Meet the 21-year-old female Shropshire butcher heading to Las Vegas

Tia Williams runs T.W. Game, at Battlefield near Shrewsbury, specialising in venison.

The 21-year-old is already part of the Team GB butchery squad, but now has the chance to show her talents in Las Vegas, at the World Butcher Wars.

Tia is now seeking sponsorship to help her get to the US for the competition.

She explained how she got into the profession, leading to her setting up her own business.

She said: “I always had an interest in animals and farming growing up.

“Then I started working at a local farm where they had a small butchery there, and I think when I was about 13, 14, hacked up a lamb, and wasn’t very good at it but I thought yeah, the connection with farming and food, it is like being the next link in the chain really.

“I studied it at college, got a bit more into it and thought yeah, why not sell a bit of venison and see how it goes, and just started off really small doing a bit for myself.”

Tia sells regularly at Shrewsbury farmers market, in Whitchurch, and Ludlow as well as online.

And while many might find it an unusual profession for a young woman, Tia is quick to point out that it’s not just a shortage of women in the trade, but also young people altogether.

She said: “There’s not many female butchers about but also there’s not many young butchers about, there’s not a lot of young people getting into it.”

Asked about how she’d been received in the profession Tia said she had found her fellow butchers incredibly welcoming.

She said: “Everyone asks ‘are the men a bit funny’ but you know what, everyone has been really supportive and we need to get more people involved with it to be honest.”

Tia heads is off to the United States next year, saying: “On the second of April I head to Las Vegas and I am competing in the world butchers - on an international stage for my little butchery!”

Explaining the challenge that awaits Tia said: “It is only half an hour we get to do a whole lamb rump, a middle of pork, but it is not just like simple butchery, it is like crossing art with butchery, you know adding veg in there and garnishes and different things, so you look at it and you think ‘wow, has someone actually made that out of meat’.

“It is really good because it tries to get people more involved and spread the word that it is an art and a craft, and there’s a lot of skill involved, I am sure all the other butchers would agree.”

Anyone interested in sponsoring Tia’s efforts to get to vegas can e-mail her.