A butcher impressed judges including magician Paul Daniels with his sausages to be crowned the London region winner in The Hunt for Britain’s Magical Bangers.

Steve Blake, who runs Chris Blake Butchers in High Street, Rickmansworth, won a competitive cook off at the S&M [Sausage and Mash] Cafe in East London’s Smithfield Market on Monday.

Mr Blake wowed the judges with his Old Victorian Sausage including the diminutive magic man and his wife Debee McGee as well as critics from the meat trade.

He went on to lift the best banger award and win a place in the national finals of the competition held as part of British Sausage Week.

Mr Blake, 51, has run the High Street shop along with two others in Uxbridge and Greenford for more than 20 years.

He said: “With our Old Victorian Sausage we went back in time to a traditional sausage. In years gone by there used to be a pepper hit, and we also linked it with the Victorian Evening held in Rickmansworth each year.

“It isn’t something I have really done much before. We entered a competition last year and came third nationally for a Cumberland sausage.

“But this was something different. We thought why not have a go?

“I was a little bit shocked when they said we had won.

“Sometimes you are too busy to enter these things, but this makes it worthwhile.”

Proceeds the butchers make from Rickmansworth Victorian Evening on Friday, November 27 will go to the Help for Heroes campaign which is raising money for soldiers injured in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.