War of the Wings raises over £1k for Willen Hospice

War of the Wings, an epic chicken wing eating contest that took place at MK Buffet Village last Friday, 17^thSeptember 2021, has raised over £1k for local charity Willen Hospice.

Ten hungry contestants put their stamina and their stomachs to the test to see who could eat the most chicken wings and be crowned Chicken King or Queen. Between them, they munched through more than 80 chicken wings – over 10kg of chicken – in a gruelling five round competition in a bid to take the title.

In the first four rounds of the competition, each contestant had to eat a plate of wings as quickly as they could, with the slowest eater being knocked out. The chili heat was turned up in every round. The fastest eaters went through to a fifth round where they faced a massive plate of wings. Two vegan eaters tucked into vegan bites, and one competitor even turned vegan half-way through.

In the end, Lawrence Tyler from Fierce Gym in Milton Keynes was named victor and took the crown. The irony is, Lawrence was not even supposed to take part in the contest; he was Fierce Gym’s first reserve and only stepped in when his colleague had to drop out in the run-up to the event.

“Stepping in at the last minute, I wasn’t able to do much preparation, other than have breakfast on the day! So I wasn’t at all sure how I’d do,” he says. “It was tough; the wings kept on coming and the heat got hotter and hotter, and you just had to shovel them in! Everyone got fuller and fuller with every round, and I had to get up and do some stretches at one point!

“I was chuffed to win and it was a really fun challenge. Our main purpose was to raise money for an amazing charity and it was an honour to represent them and eat chicken! It was a win-win for me!” he says.

Ramesh Singh, General Manager of MK Buffet Village adds, “This year, we decided to support Willen Hospice as our charity of the year. We have plans for music nights ahead and we have many collection tins around the restaurant.

“With hundreds of guests visiting us every week, we know we can raise some good money for a great cause. For ten years now we wanted to plan an eating competition but with over 100 dishes on the menu, we weren’t sure which one to choose.  The customers said wings, as they’re a favourite of so many.

“So we created a War of the Wings and turned up the heat in every round. It was a knock-out, so as the heat got hotter, we lost competitors and milk and water were needed! In the end, we had a great winner and a lot of fun on the day whilst raising money for a fantastic cause,” he says.

Second place on the day was Alex Ross from Peel Juice Bar, Milton Keynes and third was Simon Piggott from WAC Agency in Newport Pagnell.

Other local businesses who took part in War of the Wings were Astrum Construction, FuseMetrix, Taylor Walsh, Aqua Parks and Radio Nugget Events.