England’s International Young Butcher entrants named
England’s International Young Butcher entrants named
The National Federation of Meat & Food Traders’ (NFMFT) entrants representing England in the International Young Butcher Competition this year are Mathew Gothard and Luke Haigh.
The announcement was made after two days of assessment to select the candidates which followed months of hard work and included six days of intensive coaching at the Thomas Danby campus of Leeds City College between April and August this year.
The 2012 competition, open to 18 to 23 year olds, is being held in Holland on the 17th and 18th September and will be decided amongst 14 contestants from Austria, England, France, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Modus operandi
The candidates will be competing in six disciplines over the two days for the title of ‘International Young Butcher.’ In addition there will be a team prize together with presentations to the runners up and for category winners.
Speaking after the announcement, Federation chief executive, Roger Kelsey, said: “Being so skilful and having given so much time and effort in the preparation all three deserved to go through. Unfortunately, the rules only allow for two candidates and so I have asked Kyle Mottram to stand aside on this occasion and to resume his candidature for the competition at IFFA in Germany during May 2013.”
Kyle was student of the year at Thomas Danby in 2011 and is working at Keelham Farm shop in Thornton near Bradford. Mathew Gothard, who works for Chris Green at Bate’s butchers in Atherstone, Warwickshire is himself a deferred candidate who lost out to Matthew Hill and Bryce Lawson in 2011 – and ‘new kid on the block’ Luke Haigh works in the family business at Bolster Moor Farm Shop near Halifax in Yorkshire.
The competition is organised by the International Butcher Confederation and the NFMFT has been supported with sponsorship from EBLEX, BPEX, Meat Training Council, Worshipful Company of Butchers, RAPS, Gesame, Weddel Swift and Leeds City College.
Kelsey said: “Without such help the Federation would never be able to demonstrate its commitment to the young people involved and the future for the craft trade!”
