WHO ate all the pies?

Yesterday, the answer could have been found at the Coach and Horses pub on Welsh Street, Chepstow, which held its first pie-eating competition in aid of children’s hospice Ty Hafan.

At 3pm on a wet Bank Holiday Monday four brave men – Nic Meyrick, Jon King and Tom Welfort and Tom Lewis – competed to down as many Peter’s Pies as they could gobble within ten minutes.

I even joined in with the pastry race, but couldn’t quite match the average five pies eaten by the four fundraisers – with around 20 pies donated by the manufacturer finished off by the team.

In scenes reminiscent of the popularTVseries Man vs Food, early indications showed that Mr King, 30, and chairman of the Severn Bridge club in Bulwalk, was heading to clinch the top pieeater title.

But while Mr King finished off 5.3 pies, it was student Tom Lewis, 18, who tiptoed over the finishing line with 5.4.

A sick bucket was put out for the contestants – but surprisingly went unused.

Mr Lewis said the secret of his success laid in not watching what the others were eating.

“I didn’t eat anything today, I didn’t eat anything yesterday,”

he said.

Mr King said: ”It was the fourth pie I struggled on, I thought I was going to be sick.”

He added he might be interested in a faggot-eating competition in future.

Overall, the event raised in excess of £600 for Ty Hafan, the pub’s chosen charity.

The pub regularly raises cash for charity and has so far made more than £1,000 for the hospice – and last year raised £2,000 for St David’s Foundation Hospice Care.

The mince and onion pies were donated by Peter’s of Caerphilly.

“It’s something I came up with to have a bit of fun and customer participation,”

said pub owner Ian Meyrick.

He said he didn’t want to go down the route of Man vs Food “which could be dangerous”.

“We limit it to ten minutes.

I don’t believe someone could gorge themselves to death in ten minutes.”

But, Mr Meyrick added that food-based competitions could make a return to the Coach and Horses in future “as long as its done safely.”