World Gurning Championships sees record win at face-off fight

Tommy Mattinson, 52, took the crown location aft winning the World Gurning Championships successful Cumbria for a grounds 19th clip by showing disconnected stark transformations with his face

A rubber-faced antheral has won the World Gurning Championships for a grounds 19th clip and vowed: "I privation to triumph 30."

Tommy Mattinson, 52, bushed different competitors to instrumentality location the crown successful the men's category, portion Claire Lister, 37, won the woman's class for an eighth consecutive time. Claire's girl Kendal was named champion successful the inferior class of the wacky competition, held annually successful Egremont, Cumbria.

Judges crown the winning contestant based connected whoever displays the starkest transformation betwixt their mean look and their gurning face. Tommy, who's dada was a gurning champion, said: "It's amazing, I'm truthful pleased to triumph it again. I didn't expect, I ne'er do, but determination was immoderate stiff absorption tonight.

"When I propulsion my face, I spell into my portion and I don't perceive the assemblage and I don't consciousness anything. I'll beryllium coming back. I privation 30. I deliberation if you're a champion, you should travel backmost and support it. As agelong arsenic I'm live and kicking, I'll travel backmost and enactment it.

"People deliberation 'oh person you not won it enough?' but I emotion winning, I similar it. I bash a batch of tv and I conscionable a batch of stars, I've done immoderate Saturday nighttime tv and children's tv and I emotion each that facet of it.

"I retrieve winning the juniors for the archetypal time. I started gurning erstwhile I was a small child, trying to transcript my dad, who was a world champion. My mum said I was ever I was pulling faces arsenic a kid."

Dozens of hopefuls took portion successful the event, which is portion of the Egremont Crab Fair, which besides sees wheelbarrow races and horn-blowing competition's. Entrants effort to propulsion the astir grotesque look imaginable portion wearing a ample equine collar.

Their look contortion efforts are past scored by a sheet of 5 judges, who are looking for "the biggest translation successful face". The just is thought to day each the mode backmost to 1267 - erstwhile crab apples were fixed to the townsfolk by the Lord of the Manor.

Hometown leader Claire Lister, who has won the women's contention for the eighth clip successful a row, said: "I archetypal starting gurning erstwhile I was a junior, I would travel 2nd and third. "As you get older, you go a teen and it get's a spot embarrassing. But I entered successful 2013 erstwhile I was 26 and that's erstwhile I won archetypal time.

"I missed 2014 due to the fact that I had a baby, but I've won consecutively since then. In Lockdown, we entered a contention successful Japan via Zoom and we've been connected tv with it, it's truly good."

Discussing the competition, president Callum Scott said: "People travel from each implicit the state to instrumentality part. I deliberation it appeals to truthful galore radical due to the fact that it's truthful unsocial - and due to the fact that of the tradition.

"We're 1 of the oldest fairs successful the satellite and gurning is believed to person started successful 1267. It's conscionable an iconic portion of the town."