Controversey strikes world pie-eating contest.

The world pie-eating championships proved once again to be a controversy-strewn battleground today as the sole woman competitor stormed out and officials banned gravy after rumours of doping with cough mixture.

Drama also engulfed Harry’s Bar in Wigan, the contest’s venue, as its owner, Tony Callaghan, entered a protest against the exclusion of Wigan pies in favour of rivals from nearby but “foreign” Adlington.

“We were stunned,” said one of the Lancashire town’s local pie-munching favourites, Andy Driscoll. “My mate and I have been practising for weeks on small, soft Wigan pies, and at the last minute, they’ve substituted these monsters.”

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