AN ANGUS butcher is hoping for fireworks with his bangers in a national showdown next week.

Newtyle’s Alan Pirie is heading for London where he hopes to light up the judges’ tastebuds in the search for Britain’s sausage champion.

The award-winning firm is on a roll after a triple gold-medal performance in last month’s Scottish Meat Federation finals and is pinning its capital hopes on a family recipe that has gone down a treat for eight decades.

The James Pirie and Son passage to Monday’s event in the Butcher’s Hall of The Barbican was booked in May when the Angus outfit was crowned east of Scotland sausage king.

Alan said, “You have to be an outright champion to get an invitation for this event so you know you are up against the very best.

“We’ve been to the champion of champions twice before, coming sixth out of 40 entries last time out.

“It’s our traditional, hand-made beef sausage which we will be going with and you have to take one pound of uncooked and one pound of cooked to the event.

“The recipe has been handed down over probably 80 years, and we’ve tweaked it a wee bit along the way but it’s still a closely-guarded secret.

“In the past we’ve had very good comments, but down south they seem to prefer pork sausages so we’ll be doing what we can to try and make them as appealing as possible for the judges in what is a blind tasting.”

The family firm’s modern successes include medallions for haggis lasagne and Beijing pork fillets.