'Apple throwers come from all over the world to our orchards'

Fifty different varieties of apples are grown in Newby Hall's orchards

Competitors from across the world will travel to a North Yorkshire country estate this weekend to take part in a quirky tradition.

Newby Hall, near Ripon, is hosting the unofficial Apple Throwing Championships in the surroundings of its impressive orchards, where 50 varieties of the fruit are grown.

"There's a guy from Zimbabwe who has been for a few years and there's a guy from the States, a baseball player, who won it for two consecutive years," says Stuart Gill, the hall's commercial director.

"It started about 15 years ago, we were blessed with a huge windfall in our orchards."

Aiden Morgan described his experience at Newby Hall as "such a wonderful introduction to the country"

Organisers at Newby Hall, which is a Grade I-listed building, say they usually get around 500 people turn up to take part in the annual contest.

Last year's event was won by returning champion Aiden Morgan, 23, from Ohio in the US.

He said: "I went to York for graduate school initially. I was studying at the medieval studies department at the University of York. I got an email saying they were taking a postgrad trip to Newby Hall and that's how I stumbled upon it."

Aiden, who is a fan of Major League Baseball side the Cleveland Guardians, says it's his sporting upbringing which helped him win the competition.

"It's like a dream, the skills that you've cultivated throughout your youth, the throwing mechanics, I have all of that down. I have always had a pretty good arm. So I saw a throwing competition and was like 'sign me up'."

Newby Hall was built in 1697 and enlarged in the 1760s

Each competitor gets three picks of windfall apples from the orchard and they have to throw them over the River Ure, around 130ft (40m) away, to make it to the final round.

"If you get three over, you return for the final and then it's literally who can leg the apple the furthest across the river," says Stuart.

Apples which fall into the river or make it across to the other side are either eaten by local sheep or naturally decompose.

This year's championship also coincides with the World Jam Festival which is being held at Newby Hall for the first time.

Around 130 different jams are being showcased, some from as far afield as Canada, as part of the yearly event which is being held on the same day as the Apple Throwing Championships.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.