A SUPPORTIVE man, giving his fiancee a lift to the regional heats of the Miss England competition, ended up being asked to compete.

    Ben Guymer, 25, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, in Britain, caught the eye of beauty contest staff while giving moral support to Nina Higham at the beauty pageant’s regional heats.

    But in a cruel twist paralegal Nina, also 25, failed to make the cut in Leicester — while Ben found himself thrust into the running for the Mr. England prize.

    He now has his eyes set on the national award and will battle it out with 11 other contestants at the Riviera Center in Torquay, Devon, in June.

    If he grabs the ultimate prize then he will jet off to sunny Mauritius to take on the best from across the globe in the Mr. World competition.

    “I didn’t go there to be pretty or really good-looking, I was just driving Nina down to the second stage of the competition. I was just waiting for her really but the staff there were really keen for me to enter,” Ben said.

    “I definitely wasn’t keen at first because I knew I’d get a load of stick off my mates but I gave in in the end.”

    The building surveyor is already gearing up for the pageant and has been hitting the gym four times a week as well as dieting to ensure he is in peak condition to wow the judges.

    Pageant virgin Ben is also practicing his singing talents and is eyeing up a Michael Buble song or an acoustic version of Mr. Probz’ hit song “Waves” to steal the show.

    He will also take on the Spartan challenge this summer to tone up for the contest.

    Ben said: “I don’t really know what to expect, I think that there is a round on questions about the economy as well as talents and modeling.

    “They’re definitely looking for more than just good looks and I’m just hoping to see how it goes. If I can win it then obviously that would be great.”

    (SD-Agencies)