Everyone eventually emerges, grabs breakfast at the cafeteria and heads for the Bake Off competition which has been set up by Hilary and the two other organisers, Tom & Becky. They are waiting in the Domestic Science rooms for you to arrive. There is a big room with four cooking sections: work bench with small sink, various equipment, oven and a shel with ingredients. The larger part of the room has tiered seating so people could watch demonstrations.
Each of the four cooking stations has the name of one of the four universities on the front of the workbench. Reading left to right, it says Teeside, York. Durham, Newcastle. So there is a team from each. Each of the contestants are asked togather before their bench.
Teeside's team consists of Carla, Wendy and Natalie
Your team is Ian, Emma and Miranda.
Durham's team is Russel, Kath and Kayla.
Newcastle's team is Sarah, Tony and Ashley
Quite a few of the supporters and competitors have come along to watch and you recognise a number of them particularly Gordon & Linda who look much happier. You are pleased to see Mr Harding and Miss Beech, Ross & Beech, Janine & Penny are attending, presumably to support the York team.
Tom takes control explaining the set up whilst Hilary and Becky demonstrate the equipent, ingredients etc as he refers to them.
"Welcome all. Good to see you all. This is meant to be a bit of fun, so don't get two hung up on trying to achieve Michelin status." He chuckles. "Hopefully though by the end we will have some freshly baked treats to sample along with our tea and coffee at the end. This competition is in three rounds. All ingredients are provided and you can utilise any of the equipment on your benches. The first round challenge will be to bake a cake, any flavour, any decoration. Second round is a technical challenge which will be announced at the start of that round. And the Third round will be to make any kind of dessert. We will allow the contestants a few minutes to decide who will compete in each of the rounds. And I will be talking to each of the contestants about their plans as they cook. Applause is not only encouraged but mandated. You will have 45 minutes for the first round, 25 minutes for the second and an hour for the final round. Any questions?"
