Latest news with #JohnMontagu
The Sun
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I played the foodie games on Fabulous Vegas for British Sandwich Week
IN honour of British Sandwich Week, I played the food-inspired games on Fabulous Vegas. In this edition of Keep Up With Katrina, I took my usual budget of £10 and decided to check out the Fabulous Vegas games that had a food theme. * Yes, I was playing when it was lunchtime and I was hungry but that's not the only reason for this theme. It's also because 19th - 25th May 2025 marks British Sandwich Week! This event is organised by the British Sandwich & Food To Go Association. According to the event's website it 'celebrates the humble sandwich in all its glory, as well as the contribution that the sandwich industry makes to the economy'. As it turns out, this is quite a sizeable contribution, with more than 3 billion sandwiches purchased in the UK each year. That means we Brits spend over £8 billion a year on these lunchtime staples. This year's theme is Seven Days, Seven Sandwiches. The website outlines seven recommended sandwich recipes, one for each day of the week-long celebration. The recipes include ways to elevate your sandwich game, so you won't find run-of-the-mill fillings like the BLT, which is a slight shame when a Hovis poll of 2,000 people found it to be the best-loved sandwich choice (28%). In close second came chicken salad (24%), and in joint third position was tuna mayo, and fish finger (23%). Sandwiches have been filling hungry Brits for hundreds of years. The story goes that in 1762, John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, was reluctant to step away from a card game in order to get food. Therefore, he ordered that a plate be brought to him instead, consisting of meat placed between two slices of bread, so that he could keep playing while eating. His fellow guests got the food envy that any good sandwich can evoke and they wanted one as well. This is when the sandwich concept came to Britain. However, the practice of placing fillings in bread already existed in the eastern areas of the Mediterranean, where Montagu is known to have visited. Want some quick facts to impress your friends with this British Sandwich Week? According to Guinness World Records, the largest sandwich ever made was 2,467.5kg! It was made by Wild Woody's Chill & Grill in 2005. It had 68kg of mustard, 468.1kg of corned beef, 117.9kg of cheese, 240.4kg of lettuce and 1,618.4kg of bread. It was 3.6m long, 3.6m wide and 0.44m thick. Meanwhile, the most expensive sandwich ever made was the Quintessential Grilled Cheese from Seredipity 3 in New York. The 2014 sandwich was $214. This price came from the fact that it was made from bread containing Dom Perignon Champagne and gold flakes. There was truffle butter and rare Caciocavallo Podolico cheese. Finally, the sandwich came with South African lobster tomato bisque dipping sauce. Now that I've whet your appetite for sandwiches, shall we dive into how my foodie session on Fabulous Vegas went? Were the steaks high? Was my gaming style ham-fisted? Was I the Queen of Clubs? Let's see how I got on… Slingo Rakin' Bacon Spent £3 Won £5 I started with what I will go on record as saying is the best sandwich filling. Bacon sandwiches are a gift from the gods. It tied perfectly with what I consider to be the most enjoyable gaming format: slingos. These are a hybrid of bingo games and slots. For one price, you get a number of spins. Each spin reveals a selection of numbers (usually in the five-column format of bingo) and you attempt to dab as many numbers as possible on your ticket with your spins. Each completed line forms a 'slingo' and means you climb the slingo ladder. The more slingos you achieve, the bigger the prize that you ultimately win. Rakin' Bacon offers 10 spins per game. I played three games with £1 stakes. Something that I was surprised to see was that every time a Wild spun in (these allow players to select any number in the relevant column to dab) the golden piggy bank began to swell. By the end of one game, the piggy was as ready to burst as I am after an all-inclusive holiday. It turns out that this was a visual to let me know that the jackpot game can be randomly triggered when any Wild symbol spins in. Once in the jackpot game, you're guaranteed to win one of four jackpots. Rakin' Bacon kept me on my toes as I only achieved one slingo in game one (you must achieve a minimum of three slingos to start winning cash). Then, game two took me to two slingos. Finally, third time was the charm as I scooped six slingos and a fabulous £5 prize! 