COOKERY competitions have long been the territory of the TV folk.

Barely a month goes by without some new take on the tired old format involving nice or nasty celebrity judges, artificial tension and overwrought, blubbering competitors prone to flapping their hands annoyingly in front of their tearful faces if they so much as singe a scone.

Long before the cameras moved in, however, cookery competitions were calmer, nicer, and often organised by local newspapers.

One was held on the evening of Tuesday, March 26, 1980, in Swindon and drew an audience of 450.

“Three of the area’s best amateur cooks are cued for action and raring to go in the battle which will win one of them our Supercook of 1980 title,” we wrote on the Monday.

“The final of the second cook-of-the-year contest to be run by the Adver in conjunction with South West Gas – the first was in 1978 – takes place tomorrow at Stratton St Margaret Community Centre.”

The finalists included 14-year-old Sara Clarke from Broad Town, a fifth former at the old St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Comprehensive School.

Also in the final was 36-year-old Meriel Spencer, a secretary from Wroughton who had also been a finalist two years earlier. The trio of top cooks was completed by Anne Harris, 42, a housewife from Buscot.

Anne’s speciality, we said, was meat and savoury dishes, while Sara favoured sweet dishes and Meriel exotic sweets.

Finalists were asked to submit a menu for an Easter Sunday dinner for four costing no more than £12, and had to cook a main course and one other.

Victory went to Meriel, who impressed the judges with lamb neck chops in a succulent wine and cheese sauce plus a desert, Gateau St Honore.

Her prizes, presented by TV and radio personality Don Moss, whose CV included Come Dancing, included a £260 New World Automatic Choice gas cooker, a hamper of St Ivel dairy products, £10 in Co-op vouchers and a book from the British Farm Produce Council.

If there was a popular theme to the rest of the week’s local stories, it was travel of one form or another.

We even brought news of a pilgrimage, courtesy of a vicar.

We said: “There’s more than a touch of Chaucer in Martin Howell’s fundraising ideas.

“Martin, the vicar of St Augustine’s Summers Street, Swindon, is off on a 150-mile trek to Canterbury to raise money for his church’s building fund.”

Martin and friends Mike Gardiner and Martin Ennis said their walk would return a goodwill visit made by St Augustine to the Swindon area 1,300 years before. The saint was the first Archbishop of Canterbury and devoted much of his life to bringing heathen Britons into the Christian fold.

Moving from two feet to two wheels propelled by four feet, a pair of Swindon community arts activists were preparing for a tandem ride from Swindon to Speakers’ Corner in London.

Their sponsored ride of about 120 miles was in aid of the British Heart Foundation.

Both Robert Stredder and Bryn Mathews were members of the pioneering Groundwell Farm Arts Workshop.

Also on two wheels was nine-year-old Even Swindon Junior School pupil Martin Brown. When we photographed him on his Raleigh Chopper bike, he and his friends were wearing Victorian outfits to mark the school’s centenary.

We added: “It turned out as a double celebration. He’s the 10,000th youngster in Thamesdown to pass the national cycling proficiency test. The first local proficiency test was held at the same school almost 10 years ago to the day.

“The Mayor of Thamesdown, Coun Gordon Law, himself a former pupil, presented the certificates yesterday.”

We wonder whether Martin Brown, who would now be nearing his mid-40s, still has his special certificate.

Our transport theme continued away from land, with a front page photograph of a man called Martin Sleeman aboard a narrowboat. He was pouring champagne on to her stern, watched by his wife, Dulcie, and daughters Dionne and Tracie.

“What made the launch so special,” we explained, “was that Martin built the boat himself at his home in Stratton St Margaret over the past 16 months. He’s called it Tradi, after the first letters of his daughters’ names.”

In Regent Street, electrical store chain Rumbelows opened a branch in the premises now occupied by Carphone Warehouse, and sent along people dressed as cartoon characters from their adverts to hand out leaflets.

The list of prices is a reminder of how much less we now pay in real terms for home entertainment.

A 13-inch Panasonic colour TV, for example, came in at £264.99, which translates as more than £1,000 in 2016. A 22-inch colour set with remote control was £329.99, while a primitive Binatone radio cassette player would set the buyer back £62.99 – or the best part of £250 at current rates.

A surviving example of that model, the Sportable Mk4, sold last year on eBay for 99p.