Competitors Hurled Black Puddings Underarm at a Twenty Foot Plinth in a Lancashire Contest Traced to Fourteen Fifty Five
Each thrower gets three black puddings and must knock down as many of twelve Yorkshire puddings as possible from behind a line called the oche.
The World Black Pudding Throwing Championships returned to Ramsbottom in Greater Manchester on 13 September 2026, held as always on the second Sunday in September outside The Oaks pub on Bridge Street.
The rules are fixed. Competitors stand at a line called the oche and are given three black puddings each, which must be thrown underarm at a stack of twelve Yorkshire puddings sitting on a plinth twenty feet high. Whoever dislodges the most Yorkshire puddings wins, and ties are settled by a lob off. Entry costs two pounds for three throws.
The organisers insist the correct verb is hurling rather than throwing, on the grounds that the action is underhand.
The origin legend dates the contest to 1455, during the Wars of the Roses, when Lancastrian and Yorkist forces are said to have run out of ammunition and resorted to throwing food at each other, black puddings from Lancashire and Yorkshire puddings from Yorkshire. It is said to have been revived by a pub landlord in 1839 and again in 1984 by the Stubbins Community Trust.
Recent champions have included Harry Ogden in 2024, Stu Pearson in 2023, Stuart Hubbart in 2022 and Andrew Ferrier in 2021. Ferrier has won twice, as has Huseyin Ozluk of Turkey, who took the title in 2009 and 2013. No event was held in 2020.
The championships draw thousands of spectators and raise money for local causes. In the run-up to this year's contest, PETA publicly called for a vegan-only version of the event.