THAT was some food fight!

Competitors from as far away as Devon descended on East Lancs for the second World Gravy Wrestling Championships.

More than 150 litres of steaming gravy was poured into a paddling pool at The Rose and Bowl Inn, Stacksteads, for 30 ‘wrestlers’ in fancy dress to grapple in.

It followed the success of last year’s event in Darwen as part of the Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food and Culture.

Organiser Andy Holt – the black pudding man – lead the way in a wrestle with Rose and Bowl chef John Lowe.

Gravy flew everywhere as the two men clattered into one another.

John’s larger frame gave him an advantage and he forced Andy’s face down into the gravy during the two-minute round.

Andy said: “I have been up since 4.30am making the gravy. We have one pool for that and another pool for people to throw money in for the East Lancashire Hospice.

“We hope that it raises somewhere near £3,000.”

James Bamber, 33, travelled up from Devon to compile notes for a book about wacky British games.

He said: “This has got to come in the top three of our wacky sports.

“The others are bog snorkelling and cheese rolling. But this is pretty stupid!”

Defending champion Ian Marsden, 43, from Redearth Road, Darwen, arrived wearing a crown.

He said: “You don’t want to get a mouthful of that stuff – it’s horrible and salty. It’s disgusting.”

The winners were Kim Hodgson and Danny Carr, both from Bacup.

Firefighters were on hand to hose down competitors once the event was over.