World stone skimming championships hit Shropshire lake

No fewer than 173 competitors braved huge storms to take part in the event, skimming specially collected stones across a lake at Walcott Hall, south of Bishop's Castle.

While there were competitors from across the UK and Europe, the winner was home grown - Gary Bailey from Shropshire, whose stone skimmed across the water for 86 metres.

He beat previous winner Alex Lewis from Scotland who came second, with Kevin Waltham, from Newcastle, coming third.

In the women's event the winner was Charlotte Greenway, from Manchester, who threw 41 metres, while Christiana Bravery, from Alverston, was second and Lina Tupou, from Bishop's Castle, was third.

Leading the organising team, Heather Ashton said that despite the tough competition and the rain storms, the day was a lot of fun.

"We have classes for under fives, 11s and 16 as well as adults," she said.

"People could bring their own stones or could pick some from the huge pile we had at Walcott. All we stipulated was that they could not used artificial stones."

The cost to take part was just £3 for four stones but many people had more that one go, boosting the donations raised for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.

"We had 173 competitors and hundreds more spectators as well as our wonderful volunteers, about 40 of them," said Heather.

"The volunteers worked so hard. We had kayakers on the lake who had to shoo the swans away to stop them getting hit by the stones."

The event was established in 2008 by Heather after the death of her friend, former PE teacher Ken Hassall.

"When he died we wanted to do something in his memory to raise money for prostate cancer. He would have loved the fun, the fact it wasn’t too serious,” she said.

It now raises money for Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

“People like us, the landlocked ones, we’re the ones that cause trouble when we go off and get in the water. We wanted to do something water-based,” Heather explained.

As well as the skimming competition, there were a host of stone-based games, from pebble golf to stone balancing and even 'stone the crows' throwing stones through cut outs of bird shapes.

Other winners included the men's veteran class, Ritchie Cotterill, from Kington; women's veteran, Heather Ashton; under 16 boys, Fred Savage, from Stockport; under 16 girls, Carrie Jones, from Machynlleth; under 12 boys, Ethan Bravery, and under 12 girls, Flo Baynton, from Pontesbury.

Heather said there were so many people to thank, including the owners of Walcott Hall and the local farmer as well as all the volunteers, particularly Sam Angell and the Graham family.