Covid-19: Dorset knob-throwing festival cancelled

The savoury biscuits must be thrown underarm and the competitor must keep one foot on the ground

The tradition of tossing knobs on a Dorset field has been cancelled due to fears that lives would be put at risk.

The Dorset Knob Throwing and Frome Valley Food Festival features a competition to hurl the county's traditional biscuits as far as possible.

Ian Gregory, chair of the Dorset Knob Throwing Committee, said it had been affected by Covid-19 restrictions.

The event is scheduled to return to Cattistock in May 2022.

It incorporates a food festival, live music and knob-based games such as knob-and-spoon racing, splat the knob, knob darts, and pin the knob on the Cerne Abbas giant.

Players also battle to eat as many knobs as possible in record time.

The one-day festival attracted 8,000 revellers in 2019, and knob-throwing has taken place there since 2008.

Experienced and hardened contestants are seen tossing their knobs underarm while keeping one foot on the ground during each bash.

Dorset knob facts

• The biscuits have been made by Moores of Morecombelake for more than 150 years

• Originally, they were made from leftover bread dough with added butter and sugar, hand-rolled and left to dry in the dying heat of the oven

• It is thought their name comes from the hand-sewn Dorset knob buttons that were also made locally

• They can be eaten with Blue Vinny cheese, dipped in tea or cider, or taken with honey and cream - known locally as thunder and lightning

Mr Gregory said the decision to cancel "was reluctantly made due to current Covid-19 restrictions and their anticipated continuation".

He added: "The committee took the view that to continue in these circumstances could put people's lives at risk and felt that they had a duty of care towards all visitors, volunteers and stallholders."

He said the "essence and joy" of throwing knobs was that it was "great fun" and "without the freedom to mix openly the spontaneity and appeal of this event will be lost".

He described the practice as a "zany, quintessentially British event which has caught the public imagination".

The festival was cancelled in 2020 because no venue was available, but Mr Gregory said organisers were working to "ensure a successful and reinvigorated" return next year.