‘Never Shoot With a Wonky Pea!’: Meet the Alternative World Champions
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:
'Never shoot with a wonky pea!': meet the alternative world champions:
Two years ago, I found myself on the village green in Witcham in Cambridgeshire. It was my birthday and my boyfriend Ian had "treated" me by taking me to the worldpeashootingchampionship. Being a local, he had entered the competition for many years, and won twice. I had no idea what to expect.
The competition was started in 1971 by John Tyson, a local schoolteacher. After confiscating some peashooters in the playground, he had the idea of holding a competition to raise funds to build a village hall.
You stand 12ft away from a target that's 1ft in diameter; it's filled with putty and has three rings. The inner ring, which has a similar diameter to that of a tin can, has a score of five points, the middle ring scores three points and the outer ring scores one point. Sometimes the peas stick in the putty, sometimes they don't, but that's not important. It's all about the pea leaving an impression in the putty when it hits the target.
The peashooter tube can be either metal or plastic, but it must be 12in long. Some of them are fitted with laser sights. The peas are hard and brown, and it's best for them to fit the inside of the tube almost exactly. You don't want them rattling around inside. You can get some square-ish ones in a packet that have shrivelled a little, but they can catch in the tube. Never shoot with a wonky pea!
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