No yolk as Team Emu lose world egg throwing crown
IT was a vintage day for egg throwing on Sunday. The World Egg Throwing Championships was one of the main attractions at the annual Swaton Vintage Day, which attracted more than 4,000 people.
The event, held at nearby Thorpe Latimer, raises money for local and national charities.
A repeat of last year's egg flinging trebuchet machine contest generated a lot of excitement, with the Latvian Welders team from Market Deeping Round Table successfully launching and catching two eggs over a distance of 60 metres, beating last year's world champions Team Emu. Teams had to build their own contraptions to enter the event, which was all sponsored by Rowntree's Randoms sweets.
President of the World Egg Throwing Federation and vice-chairman of the vintage day committee Andy Dunlop said: "The eggs were travelling at a hell of a rate of knots. One egg came down fast enough to cut the hand of one of the catchers in practice."
Latvian Welders' Darren Scott constructed their gravity powered device - The Beast, which was hand caught by Chris Ray.
Andy said: "There were several hundred competitors in the egg throwing championships, with more trebuchets. We also had more people through the gates because it is such a good value day out at only 4 for adults and 2 for children and most of the games are free to enter."
Last year's Russian Egg Roulette champion Opal Upton-Brooker of Swaton was knocked out in the third round by eventual champion Terri De'ath, a housewife from Peterborough.
In the throwing and catching event Joe Spencer and George Wattam retained their title with the longest successful throw and catch distance of 47 metres. The egg throwing relay race was won by the appropriately-dressed Away with the Fairies and Leprechauns team from Cambridgeshire, working together to throw 12 eggs over a one-and-a-half minute period without any breaking. They beat a Swaton team by two eggs.
Andy added: "We just hope to keep increasing the amount raised for charity by increasing the visitor numbers through spreading the word. The event is all run by villagers giving up their time for free. It was such a good day that the beer tent ran out.
"The show is growing. This year we had 450 vintage vehicles - the biggest field we have ever had."
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Weather for Sleaford
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
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Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
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