The UK team has narrowly missed out on a place at the Bakery World Cup 2012, after Costa Rica was named as the ‘wild card’ team.

UK team captain Sara Autton, who was present when the announcement was made today in France, said the UK team did come in second behind Costa Rica, so only narrowly missed out.

The UK was named as the ‘contender’ team from Western Europe in the Louis Lesaffre Cup European selection round, held at the Sirha exhibition in Lyon, in January this year.

This meant they progressed to the wild card selection round, where one of five contender teams picked from four international selection rounds – Europe, America, Africa Mediterranean and Asia-Pacific – would to go through to the final at Europain in Paris next year.

She said the decision as to which team went through as a ‘wild card’ had been based on a combination of elements, including the points achieved in the earlier selection round, team spirit, how well the team worked together, and their potential to improve.

The decision meant that the UK team, made up of captain Mickael Jahan (Viennese Pastry category), Wayne Caddy (Bread), and Steven Salt (Artistic Piece), came 13th out of the 32 countries that made it through to the international selection rounds.

Autton said all the judges in the European Selection Round said they were very impressed with how much the UK team had improved since it had last taken part.

“We’re really up there with the big boys,” said Autton. “There are a lot of countries that think the UK cannot make good bread, and we’ve shown them that we can.” She added that despite losing out on a place in the final, the team had a lot to be proud of.

>>UK team named as contender for Bakery World Cup