On January 4 the Cromwell Cherry Festival celebrates this
delectable summerfruit and a feature is the annual New
Zealand Cherry Stone Spitting Championship.
Being held from 11am to 3pm at the Cromwell mall, you can
come and see how the Australian cherry-spitting champion
performs. Or better still, why not enter for a chance to
represent New Zealand in the Australasian Man jim up
Cherry Harmony Festival in Perth in mid-December 2012?
To claim the main prize, the winner must have acurrent
passport and be willing to represent New Zealand at the
Australasian championships.
The Cromwell championship is open to all and people are
encouraged to enter either as an individual or in teams.
Competitors pay $2 for three cherries and spit the stones on
a 2m-wide "track".
Participants can compete in four categories: male, female,
junior male (16 years) and junior female (16 years) and
everyone will be eligible to win themain prize.
Last year's winner, Roland Schieder, recorded a distance
of11.61m and the women's winner spat the stone 6.92m.
The junior female winner, Laurel Williamsrecorded 6.38 and
first junior male recorded 5.97m.
The family festival day features a variety of events to
entertain and amuse. These include the Cherry Pie Baking
Competition; Count the Cherries in the Jar; Children's
Colouring Competition; Cherry Pie Eating Competition and
Cherry Ping-Pong Ball Race in the mall stream.
SPITTING RULES
There are some basic rules to follow for competitors in the
cherry-spitting championships.
These include:
- You may enter as many times as you wish during the day.
You shall eat the flesh and lineup at the "spitting track".
- Competitors spit three single stones and the best
effortof the three will be recorded with a marker placed
on the track.
- The winner will be the competitor who spits their
cherrystone the greatest distance and is available to travel
to Perth. A person who is unable to travel and has the
greatest distance will not be judged the winner but will win
the category prize.
- All competitors shall allow their name/photograph to
beused for promotional purposes.
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