Jas Kukielka and I won the World Egg Throwing Championships at the World Alternative Games 2012!
On Friday 24th August I competed in the World Alternative Games 2012. The festival of sport is taking place in Britain’s Smallest Town – Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales – and there are over 50 different weird and wacky, odd and obscure sports taking place during the two weeks between the 17th August and the 2nd September. I was in town to run the first-ever Finger Jousting Championship on UK soil and ended up winning the World Egg Throwing Championships alongside my teammate Jas Kukielka!
.JPG "Throwing an egg to Jas Kukielka") |
| Throwing an egg to Jas Kukielka |
On the Friday morning we were at the Ysgol Dolafon in the town watching the action from the World Alternative Games Egg Throwing Championships and decided to give it a go. The best ‘throw and catch’ of an egg had been measured at 20 metres and that had been by the first pair! None of the other groups had got close to the mark.
.JPG "Egg Throwing can be a messy sport!") |
| Egg Throwing can be a messy sport! |
The sport involves one player as the Egg Thrower and one as the Egg Catcher. Each pair chose two raw eggs and throw/toss/lob the egg to their partner. The Thrower always remains at one end, with the Catcher moving further back after each successful catch.
The World Alternative Games Egg Throwing tournament was a truly international affair with 19 teams taking part with players from Wales, England, France, the Republic of Ireland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands competing!
First of all Jas teamed with his son Seve Kukielka for their attempts. The pair were certainly strong contenders and until the first egg smashed onto Seve’s head after he took a tumble over a traffic cone that marked out the perimeter of the playing area. The next egg throws took the team to the 20 metre mark, but they were unable to break the record and just ended with a broken egg to see them tie for the lead.
.JPG "The World Championship winning egg!") |
| The World Championship winning egg! |
Next up Jas and I teamed up, this time Jas was the Catcher, with me as the Thrower. Fuelled by a great Gluten Free breakfast from the Bryncelyn Guesthouse and the Nakd bars provided by one of the World Alternative Games sponsors I stepped up to make my first throw. It was successful and Jas and I were underway! Drawing on my years of Dodgeball throwing experience, along with my ‘skills’ in Bun Throwing & Christmas Tree Throwing (!) we managed to reach the 15 metre mark with no trouble before our first breakage. With the crowd egging us on, we too reached the 20 metre mark before our second egg cracked.
.JPG "Seve Kukielka takes a tumble and ends up with egg on his head") |
| Seve Kukielka takes a tumble and ends up with egg on his head |
We had to wait until the other teams in the competition had finished their throws to see if there would be a play-off, and as no other pair managed to break the 20 metre barrier there would indeed be a three-way one-egg-a-pair chuck-off! To decide who played first the referee administered a coin toss, which Jas and Seve’s team won. Me and Jas’ team were second so the other pair of players were ‘put in to bat first’.
.JPG "\"Spot the Egg\" - throwing to Jas in the play-off for the Gold Medal!") |
| "Spot the Egg" - throwing to Jas in the play-off for the Gold Medal! |
They stepped-up and ended up with egg on their face as the egg they had picked broke on impact with the catcher. Jas and I were successful in our attempt, as was the Jas and Seve team, so we were sure of a Gold or Silver medal (with Jas guaranteed one of each!). The team of Jas and Seve were unlucky in their next attempt as the egg broke, which meant that all Jas needed to do was catch the egg I threw and we were the Gold Medallists and World Champions. We were successful and the crowd went wild!!!
.JPG "Seve attempts a catch from Jas") |
| Seve attempts a catch from Jas |
After we’d been presented our medals (Jas being laden with his Gold, Silver and two Corinthian Medals!) we were congratulated by the other players and got straight to texting our friends and families about the news. We received loads of congratulations messages and some cracking eggy puns in the replies. Our Midlands Minigolf Club teammate Jam Trubridge asked if Royal Mail would be painting a Postbox Gold in honour of our World Championship victory?
