"Tuesday kicked off bright and breezy at Sams Chop House in Leeds, where Bryn made us very welcome," said Claire Holland, BPEX Marketing, "while we waited for the nine butchers to deliver us with their winning sausages.

"Cooking today was Julia Lister and Jacqui Marsden from Ladies in Pigs (Lips), who did a sterling job in keeping them coming while Simon, Bryn and myself tasted our way through the judging.

"It came down to deliberating over the top five sausages that needed re-tasting, which included, a Sage and Red Onion Pork Sausage, a Pork, Cabbage & Bacon Sausage, a Pizza Sausage which had a stunning mozzarella flavour, a Bombay Banger, which had a sweet & spicy pineapple plus coriander flavour and of course a Yorkshire Pork Sausage.

"While all were fantastic, it took a while for the judges to agree, but ultimately the winner was chosen as Bobbys Bombay Bangers, as they delivered so much on taste and flavour.

A delighted Bobby accepted his award from Simon after which the Yorkshire Evening Post and ITV Yorkshire interviewed him and quote said ‘as you're from Lancashire, we’re not sure if this will make it into the news!'

"Then it was back in the tour bus for an hour or two as we wended our way to Underwood Meat Company in Rotherham to present the Foodservice Sausage of the Year winner with their Banger Award. Tony Goodger met us and guided us to their board room where a photocall within the boardroom was carried out with Simon and members of Underwoods and their Foodservice trophy.

"Then followed a half hour journey to Nottingham to the ever friendly Orange Tree pub where we were met by the manager Del Frith and his team as they prepared to be overtaken by 14 good butchers of East Midlands. Julia Blant and Mary Ibbottson took over the cooking reins today as well as judging while they cooked, in parallel to Simon, Del and me out in the restaurant.

"Amazingly we all reached the same conclusion in needing to re-taste the top four which included, a Thick Pork, Sage, Red Onion & Cracked Black Pepper, an Argy Bargy which contained some fantastic Indian spices and mango chutney, a traditional Lincolnshire Pork Sausage and a Ploughmans Sausage which contained a strong cheese and apple flavour. This was one of the most difficult, not only because of the amount we had to taste but because the level was so high. In the end a Traditional recipe won out and the Lincolnshire Pork sausage won which was produced by Trevor Fairburn Butchers of Louth with a time-honoured sausage recipe. A delighted Trevor collected his award from Simon [Rimmer], whom I suspect he had never heard of!!"

Ms Holland added that Twitter and Facebook have been hot all day with messages from butchers and the trade and consumer press about sausage sandwiches and recipes, offers on winning sausages, sausage competitions and prizes.

"It felt like the social media world was on Sausage Fever," she added.