It's always a good idea to tell your wife what you're doing each day in my job...

Last night, I had the glamorous task of judging the Northern Council of Butchers' Sausage and Ham Competition at Blackwells Butchers at Norton, near Stockton.

It sounded easy but it was far from it. I had to work my way through 14 sausages in the pork section, 10 in the beef, and 22 in the speciality. And after that there was six hams to choose from.

I learned a lot from my fellow judge - Don Wallace, director of Dalesman (Newcastle Ltd) - a company which supplies the meat trade.

He told me what to look for in the appearance and texture of a sausage - in both its uncooked and cooked states.

I found myself nodding in agreement when he came out with declarations like: "Look at that - you just don't do thin Cumberland, do you?"

In Don's book, a Cumberland has to be thick and I'm sure he's right.

I got through the pork section fairly comfortably but started to struggle towards the end of the beef.

By the time I got to the speciality section, I never wanted to see another sausage in my life.

Nibbling smaller and smaller samples and convinced I was going to explode, I made it to Number 11 out of the 22 entries, feeling like a marathon runner who's staggered as far as 13 miles but still has another 13 to go.

Somehow, I got to the finishing line and then turned to the hams. How I got through those hams, I'll never know.

We picked our supreme champion, Paul Clarke, of Pickings Butchers in East Boldon and I went home.

"Sausage casserole alright?" said my wife as I walked through the door.