World Pea Shooting Championships
As usual, click any image for the full gallery.Saturday took me around London and heading north east to the Fenlands above the city of Cambridge to the little village of Witcham in Cambridgeshire. There I found the World Pea Shooting Championships of 2013 (or "peashooting" or "pea-shooting" I'm not quite sure still).A uniquely British event, as many of the weird world championships I like to cover seem to be, it is part of the annual Witcham Village Fair. Held on the village green of a quinessentially English village, complete with church, pub and red phone box, it made a for a lovely setting in the bakingly hot and un-English 30+C temperatures.
After introducing myself to a number of the competitors in the local pub, the White Horse, and inspecting their esoteric and exquisitly engineered pea shooters, I made my way to the "Pea Arena" to record the 2013 competition for posterity. There I found even more competitors signing on, including the 4-lady "Brides To P" team who were looking pretty spectacular complete with wedding garb. No sign of a "Grooms To P" team however...
Run in conjunction with the village fair, the Championships have been held in Witcham since 1971 when they were started by a Mr Tyson, the village schoolmaster, in order to raise funds for the village hall. Competitors come from as far afield as the USA and New Zealand to attempt to win the event.The latest technology is often used, including laser sights (except in the kids competition) and titanium and carbon fibre pea shooters. I was surprised to see one chap using a long stick as a sort on peashooter monopod for extra stability, which drew hoots of derision from onlookers but appeared effective and within the rules. I suspect an international row along the lines of the recent "anchored putter" golf controversy to erupt as a result.All pea shooters must conform to strict length rules, not exceeding 12 inches, and have to hit a target 12 feet away. Shooting 5 peas at a plasticine target attached to a hay bale, the highest scorers move through the initial rounds to a knockout competition, followed by a sudden death 10-pea shootout.
Having done some scene setting shots of the village, various signposts, the church and other things that would put the location and competition in context, I was already wilting from the heat. Even though I was covered in factor 30 suncream the sun was intense. What is it about mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun? My gear was also very hot to touch, with the camera bodies getting very warm. I had elected to go with a brace of 1D's with a 24 1.4 and 70-200 2.8 and a 580 EXII flash, and my Olympus OM-D with a very wide 9-18 zoom and a fisheye. The flash was particularly handy in bright sunlight do get into the shadows and brighten them up and amazingly worked fine on high speed sync in the brightest sunlight.The highly trained competitors were oblivious to the conditions, and simply got on with proceedings. There were four separate competitions - juniors, team (of 4), ladies and "open". The tension built as the initial qualifying rounds gave way to the knockout rounds where competitors were paired to go head-to-head with the best score from five peas going through to the next round.
After what seemed like a million rounds, 5 million peas, and a lot of beer, the finals took place. The tension was palpable, with the crowd closing in on the barriers around the immaculately constructed Pea Arena. The sun beat down and sweat trickled down the brows of the finalists as they stepped up to the mark for their 10-pea shootout.The ladies' final featured a battle of the Helens, with Helen Phillips taking on Helen Watson (also of the Brides to P team), with the former triumphing as the heat took it's toll on Ms Watson who had also endured numerous rounds in the team competition.
The mens' final was an even more tense affair. 2012 champion Rob Bresler, who carried his pistol-like pea shooter protectively everywhere he went during the day to guard against sabotage, was up against arch rival Toby Bush. After spending some time sieving his peas through a colander to get the best sized, most rounded peas possible, Rob edged ahead of Toby and, after a flurry of 5's he moved into an unassailable lead to retain the championship. In doing so, he joined his daughter Madeline who had won the junior championship, clearly benefiting from Rob's in depth experience and techniques.
For those thinking of photographing this event next year, it's important to note that there are only so many ways to photograph pea shooting. Once you have a picture of someone blowing into a tube you've pretty much got it sussed. Injecting some variety with wide angles and scene setting shots only gets you so far. I did contemplate setting up a remote fisheye on the top of the hay bales in the Pea Arena but decided that it would probably distract the competitors too much. The real story of the event is in the people who take part, and the unique and very British way they go about the whole thing. No whooping or hooting, just dignified, calm, cutting edge competition with determination and cut-throat decisiveness, followed by beer and a chat. I think the following image sums it all up.