Students take on chicken wing challenge at Wolverhampton pub
What started as a joke in a Wolverhampton pub ended up with 11 university students biting off more than they could chew as they tried to eat 500 chicken wings between them in 30 minutes.
The group, who are all part of the University of Wolverhampton's game design course, were set the challenge by staff at the Royal London pub in the city centre after increasing orders of their favourite lunch time snack.
Their prize for completing the mouth-watering task was nothing more than a free round of drinks.
But Ben Ford, aged 18, and 10 university friends felt they could stomach the challenge.
Mr Ford said: "Each time we came here for lunch we were ordered more and more chicken wings then one of the members of staff joked and said if you eat 500 you can have a free round of drinks.
"We got thinking and thought 'why not?' I got a few of the guys from the course to get involved and we thought we'd give it a go.
"There was the offer of a free drink but it's more to do with pride.
"I didn't prepare much for the challenge other than to eat a lighter breakfast than normal."
However the group's task was to end in failure as they managed to eat just over 300 chicken wings in half-an-hour.
The general manager for Royal London, Donna Boden, said the 30 minute 500 chicken wing challenge may become a regular event, she said: "We are looking at doing it again and people are welcome to try it.
"We have an event coming up over Easter called 'Man Versus Meat' that involves a heavily towered burger.
"It's all a bit of fun but on that occasion the event will involve several pubs around Wolverhampton and will raise money for Macmillan Cancer Trust."
Ever since the popularity of the American television show 'Man Versus Food' the trend of food challenges have swept the Black Country.
At Smokeys in Walsall diners can try a monster burger that contains three pounds of minced beef, 12 rashers of bacon, a dozen slices of cheese and 12 onion rings.
