Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
THE hunt for the pipe smoker of the year in a Northamptonshire village once again went up in smoke.
For more than a century now, The Bull pub in Harpole has staged an annual pipe smoking competition on Shrove Tuesday with the tournament believed to date back to 1856.
But the introduction of a ban on smoking in public places, due to come into force on July 1, could result in this year's tournament being the last ever to take place inside the pub.
Landlord Clive Rimmer, who only took over at the pub last month, said he could be forced to stage the competition in the beer garden in years to come.
He said: "It's something we are going to have to look at. It simply wouldn't be the same outside. The competition has been going on for so long that we want to carry it on when the ban comes in
"We believe it may have started 200 years ago but there are no records going back that far. We'll just have to what happens as it would be a shame to lose this tradition."
This year there were 15 entrants taking part, watched by the regulars who packed into the pub to see who could keep puffing on a thin white clay pipe for the longest time without relighting it.
Under the ancient rules, each contestant is given a thimbleful of tobacco and allowed two minutes to light up his or her foot-long clay pipe. The winner is the one whose pipe lasts the longest time. This year's winner was Mick Woolacott, aged 63, taking the title for the third time after one hour 13 minutes, having seen off young pretender Bruce McCarlie in a sudden death smoke-off.
They were the last of the die-hard smokers left standing once Fred Mansell had taken third place in just under an hour. He said: "Next year we'll have to be outside and catching pneumonia."
Having regained the pipe smoking title, Mr Woolacott said: "The secret's to blow rather than suck. Don't smoke it. I could have gone on longer but there was no point once I'd won. It's all down to atmospheric conditions."
Click here to see video footage of the pipe smoking competition
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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