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A BUTCHER from Ilkley is to battle it out at the Great Yorkshire Show in a unique contest featuring teams from Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

The Butchers Tri-Nations Challenge, to be staged on home soil for the first time, is being organised by the national Butchers Q Guild and EBLEX, the organisation for the English beef and sheep industry.

It will take place on the third and final day of Great Yorkshire Show, on Thursday, July 10, and will see six of Britain’s most talented butchers take on their Antipodean counterparts in a team trial designed to test their prowess when it comes to preparing and presenting beef and lamb.

Captaining the British Beefeaters team will be David Lishman, of Lishman’s Butchers, Leeds Road.

Three independent judges, one from each country, will judge and score the teams on butchery skill, workmanship, product innovation, overall finish, presentation or display.

The teams will then head to London for the winners to be announced at the Supermeat & Fish Awards at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane the same evening.

The contest will be the culmination of a ten-day study tour by the Australian and New Zealand teams, during which they will gain an insight into the UK butchery industry through farm visits, summit meetings with industry groups, retail visits and sharing of best practices with butchery colleagues.