Episode 6 of the Mud Lane podcast has been released.
“Look, they’re getting ahead of us,” said Benito urgently. “Their sandwich plate is almost empty.”
This caused Basher to return to the savory stage of the meal and immediately consume two more of his double-decker specials at record speed. But alas, as he swallowed the last mouthful, we saw that the other contestants, ignorant of the contest they had been drawn into, were now nibbling on their potato crisps.
“Oh, they’ve finished,” said Pete. “Now you owe me five shillings.”
This was the first mention any of us had heard about a monetary wager, but rather than argue about issues of currency, Basher remained focused on the goal.
“You didn’t say anything about finishing first,” he protested.
“You just said I had to eat more. And I have.”
“Well, they’ve eaten more crisps than you,” said Pete.
“But I’m not finished yet,” replied Basher, and using his hand
like a shovel, dug it deep into the crisp bowl.
I had tried some of the crisps and they tasted as if they might have been about the same vintage as the bread, but that didn’t discourage our champion, who managed to swallow three large handfuls, which he helped down with two more mugs of the mysterious orange liquid.
Basher went into the jelly course neck-and-neck with the Gurneys as they started on their respective dishes. We looked on in amazement as Basher single-handedly matched the opposition in quantity, although there was little doubt among the rest of us that the Maudly-Creechoms had the edge where table manners were concerned. Whereas the occupants of the other table were eating their crimson desert from small dishes using dainty utensils, Basher had resorted to eating directly from the serving bowl using the ladle, which coincidentally fit his mouth very well.
