Disaster strikes meat pie eating championship; pies declared too big for competition

As soon as he saw the meat pies, it was clear someone had made a big mistake. The scene was Harry's Bar in Wigan, England. The occasion: the World Pie Eating Championship. The issue: the size of the pies.

"The pies were twice as big as they should be. We had real problems," says World Pie Eating Championship organizer Tony Callaghan.

According to the Telegraph, official competition pies should be a diameter of 12cm and a depth of 3.5cm with a pie wall angle from base to top of between zero and 15 degrees. Friday's competition pies were twice this size.

The mix-up happened when Callaghan appointed his trainee chef the important task of baking the pies. The chef had mixed up the orders, and sent the competition pies to a divorce party across town. In turn, the championship received the divorce party's big pies.
 
Callaghan tells Carol, "The contestants were obviously looking at the pies and weren't happy bunny rabbits." 
 
Callaghan's solution was simple -- cut the pies in half. Purists, however, were aghast. "They'd been practicing all year to eat the pies as quickly as possible," he says. The new big pies were a wild card.
 
In the end, a champion was crowned: local boy Barry Rigby. Callaghan says he's learned his lesson, but in the end, "It's my competition. I'm the pie master. So I make the rules up as I go along. Next year we'll make sure the pies are the right size."

No word yet from the divorce party. We hope they liked their small meat pies.