The World Pea Shooting Championship at Witcham (photo Richard Marsden)
When: 12th July 2014, from 12pm
Where: The Village Green, Witcham, Near Ely, Cambridgeshire
£: To enter the championship costs £4 for adults and £2 for children and £10 for teams.
What is it?
The 44th World Pea Shooting Championship & Village Fair will take place on the Green at Witcham in Cambridgeshire on Saturday 12th July. The fair begins at 12pm with the competition itself starting at around 1pm.
The World Pea Shooting Championship has been held in Witcham since 1971. Witcham is a small village in Cambridgeshire and the original championship was invented as a way to raise funds for the village hall.
The contest is said to have been invented after the village schoolmaster, Mr Tyson, caught some mischievous pupils amusing themselves by pinging their unfortunate schoolmates with peas. At the time the village had identified a need for a village hall and they were seeking ways to raise funds. Mr Tyson came up with the idea of a World Pea Shooting Championship and it was an instant success.
Competitors get into the fun mood of the event (photo Richard Marsden).
Today the event is so popular it attracts visitors from the USA, Scandinavia, France, Spain, New Zealand and Holland. The World Pea Shooting Championship still raises money for the village hall.
Registration to take part in this year’s event will take place at 12 noon on the day of the championship. Anyone, young or old can take part. The maple peas and all-important shooters can be bought at the fair.
If you haven’t tried it before, then don’t worry, it is very simple to master and there is a practice area available to everyone. The target consists of three circles of putty. The inner circle scores 5 points, the middle circle 3 points and the outer circle 1 point.
There will be plenty of other entertainment at the village fair including a bouncy castle, novelty games, face painting, bric-a-brac, books, plants, ice cream, a lunch-time barbecue, and cream teas served in the village hall. There will also be a licensed bar in the hall with the aptly named ‘To Pea Or Not To Pea’ cask ale on sale.
More info: www.witcham.org.uk