Calm before skimming championship storm in Shropshire
Competitors will be hoping for a flat calm when they descend on a Shropshire lake this month for the sixth annual British Stone Skimming Championships.
The lake at Walcot Hall in Lydbury North, near Bishop's Castle, will be the venue for the unusual tournament on June 30 and about 100 competitors are expected to try their hands.
Spectators are welcome but the action will not just be confined to the skimmers, with other events planned for the day, all with a stoney theme.
There will also be contests called Roll the Stone, Stone the Crows and No Stone Unturned but rocks are deemed too dangerous for one challenge and so it will just be the Throw the Ball competition.
Co-organiser Heather Ashton said: "Some of the challenges will involve strength and others a steady hand or a good eye."
The skimming competition will be judged on distance but the stone must bounce at least three times and stay in lane.
Competitors will have four stones for each entry and last year more than 1,000 stones were skimmed on the lake. Only stones provided by the organisers can be used. There will be, apart from two open sections, categories for both boys and girls under 12, girls and boys under 16 and men and ladies over the age of 65.
Last year's champion was Dave Sealey, from Malvern, who equalled the championship record with a skim of just over 282ft (86m).
The 2012 winner in the ladies' section, in her first year of competition, was Sian Mitchelmore, from Pontesbury, who threw more than 121ft (37m).
