SHOPPERS gathered in the Piazza to see Examiner competition entrants have a chance to win £1,000 in vouchers.

And one local charity has had a boost from it thanks to the winner who donated some of his prize to buy toys for children.

Click below for more pictures from the competition.

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And the competition caused quite a stir with crowds and on-lookers gathered at the Piazza Shopping Centre at 1pm on Saturday.

The competition focused around a booth, which resembled a modern telephone kiosk with a countdown clock on top, which was filled with circulating air and tokens.

The Examiner’s Piazza Pay-Out competition then saw six entrants have a race against the clock to grab tickets to secure the prize.

Five of them were chosen by submitting tokens printed in the Examiner and a final lucky shopper was picked at random from further entrants on the day.

All six contestants were cheered on by the crowd as they had their 30 seconds in the booth.

Anthony Briggs, of Dalton, who was grabbing on behalf of his dad Trevor Briggs, 67, from Scapegoat Hill, was crowned the winner after he grabbed 36 tickets in the allotted time.

Father-of-two Anthony was nominated by his dad to take part because he was visiting relatives in the Midlands.

Anthony, 39, said: “It is harder than it looks. I grabbed a lot from the ceiling and that seemed to work well with the airflow.

“I will be phoning my parents to tell them we’ve won.”

But Anthony said he hadn’t discussed whether his dad would share the vouchers with him if he won.

He added: “We just thought we’d see what happens. My wife Sarah is at home with our two children, Isabel, who has chicken pox, and our son Nathaniel, who has a high temperature so I have had to come on my own.

“I think my wife Sarah may like the Boots vouchers but we’ll have to see.”

In a kind-hearted gesture Anthony decided to donate the £100 vouchers for Granger Games and £100 vouchers for Toy Master to the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice to spend on toys for the patients.

He continued: “My children have loads of toys, I haven’t checked with my dad, but if I say that’s happening, he will be fine with it. It’s such a great charity.”

The prize also consists of £200 for Boots, £250 at BHS, £100 Ann Summers, £100 Dorothy Perkins, £100 Superdrug, £50 WH Smiths.

The other five finalists were: Roger Gibbons, 67, from Golcar, Shazad Munir, 26, from Fartown who grabbed on behalf of his sister Shanaz, 33, Brenda Gordon, 47, from Thornton Lodge, Rodney Brook, 66, from Halifax and Lynn Gray of Crosland Moor.