Gallery: Competitors give it their all in Rossendale's Gravy Wrestling championships (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Gallery: Competitors give it their all in Rossendale's Gravy Wrestling championships

10:40am Tuesday 28th August 2012 in News

ACTORS and an Olympic athlete were among competitors battling to be crowned this year’s World Gravy Wrestling champion – but they were no match for two locals.

Hundreds of spectators braved the rain in Rossendale to cheer on grapplers including Team GB judo star Sophie Cox from Bacup and comedian Rory McGrath.

McGrath and actor Will Mellor were at the Rose ‘N’ Bowl, Stacksteads, filming for an upcoming Channel 5 show.

The pair got in amongst the action and then looked on as Stacksteads girl April Howe and Burnley lad Danny Myers, a former national judo champion, were crowned champions.

This was the fifth year it has been staged at the Newchurch Road pub.

Pub manager Jon Lowe said there was an extra buzz thanks to the presence of the television crew.

McGrath, famous for his role in panel show They Think It’s All Over, could be overheard describing his tussle as ‘the worst two minutes of my life’.

Eight women and 16 men took locked horns amid almost 1,000 litres of gravy provided by the Haslingden-based Real Black Pudding Company.

The bizarre event also hopes to raise thousands of pounds for East Lancashire Hospice.