Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Wacky World Of Worm Charming

The 30th Annual World Worm Charming Championships are being held at 2pm on Saturday 27th June 2009 at Willaston County Primary School, Willaston, Nantwich, Cheshire.

Welcome to the world of Worm Charming!

On Saturday 5th July 1980 local Willaston farmer's son, Tom Shufflebotham amazed a disbelieving world by charming a total of 511 worms out of the ground in half an hour. True, there had been rather dubious unsubstantiated reports of a similar activity in Florida, USA some 10 years previous, but this was the first time a true competition with strict rules had been held. The village of Willaston, near Nantwich, Cheshire has been the venue for the annual World Championships ever since.

The Worm Charming event was first devised by Mr John Bailey as a school fund raising event.

The Rules were compiled in 1980 but over the years the size of plots have been increased from three yards square to three meters square to bring it in line with EEC requirements.

The number of squares have also increased from 100 to 144 to accommodate additional competitors who compete on behalf of various charities.

The record that was set in 1980 by Mr Tom Shufflebotham when he raised 511 worms from a three yards square plot was verified by various independant witnesses from the press and is entered in the Guiness Book of Records.

Click here to check out the video of the competition.

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