When I realised I was going to be free to attend, I made sure that I went on the saturday,so that I could watch the Chilli Eating Contest, now I am involved in producing seeds,of some super, and even a few ‘hyper-hot’, thats my term for chillies which have the capacity to top the magic million SHU”s.
Occasionally I’m asked if I’d consider entering one of these, my answe is a firm NO, partially as in their raw form, the Super and Hyper-Hots seem to provoke my Astma, and also because I am not mad.
As the magic hour of 4pm rolled by, I had fun helping Alex Duck out, with Upton Cheyney Chilli Co stand, wisely located next to the bar and stage. The crowd gathered, eager for the show, and the particiapnts lined up, the whole thing was co-organised by the Clifton Chilli Club, some of whose mebers were entering the come, I also think they grew some of the chillies used, others had been sourced by local fruiters.
I found myself a spot about 2/3s of the way back from the stage, so as to get a great panorama view of those on stage. At this point I have to take my hat of to those who entered, brave men and women, its volunteers who win the highest medals?
I don’t have a list of the chillies that they started the contest with, but it was excellently compared by Jim Booth from Clifton Chilli Club, I have seen these competitions online, and Jim’s performance was that of a master. A short countdown, 3, 2, 1 Eat, roared the crowd on his command, and the contest began, he’d explained the rules, all but the stem must be eaten, the finnished chilli to be held up, any one taking a sip of the milk/sugar drink was out, and on it went, no one droppped out during the early stages, mild chillies, such as the mainstream dutch and green jalapeno’s, but when the Scotch bonnets came out a few decided enough was enough, but it got hotter, various Habanero’s came out, including the Viper and 7-Pot, slowly the contestants droppped out, can you blame them?
The Winner - Terry Shean
With only a handful left, they repeated the 7-Pots and Vipers and a head to head contest emerged, with two Herculean chillies eaters each determined to leave with a wonderful looking ProQ Frontier BBQ Smoker from MacsBBQ.
The Winner was Terry Shean, who I later discovered had travelled down from Scotland, to enter the competition. He was greated with well deserved cheers, and a few gasps of astonishment from the assembled crowd.
A very braveman.
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