Creme Egg Competition - 2007

2007 PREVIEW

After a 2 year break the Creme Egg Comp shall return on April 8th 2007. The last time this event was held, Rick and Bear fought out a stalemate to hand Bear his 2nd winning comp and Rick his 4th. This years comp will be held at Joanne Philp's house in Stenalees for the first time and she is also the first female to brave it up and take on the boys in this always ever, male contest.

Jo is likely to start one of the favourites after declaring herself a strong challenger but she will face stiff competition from past champs Rick and Bear who go head to head yet again. Bear has beaten Rick in 5 out of 8 contests although Rick has beaten Bear in 2 of the last 3 with one draw. These two should set the standard to beat.

Of the rest, it's all new contenders as past master Julian Barker is now nowhere to be seen. Craig Hayward and Neil 'Hoops' Slaughter head the list of possible winners beyond the front 3 and both have good chances.

Sean Haley is still very young and could struggle on his debut while Dan Nicholls has plenty of pressure on him after struggling at the go karting. He will need to concentrate hard to win this.

Any others taking part, such as Richard ' Mister Gobby ' Snell , Lee Lavery or Matt Hudson could prove to be anything. With a record amount of entries it should be a contest to remember !

2007 REVIEW

The sun made things very hot for the contestants as the 130 eggs were brought to the table. As the contest kicked off everyone seemed to be anxious at eating too fast to begin with...apart from Sean Haley, who's tactics were to try and mentally finsih off his opponents by making them think that they couldn't catch up. Sean quickly put away 7 eggs in the first 3 minutes while some people were still on one [ Bear ] or two.

Within 10 minutes Sean had 14 eggs to the good [ a new speed record ] and it looked a one horse race already. Could he sustain it ? The other entries were taking their time but the eggs were melting fast and some were struggling already. Jo was in trouble after only 4 eggs and looked to have finished, while dan was taking plenty of time to go beyond his 7th. Hoops was looking quite good as he easily made it to 10, while Rick reached 8 [ not easily ] and Bear sat well behind the pack having had only 5.

Mister Gobby was the first to crack as he dropped out at 6, the fact that he had 2 eggs before the comp started was a huge mistake ! but he did have a sore head from rolling his car a few times the evening before. Craig was going well as he reached 10, Hoops moved to 11 well enough, Rick hit 10 ok and Jo had started to pick up a bit and caught up with 8.

Sean's early spurt was taking it's toll on him as he rested up feeling a little rough, but he manged a 15th to really put the pressure on the chasing pack. Dan was next to wilt as he slipped out of the comp on 9 eggs after struggling for a while in the heat. Hoops and Craig continued to eat almost together as they both went beyond 12 eggs to reach 13. Rick was now on 13 aswell and looking dangerous while Bear was looking sluggish back in the field on only 10. He still needed 5 eggs just to level up with Sean who was now looking very ill after his 15th egg had settled !

Rick had now moved into 2nd and him and Sean both decided to eat their 16th eggs together as they both fought for the lead but it was Sean who gave up and left half his egg and ended with 15 eggs after an amazing start. As Rick put away his 16th and then 17th, Hoops emerged as the danger as he had eaten 15 now. Bear couldnt go beyond 12 and Jo did well to come back to 14 but then rushed to the toilet to be sick !!! :)

Craig was still battling on and he levelled things with Hoops at 16 each while Rick smashed his own PB by eating 18 and in the process equalled the all time record set by Julian Barker [ 2001 ] and Bear Barker [2002 ]. Somehow Hoops managed another egg to put him on 17, a real milestone in this comp and then Craig did to but had to dash to the toilet like Jo did and bring it all back up again !

This left Rick with the comp at his mercy, but if Hoops could eat one more it would be a tie ! Rick decided [ against his stomach's wishes ;) ] that he could set an all time record by eating one more and somehow, after a couple of sick burps, the 19th was consumed and Hoops was happy to settle for 17th and runner up !

Craig was involved in a cheating scandal after the event when the photos were released and was deducted an egg in the process but it was a great performance by everyone and a real funny day. Also good to see Monica, Jason, James Slaughter, Nick, Mansfield, Bennetts and Crazysue all show up at some point during the day to see how it all went !

CONCLUSION/SUMMARY : Sean Haley's early pace was incredible but he couldn't sustain it and sometimes it's best to pace yourself. Hoops / Rick and Craig did this and eventually came out all in the top 3. Rick's experience probably just came through in the end. Bear was a disappointment this time around as his patchy form continues year to year and Jo had a good effort being the first female participant but never really looked like winning at any stage.