If you think you have a lot of Cup Match cooking to do, think again.

Wilbur “McLaren” Lowe III will cook more than half a ton of fish this week.

That doesn’t include all the shrimp, shark hash and fried mussels he expects to serve at Wellington Oval tomorrow and Friday from his stall, St David’s Seafood.

“My family have been cooking for the game for three generations,” he said. “My grandparents, Evelyn and Arthur Pitcher, first started doing it 55 years ago. My father, the late Rev Wilbur “Larry” Lowe continued the tradition and now I am doing it.”

Mr Lowe started helping out at the family stall when he was just seven.

“I would take a break and get a snowball or watch the game and then help out my uncles and my father,” he said. “I suppose I wasn’t really that much help as a child. It wasn’t until I took over that I realised how much work it really is.”

He uses a family batter recipe that has stayed constant through the years.

“We try our best to update the product, but we keep true to the tradition,” he said. “We try to give all the local cuisine that people don’t get on an everyday basis. The fried mussels are a new addition.”

The Lowes try to catch as much local fish as they can for their Cup Match sandwiches, but given the high demand will supplement with a good quality snapper.

Mr Lowe opened a takeout restaurant last month. St David’s Seafood is on the lower level of St David’s Cricket Club. “My brother, Jonathan, is studying to be a chef, so he will take up the cooking when he is done with his studies,” said Mr Lowe.

After 25 years catering to Cup Match, Gary Caisey has finally kicked the “new boy” title.

“Back then it was mainly St David’s families like the Pitchers that sold fish at Cup Match,” he said. “So it was hard to get accepted, at least at first.”

He’s run a number of fish restaurants over the years including Sid’s Seafood in Crawl Hill.

“Now I am semi-retired,” he said. “I am a commercial fisherman, mainly inshore. I fish for snappers, turbot and anything that will bite a line.

“[At Cup Match] I usually start out with Bermuda fish, but it doesn’t last. We usually sell about 800lbs of fish and 150lbs of shrimp. It can be hard to keep up with demand if you don’t have enough help. We have about eight to ten people working with us.”

He said he often sees old faces at the game, but doesn’t have a lot of time to chat.

“We’re very busy,” he said. “I often only have time for a quick ‘Hi, how are you?’.”

Fish vendor Steve Bremar really is a newcomer. He started selling fish at Cup Match three years ago out of his stall, Secret Recipe.

“I always wanted to go this route,” he said. “I wanted to have a small restaurant and the first thing is to establish a reputation. I got the little food tent at BAA and word is getting out there.”

The 54-year-old said what sets his stall apart is the kindness and quality.

“I use my own secret recipe,” he said. “The shrimp and fish are our main sellers, but we do a variety of things. The secret recipe came about just fiddling around, over the course of doing what I do. I just added some more of this and some more of that. It is a major hit right now.”

He has seven brothers. As children they all liked the kitchen.

“I guess we all know how to cook,” he said, “but I’m the only one who went into the restaurant business.”

Tonka Simpson has had a fish stall at Cup Match for two years. He runs the Seaside Grill Restaurant on North Shore and started cooking at Cup Match to be a part of tradition.

“I am from Bailey’s Bay and have been cooking my whole life,” he said. “Cooking fish is a part of my culture. I own a fishing business, and that’s why I started the restaurant.”

He took more fish than he needed for his first year — more than 1,000lbs.

“I have a restaurant so nothing was wasted,” he said. “I knew I was in for a lot of labour. The rush is the biggest challenge. It can get crazy. You just have to keep up with the volume of people coming in. We have to start preparing fish at 7.30am.”

Visit his stall for wahoo on a bun, wahoo nuggets, chicken burgers, chicken wings and other fast food.