1 Sizzling Eggs Spent £3.40 Won 43p A good egg mayo sandwich is also a great option… just not in a confined, public space. That's right, I'm talking to the people eating them on trains or in offices. I see you. I respect and resent your audacity. In this slot game, you can win up to 2500x your bet! There are also four jackpots that can be won: Mini (x20), Minor (x50), Major (x100) and Mega (x200). Once I selected my bet amount (from between 10p and £5), I started to play. On one spin, the top row was nearly filled by molten lava egg symbols that would be guaranteed to burn your mouth. Turns out, these are Collector symbols and had they filled the top row, they'd have sat on the table for a random number of spins (up to 10) collecting cash and jackpot symbols all the while. If an infinity symbol had popped up, the countdown would have been INFINITY and all cash and jackpot symbols would be collected until the feature ended. This game also has the Gamble feature, which players can use after successful spins. It allows you to gamble your winnings for the chance to double them. However, be aware that if you lose, you forfeit the cash win from that spin. If you think this game is egg-cellent, make sure to check out Sizzling Eggs Extremely Light and Sizzling Eggs Grand Gold Edition. Ice Lobster Spent: £3.60 Won: 8p In honour of the Quintessential Grilled Cheese dipping sauce, I selected a lobster-inspired game. It wasn't hard to find a fishy slot given that they are extremely popular in the gaming world! From fishing rods to nets and friendly fisherman, the iconography of this game is very on brand. Yet, it's not just a feast for the eyes as there's a cheery tune that plays in the background while you play. I found myself compelled to bob along (which I suppose is very appropriate for a sea-themed game). In Ice Lobster, the total bet amount is calculated as coins per value x coin value x 20. Therefore, the minimum bet amount is 20p and the maximum is £5. The maximum win is x5000, and there's a free spins feature that can award up to x1000. If you spin in three, four or five Scatter symbols, you get 8, 12 or 15 free spins, respectively. I played with a selection of bet amounts, and with my £1 bet I managed to spin in two Scatters but that's where my luck ran out as the third Scatter slipped my net! What could you win? What a scrumptious gaming session with some very tasty wins! Don't forget to honour British Sandwich Week by indulging in your favourite fillings as well as trying something new. As for my winnings pot of £5.51, I had to think of an appropriately delicious way to spend it. That's when I found a way to elevate my sandwich game to a whole new level: A four-piece set of sandwich cutters with delightfully cute fox, whale, seal and teddy characters - £5.29 Make like the Earl, grab yourself a sandwich and get settled into your own great gaming session with us here at Fabulous Vegas. *New customers only. Register, deposit and spend a minimum of £10 to receive 200 free spins (wager winnings 20x within seven days). Accept within 48 hours. Free spins valid for seven days, can be played on selected games only. Debit cards only. Offer ends 31.07.25. 18+. T&Cs apply. Commercial content notice: Taking one of the offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. 18+. T&Cs apply. Remember to gamble responsibly A responsible gambler is someone who:
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Earl of Sandwich, dedicated crossbencher who kept the Foreign Office and DfID on their toes
The 11th Earl of Sandwich, who has died aged 81, was devoted – as a charity worker and writer, and as a highly respected hereditary member of the House of Lords – to the causes of international development, overseas aid and human rights. John Montagu worked with Christian Aid, Save the Children Fund and Care International before inheriting the peerages conferred on his 17th-century naval ancestor but disclaimed in 1964 by his MP father. Lord Sandwich – as John became on his father's death in 1995 – was a gentle and cerebral crossbench participant in Lords' debates and committees, intensely focused on drawing support to his chosen causes without ever seeking limelight or confrontation. Such was the good impression made in his early years that when 92 hereditary peers had to be chosen by election to remain in 1999, following Blair government reforms, Sandwich was elected fifth in the list of 28 favoured crossbenchers. Over three decades he made more than a thousand contributions to the House's proceedings, very often in the form of courteous but probing questions to Foreign Office and DfID ministers and always in the interest, as one colleague put it, of 'those for whom he cared most, those with no chance and no choice'. In his valedictory speech in May 2024 – in a debate on the legal status