To coincide with the start of Cornish Pasty Week, the cream of Cornwall’s professional crimpers gathered on Monday 24th February at Heartlands in Pool, to battle it out for a place in the finals of the World’s Fastest Crimper competition.

Cornish pasty producers pitted their fastest crimpers against the clock to see who could crimp the most pasties in three minutes. It’s a job for nimble fingers and a strong nerve to keep going right to the final whistle, and even then it’s not over. Each and every finished pasty had to be scrutinised by a team of judges to make sure that there was a minimum of 18 clearly defined crimps on each pasty. The rules state that any falling short of the 18 can’t be counted in the final score.

The top four crimpers were Philip Bartlett of Proper Cornish, Jonathon Rosevear of Cornish Premier Pasties, Katrina Jones of Portreath Bakery and Jackie Tonkin of Prima Bakeries

These four will now compete in the final round for the title of World’s Faster Crimper.  Catch them on stage at around 12:45pm at the World Pasty Championships at the Eden Project on Saturday 29th February. 

The World’s Fastest Crimper competition is supported by the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, who also came along on Monday and met Year 4 children from Trewirgie Junior School in Redruth.  The children had a fantastic afternoon making pasties with Prima Bakeries and playing a game of Mines and Ladders, devised by the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site to help the next generation learn about Cornwall’s mining heritage.