A Delicious aroma filled the air at the 12th annual pork pie competition.

People lined the streets and took in the view at the Old Bridge Inn, Ripponden, as judges tasted and ranked the 46 entries as Elland Silver Youth Band entertained.

Peter Charnley, secretary of the Pork Pie Appreciation Society, said the standard had been high.

“They are all very good. What we are look­ing for is fresh meat, a crunchy pas­try and tasty jelly,” he said,

There were three rounds of tasting to whittle down the A contenders to 10 finalists.

Then TV chef Brian Turner and Robert Cockroft, “Yorkshire Post” food Critic and editor of the “Barnsley Chronicle,” helped to pick out the four winners. Brian Turner, who grew up near Leeds, said he was enjoying himself.

“It’s a great event. It’s lovely to hear all these experts talk about pies- they are red hot. “And we don’t get pork pies like this in London,” he said.

Mr Cockroft said he was a pie-lover. “There is a great wealth of English food but people spend their time in bistros and restaurants and forget things like pie and peas, which are cheap, plentiful and tasty,” he said.

The Mayor of Calderdale Geraldine Carter and the chef presented the winners with cups and rosettes.

First place and £100 prize money went to Hinchliffe’s, of Netherton Huddersfield, for the third year running. Wilson’s, of Cross Gates, Leeds, came sec­ond, Shepley Co­op, Huddersfield, came third and Home Fair butchers of Keswick, fourth.

J. P. Cryer, of Ovenden, Halifax, made it into the top 10. Organiser Kevin Booth said the proceeds, which he expected to be more than £1,000, would go to the mayor’s chosen charity, the Fund for Epilepsy, and the Elland Silver Youth Band.