Hunt for bang-on bangers a Tuff job

"I wish I'd had a few of these instead of witchetty grubs or whatever they call them," says the former King of the Jungle.

Bangers are certainly a lot tastier.

This week he's King of the Sizzle as he tears around the country to promote British Sausage Week to find Britain's Best Birthday Banger - the week is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

This means Phil has to scoff sausages in nine cities including Sheffield.

He's come from Leeds where they fed him a champagne and truffle banger.

There's nothing so posh from Sheffield, which is serving up just three bangers so Tuffers, who has just been filming A Question of Sport, observes "there'll be more time at the bar".

To help him, his fellow judges are Sam Mellors, aged seven, from the Grange Estate, Rotherham, who suffers from cystic fibrosis (the Sausage Week charity), his mum Jill, Victoria Swiers, a member of Ladies in Pigs from York, whose 1,500 porkers text her when their automatic feeding machine breaks down, and yours truly.

The former Middlesex and England spinner is a genuine bangers man. "It's a bit like a cup of tea – when you are abroad you can never get a decent sausage.

"We're going around the regions and judging the best of the best."

But are we? It's never quite clear how the sausages have been selected but there are no big names like Crawshaws or Funks taking part in the competition at Restaurant and Bar 23 in Sheffield's West One complex.

Before we begin, we're entertained with a few facts.

There are more than 470 different types of sausage in Britain.

Five million people eat them each day (most popular banger scoffing day is Saturday), a total of 180,000 tonnes a year.

The entries are served up anonymously and Tuffers decides to be Mother, cutting them up.

The first is a pork and apple with lovely big chunks of fruit but is a little bit sweet for some.

The one that wins is a big plonker - pork, leek and stilton - with bags of flavour, made by Charlotte Maude and Daniel Lowe of Unthank Hall Farm, Millthorpe, under the close supervision of their local butcher.

It's a unanimous decision so Charlotte and Daniel get 150 to hand over to Cystic Fibrosis and go on to the grand final in London.

All the sausages are so good the Diary quite fancies finishing them up but a PR girl whisks them away "to feed the punters," the backroom boys and girls behind the competition.

Tuffers heads for the bar and Victoria checks her mobile. So far, her pigs haven't texted her.

Charlotte

and Daniel's prizewinning bangers are available from their stall on Sheffield Farmers Market or through their farm box scheme. Details on 0114 289 0320.