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| The Gold Medal winning team and the Silver Medallists - from l-r Jas 'Jasain Bolt' Kukielka, Richard Gottfried (with Egg), Seve Kukielka |
Back in 2006 when I started blogging about different sports and games I never realised that six years later I’d be a World Champ! With the title of my blog ‘The Ham & Egger Files’ the suggestion was made that a ‘Ham Throwing’ World Championship needs to be created too! Would it be packet, or sliced ham that would be used though? Or on the bone!
.JPG "Llanwrtyd Wells is renowned for its long history of crazy and alternative games!") |
| Llanwrtyd Wells is renowned for its long history of crazy and alternative games! |
The Egg Throwing and our two days in Llanwrtyd were great fun. The town really is the world’s capital city for alternative sports and games. I’m really looking forward to the 2014 World Alternative Games and the defence of our World Egg Throwing Title!
Llanwrtyd Wells was a great place to visit, with some great pubs, including the Stonecroft Inn, and a very nice restaurant at the Lasswade Country House. We also spent some time in the bar at the Neuadd Arms Hotel and found out it was the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party!
Photos from the visit to the World Alternative Games 2012.
.JPG "The World Alternative Game shop!") |
| The World Alternative Games shop! |
.JPG "Llanwrtyd is pronounced \"Lanurted\" - I still struggled to say it") |
| Llanwrtyd is pronounced "Lanurted" - I still struggled to say it |
.JPG "Me and Jas at the Neuadd Arms Hotel - Headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party!") |
| Me and Jas at the Neuadd Arms Hotel - Headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party! |
.JPG "Rather than a flame, the World Alternative Games has a fountain") |
| The World Alternative Games has a Sosban of spring water running through the town and the fountain on the square will flow with water for the duration of the two weeks whilst the Games are being held |
.jpg "The sign above the bar at the Neuadd Arms Hotel") |
| The sign above the bar at the Neuadd Arms Hotel |
The World Alternative Games will take place during from 17th August to 2nd September 2012. At a time when the world’s eyes are on Britain and the sporting world, the World Alternative Games will capture the public’s imagination and the media spotlight to promote unrecognized sports and their participants. These unsung ambassadors of sport will have a world stage on which to showcase their talents and an opportunity to prove their dedication to these truly alternative sports. This World Alternative Games will promote a ‘Corinthian Spirit’ where taking part is more important than winning and where self achievement is recognised and applauded. For further information about the World Alternative Games 2012 please visit the event website.
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Our team's Gold Medal winning Egg Throwing distance of 20 metres at the World Alternative Games 2012 equated to:
0.02 kilomtres
200 decimetres
2,000 centrimtres
20,000 millimtres
20,000,000 micrometres
20,000,000,000 nanometres
200,000,000,000 angstroms
As Jas doesn't recognise the Metric System, the 20 metres could also have been measured at:
0.004142 of a league
0.01243 of a mile
0.09942 of a furlong
0.9942 of a chain
3.977 rods
3.977 perch
21.87 yards
65.62 feet
65.62 survey feet
99.42 links
196.9 hands
787.4 inches
9,449 lines
787,400 mil
787,400,000 microinches
If we'd been at sea the distance could have been measured as 10.94 fathoms or 0.0036 of a sea league.
Astronomically speaking the 20 metres I threw was equivalent to 6.482e-16 parsecs.
Distance conversations provided by the incredibly useful website Convert-me.Com!
Where has this week gone! It's sped by!
Last week I became an Egg Throwing Champion at the World Alternative Games!
The World Alternative Games end on Sunday 2nd September 2012, so head along to Llanwrtyd Wells this weekend if you want a chance to become a world champion in a weird or wacky sport!
The excellent Cwmbran Life blog has written about me and Jas' World Title win in the World Alternative Games Egg Throwing Championships.
Check out the story at "Cwmbran man wins the world egg throwing championships"
There's some big World Alternative Games Egg Throwing news coverage about me, Jas Kukielka and Seve Kukielka in the South Wales Argus :-)
"Cwmbran pair are World Egg Throwing Champions"
There's also a story about our World Title win in the 26th September 2012 edition of the Free Press - "Man scrambles to egg-throwing title"
The 2014 World Alternative Games festival of sport and games will be taking place in Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, Wales between Friday 8th and Monday 25th August 2014.
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