of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the International Committee of the Red Cross – Sandwich spoke passionately about 'the forgotten crisis' of Sudan and its 'progressive destruction' by warring generals, leading to 'appalling loss of life and malnutrition [and] a high number of refugees falling into the hands of traffickers on their way to small boats bringing them to this country. We are not doing enough to work with our European and Commonwealth friends to reduce these numbers.' During that debate, Lady (Virginia) Bottomley of Nettlestone summed up Lord Sandwich as 'a man of intellect, wisdom, huge generosity of spirit and great modesty [who] gives Parliament a good name'. John Edward Hollister Montagu was born in London on April 11 1943 to Victor Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, and his wife Rosemary, née Peto, who divorced when John was 15. Victor 'Hinch' Montagu was a difficult father and a rumbustious Conservative MP for South Dorset between 1941 and 1962, best known for his opposition to withdrawal from Suez and to Harold Macmillan's first overtures towards the European Common Market. On inheriting the earldom in 1962, Victor was reluctantly obliged to leave the Commons – but having followed the example of Tony Benn (formerly Viscount Stansgate) and disclaimed his titles for life, he failed to find a new constituency. John was educated at Eton and read history and modern languages at Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked in publishing and journalism before joining Christian Aid as an information officer in 1974 and later working as an editor for Save the Children Fund and a consultant for Care International. Covering projects for the homeless, the hungry and the disenfranchised in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Kosovo, throughout Africa, and in India, where he lived for a year, he also often worked alongside the Red Cross in emergency appeals. He was a mainstay for many years of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sudan and a co-founder with Oliver Letwin MP of the APPG for Prescribed Drug Dependence, which achieved changes in clinical guidelines to improve patient safety. He was also a member of the council of the Anti-Slavery Trust, chairman of the Britain Afghanistan Trust and an adviser to the British College at Kathmandu. He was the author of The Book of the World (1971), a compendium of facts and maps. For Save the Children Fund he edited Prospects for Africa's Children (1990) and Children at Crisis Point (1992); he also published a celebration of his father's life, a collection of his mother's illustrated letters and other family material. He was president for 25 years of the Samuel Pepys Club, the 17th-century diarist having been a cousin of the 1st Earl. The titles of Earl of Sandwich, Viscount Hinchingbrooke and Baron Montagu of St Neots had been conferred in 1660 on Edward Montagu, an admiral who helped negotiate the restoration of the monarchy and commanded the fleet which brought Charles II back from Holland. A more famous ancestor, however, was the 4th Earl (1718-1792), who served three terms as First Lord of the Admiralty and is credited with the invention in 1762 of the western world's most ubiquitous fast food when he asked for a serving of beef between bread to be brought to him at the gambling table. That episode inspired the launch in 2004 by John Sandwich's son Orlando (with the 11th Earl in the role of 'president', and in partnership with the Planet Hollywood restaurateur Robert Earl) of the Earl of Sandwich chain, which claims 'the world's greatest hot sandwich' offering, including 'The Full Montagu' combination of beef, turkey, cheese and salad. The venture has 50 locations in North America, Asia and Disneyland Paris. In the 1980s, Lord Sandwich also embarked with his wife Caroline on the restoration of the gardens, woodlands and farms of the Mapperton estate in Dorset, which had been acquired by Victor Montagu in 1955. Its manor house, Tudor in origin but largely rebuilt in the 1660s, was named 'the nation's finest' by Country Life in 2006. He was also captain and 'chairman of selectors' of Mapperton Marauders cricket club, a fellow member recalling: 'On match day, no one quite knew how many would show up, numbers could vary from seven to 17... Equally benign and affable in victory or defeat, John was the perfect embodiment of this once noble sport.' He married, in 1968, Caroline Hayman, whom he had met at Cambridge. She survives him with their sons Luke (Viscount Hinchingbrooke, born in 1969, who succeeds as 12th Earl) and Orlando, and daughter Jemima. Lord Sandwich, born April 11 1943, died February 1 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
