Hornets: Peritos "match report"

The Hornets players had a whale of a time on Sunday when 10 brave souls took on the Man v Peritos Challenges!

The Hornets players had a whale of a time on Sunday when 10 brave souls took on the Man v Peritos Challenges!

Local restaurant Peritos has set up a series of food challenges to test the strongest or most foolish amongst us.

Hornets players marshaled by Paul Crook descended on Peritos to test their metal. Leading from the front Crooky along with Wayne English and new signing Joe Bate took on the first challenge of eating two whole chickens in under 20 minutes!

Former England Rugby League U16s International Joe Bates set off like a house on fire, demolishing the first chicken with ease, whilst Crooky and Wayno plodded on slowly.

After the halfway point Joe hit the wall and started to stow, whilst Crooky and Wayno carried on their relentless plod.

As the clock ticked down Crooky came to the fore, using the tactic of stripping the bones first he looked to have the challenge beaten, but with only of couple of mouthfuls left it just proved to much!

The three Hornets players left the table full but beaten and round one went to Peritos!

Round 2 saw the next group of players take on 15 buffalo Chicken wings, all covered increasingly hotter sauce!

New boys Owen Livesey and Gaz Langley joined last seasons Under 23  sensation Fraser Jones Lake with pack corner stone John Cookson for the "suicide wing challenge!"

The spicy smell of the first five wings had several of the boys coughing, even before the supper hot ones had come out! The fact the competitors had to sign a disclaimer and wear rubber gloves should have been a warning of what was to follow.

When all 15 wings were laid out in front of the boys the clock started. John Cookson started with the tactic of stripping each wing so all the three spice levels mixed and all the chicken was in his bowl.

Gaz Langley set off at a steady pace with Owen struggling right from the start. Fraser played the silent assassin quietly devouring the fiery wings.

Cookys tactic of stripping the wings appeared sound, until he took his first mouthful. With what looked like steam coming out of his ears Cooky had the Peritos staff bring him milk to ease the pain, Gaz was sweating and complaining of hallucinations after completing his tenth wing and poor Owen joined Cooky on the milk after just eating his second wing. The machine that was Fraser just carried on!

After just nine minutes Fraser pushed his empty third bowl forward, setting a new record for the Peritos Suicide Wing Challenge much to every-ones amazement, none more so than his two fellow competitors who at this point were all looked like extras from Apocalypse Now.

Inspired by Fraser showing Gaz Langley had fresh charge at the burning inferno that was the last five wings. Despite his valiant effort it was two wings too many, and with the loss of feeling to his lips and tongue he had to admit defeat.

With Fraser smashing the record and the valiant effort from Gaz, round two was declared a draw.

The final round was the Tower Burger, which was five enormous burgers stuffed with cheese stacked on top of each other inside and over-sized bun with onions and veg as garnish.

The final challenge was under taken by new signing and Rochdale lad Lewis Sheridan along with fellow new signing speedster Benji Lloyd with pack star Chris Baines.

The Tower Burger Challenge hadnt been beaten previously and when the waiters brought out the mini-skyscrappers you could see why. But with the Hornets Men v Peritos Challenge hanging in the balance the boys dug deep.

Chris Baines set a relentless pace wolfing down the burgers with ease, even taking time to scrap any last morsel that dropped so as not to miss any.

Both Lewis and Benji who were the smallest of the competitors both dug in. Lewis did his parents proud using a knife and fork through out, Benji went Old Skool and picked the gargantuan up whole and proceeded to eat it like a huge corn on the cob.

Bainsey like Fraser before him was a titan, completing the challenge in just nine minutes 30 seconds, an incredible feat as previously no one had managed to even complete the task.

Lewis continued to munch his way through and despite a late moment of drama when with just a mouthful to go he looked a bit queasy he polished off the tasty burger.

This left just Benji, he now dropped his corn on the cob tactic and split the last of the burger into manageable pieces. With the clock ticking he plowed on, with about 40 seconds to go he put the last piece int his mouth.

But he couldnt chew!! With the lads screaming encouragement he summoned up his last reserves and munched on that burger.

The lads shouted down from 10, 9, 8, but there was still plenty burger in Benji mouth, 7, 6, 5, it was looking nip and tuck 3, 2, 1 There was still a small amount of burger in Benji mouth, but the Peritios staff adjudicated that he had completed the challenge and Hornets had a clean sweep of the Tower Burger Challenge!

With one win each and a draw the Hornets Men v Peritos Challenge end in a tie.

A brilliant bit of team bonding and it certainly made for great entertainment. Hornets hope to work with Peritos this coming season as we develop our partnerships across town!