If you ever faced any of these comments

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

“My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you're ugly too.”

“When you were born you were so ugly the doctor slapped your mother.”

Then the World Gurning Championship is an ideal opportunity for you. This event each year is held on the third Saturday of September at the Egermont crab apple fair. It is said that this event goes back back to 1267. This competition is extremely popular and is the main event of the whole Crab Fair for most people.

The competition rules are simple,

1) It consists of making grotesque, wierd faces whilst placing your head through a horse's collar (also known as a braffin).

2) The winner is the person receiving the largest amount of applause and cheers from the audience.

However, unfortunately just being your ugly self is not enough, this competition is judged on the difference between your 'normal' appearance and your 'gurn' appearance is what matters.

There is many a folkstory on the origins of Gurning. Two of the popular ones are:

It was used to mock the village idiot, where the village folk would place a horse's collar over him and get him pull funny faces in exchange for a few pints. The other story is when a drunken farmer arrived home to find his nagging wife and he shouts "stop gurning, woman!" and a places a horse collar over her head. At this action her facial expressions became even worse thus gurning was born.

Throughout the centuries this tradition has been kept up and reported by newspapers under many titles. In 1852 it was described as Grinn for tobacco where in the twentieth century it was widely known as Gurning through a braffin and now simply known as the World Gurning Competition.

As you can see Tommy Mattinson is currently world gurning champion for a fair few years now. So if you are one of those people who think beauty comes with age, you might be in with a chance.

	2008
	1st	Tommy  Mattinson
	2nd	Alan   Hornell
	3rd	Gordon Blacklock
	2007
		Tommy  Mattinson
		Gordon Blacklock
		Alan   Hornell
	2006
		Tommy  Mattinson 
		Gordon Blacklock 
		Alec   Woods 
	2005
		Tommy  Mattinson 
		Gordon Blacklock 
		Alec   Woods 

	2004
		Tommy Mattinson 
		Adrian (Coventry) 
		(=) Gordon Mattinson
                (=) Gordon Blacklock
	2003
		Tommy  Mattinson 
		Gordon Mattinson 
		Alex   Woods
	2002
		Tommy  Mattinson 
		Peter  Jackman (Egremont) 
		Gordon Mattinson 
	2001
		Tommy Mattinson 
		Peter Jackman (Egremont) 
		Alan  Hornell 
	2000
		Peter  Jackman (Egremont) 
		Tommy  Mattinson 
		Gordon Blacklock 
	1999
		Tommy  Mattinson 
		Peter  Jackman (Egremont) 
		Rodney McVeigh 
	1998
		Peter Jackman (Egremont) 
		Tommy Mattinson 
		Alec  Woods (Egremont)