting of Thornaby Town Council that cheats were ruining the ‘Three Biscuits on a Plate’ category in the bakery tent.
Traditionally home bakers would perfect a recipe and present their biscuits, which are judged on taste, consistency and presentation.
But Councillor Dalgarno says some of the chocolate chip cookies and ginger snaps that found their way into the tent on the Harold Wilson showfield have been too good to be true.
He told a meeting of Thornaby Town Council the £10 top prize was encouraging cheats.
He said: ‘They’re going to the shops buying a packet of biscuits, putting it on a plate and going to get a tenner. It’s absolutely ridiculous.’
Councillor Dalgarno said people were travelling from as far afield as Hartlepool, some 15 miles away.
The council discussed limiting entrants to the show to Thornaby itself, but the idea wasn’t implemented this year.
However the prize money was dropped to a modest £3 for first prize, £2 for second and £1 for third after the council heard it handed out £600 in prize money at last year’s event.
The show was first held in 1945 by the town’s Horticultural Society and was first known as the Thornaby Feast.
By the 1980s it had become one of the most prestigious in the North East when it was seen as ‘a benchmark for exhibitors’ with people bringing cabbages straight from the allotments in wheelbarrows because they were too big to carry.
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