THE nine butchers who will be competing to win the top prize at this year’s Harwich Sausage Festival have been named.

The ‘Sausage of the Festival’ award will be handed out to the best banger following the festival on Saturday, November 5.

This year there will also be a new competitor making their debut - Wallis’s Farm Shop of Tendring .

The festival organisers are delighted that the new outlet will be joining the other eight butchers from across the district to compete in the 12th running of the sausage festival.

The nine sausages will be available to taste in the New Bell Inn, the Alma Inn and the Stingray public house and the winner is decided by a public vote counted at the end of the blind tasting.

Richard Oxborrow, one of the festival's organisers, said: The quality of competing sausages is always remarkable and is proof of how many great butchers we have in the district.

"Having Wallis’s Farm Shop take up the challenge is fantastic and I’m sure their entry will be a credit to the competition.”

The festival will begin with the traditional sausage throwing competition, which this year will take place on Harwich Green at around 11.30am.

The organisers are keen to point out that only out-of-date supermarket sausages are thrown and no food is wasted.

It is then off to the three host pubs to drink quality real ale while tasting the competing sausages.

“We are delighted that the Harwich Sausage Festival is again a feeder event into the ‘Champion of Champions’ national sausage competition so there is a lot at stake for the butchers,” added Richard.

“For everybody else it is simply a great day out and we are all very much looking forward to it.”

The nine competing butchers are Smiths Butchers of Brightlingsea, Pier Avenue Butchers of Clacton, Shaws Farm Meats of Dovercourt and Manningtree Markets, Becky's Butchers of Great Bromley, Frinton Road Butchers of Holland-on-Sea, Chas Bower of Holland-on-Sea, Ragmarsh Farm Shop of Manningtree, Ramsey Master Butchers of Ramsey, Wallis's Farm Shop of Tendring.