Dorset knob throwing, eating and painting festival attracts 5000 people

Dorset Knob Throwing and Food Festival in Cattistock sees attendees compete to see who can throw their knob the furthest

A ‘knob throwing’ festival in Dorset attracted over 5000 people on Sunday.

That’s knob - with a K. The reason for the name? - the central part of the event is a competition to see who can throw their knob the furthest. A knob being a locally made roundish biscuit.

Obviously, like other strange food related events across the UK such as cheese rolling, The Dorset Knob Throwing and Food Festival event in Cattistock, too dates back hundreds of years - accept it doesn’t.

Organiser Nigel Commins came up with the idea a few years back after he went along to a pudding hurling contest held during a food festival in Yorkshire.

“We used to throw knobs occasionally as a child because they're the size of a golf ball, so the whole thing gelled from there,” he told the BBC.

“Most of the contest is taken in good heart and there is no food wastage. Everything that is left over - even the broken bits on the ground - goes to feed local chickens.

“We needed funding for the playing fields, village hall, cricket club, and football club. We're a very small village, very rural, and we needed a unique event to get people here.”

According to the rules, competitors must throw their knob underarm and one foot must remain on the ground during the toss. The best of three is taken as their score.

Dave Phillips is the current record holder with a herculean throw of 29.4m (96ft) in 2012.

The knobs are made by the Moores family which has made the same biscuits since 1880.

The mighty victors get to keep/eat their winning biscuit and receive a plaque as well as have their name added to a board kept in the village hall.

Other events held on the day include a knob eating contest, knob weighing, knob painting and knob darts.