Sporting Event Of The Week (28)

There is success and there is success as the saga of the Dorset Knob throwing contest shows. Cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid restrictions, organisers were hoping to hold this popular event, alongside the Frome Valley Food Fest, in Cattistock on May 1st.

For the uninitiated, a Dorset Knob is a hard biscuit, made originally, around the 1860s by the Moores family, from the leftover dough and hand rolled into button shapes – they take their name from the hand-sewn Dorset Knob buttons – before being baked in the dying heat of the bread oven and left to dry out like rusks.

Their hardness and size make them ideal for competitive throwing and the competition has run since 2008. Contestants are restricted to three biscuits, which they must throw underarm, with one foot firmly planted on the ground at all times, inside a designated throwing zone, measuring 5 metres wide by 32 metres long. Where the biscuit finally comes to rest is the point at which the length of the throw is measured. If the biscuit breaks on landing, the judges decide which spot to measure. The record throw of 29.4 metres was set in 2012.   

Sadly, though, aspiring Knob throwers have turned to crumbs as the event has had to be cancelled yet again, a victim of its own success. With over 8,000 people attending the last event in 2019, organisers have concluded that it has become too big for a part-time committee to organise.

A bitter biscuit to swallow, for sure.