China's Ding Junhui has donated 276 meat pies he was awarded for winning the UK snooker championship to a charity in his adopted home city of Sheffield, Chinese media reported yesterday.

A British company had promised the winner of the last weekend's tournament his body weight in pies, so Ding scooped 69 kilograms of the British delicacies after beating John Higgins in Sunday's final to claim the title for the second time.

Ding joked that he had tried unsuccessfully to increase his haul of pastries at the weigh-in and, after initially suggesting he might share them with his fans in China, decided to donate them to a charity that helps the homeless at Christmas.

"We all wanted to win those pies and when we weighed up we all wore more clothes and I even wanted to put some balls in my pockets but they were found," Ding, who also won the UK Championship in 2005, was quoted as saying in the China Daily yesterday.

"I've have lived in Sheffield for the past few years and I love the city. The least I can do is try to help some of those less fortunate than me at Christmas by donating these pies - hopefully there are enough pies to stop people going hungry."

Ding's triumph at the weekend marked a return to form for the 22-year-old, who had not won a ranking tournament since the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy.