World Gurning Championships sees record win at face-off fight

A rubber-faced man has won the World Gurning Championships for a record 19th time and vowed: "I want to win 30."

Tommy Mattinson, 52, beat other competitors to take home the crown in the men's category, while Claire Lister, 37, won the woman's category for an eighth consecutive time. Claire's daughter Kendal was named champion in the junior category of the wacky competition, held annually in Egremont, Cumbria.

Judges crown the winning contestant based on whoever displays the starkest transformation between their normal face and their gurning face. Tommy, who's dad was a gurning champion, said: "It's amazing, I'm so pleased to win it again. I didn't expect, I never do, but there was some stiff opposition tonight.

"When I pull my face, I go into my zone and I don't hear the crowd and I don't feel anything. I'll be coming back. I want 30. I think if you're a champion, you should come back and defend it. As long as I'm alive and kicking, I'll come back and support it.

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"People think 'oh have you not won it enough?' but I love winning, I like it. I do a lot of tv and I meet a lot of stars, I've done some Saturday night tv and children's tv and I love all that aspect of it.

"I remember winning the juniors for the first time. I started gurning when I was a little child, trying to copy my dad, who was a world champion. My mum said I was always I was pulling faces as a kid."

Dozens of hopefuls took part in the event, which is part of the Egremont Crab Fair, which also sees wheelbarrow races and horn-blowing competition's. Entrants try to pull the most grotesque face possible while wearing a large horse collar.

Their face contortion efforts are then scored by a panel of five judges, who are looking for "the biggest transformation in face". The fair is thought to date all the way back to 1267 - when crab apples were given to the townsfolk by the Lord of the Manor.

Hometown hero Claire Lister, who has won the women's competition for the eighth time in a row, said: "I first starting gurning when I was a junior, I would come second and third. "As you get older, you become a teenager and it get's a bit embarrassing. But I entered in 2013 when I was 26 and that's when I won first time.

"I missed 2014 because I had a baby, but I've won consecutively since then. In Lockdown, we entered a competition in Japan via Zoom and we've been on tv with it, it's really good."

Discussing the competition, chairman Callum Scott said: "People come from all over the country to take part. I think it appeals to so many people because it's so unique - and because of the tradition.

"We're one of the oldest fairs in the world and gurning is believed to have started in 1267. It's just an iconic part of the town."