Manjimup's 2015 GlobeVista Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Competition

Manjimup Cherry Spit No2

THE WORLD RECORD?

UNBELIEVABLE

The longest spit of a cherry stone in competition is 28.51 m (93 ft 6.5 in) by Brian "Young Gun" Krause (USA) at the International Cherry Pit-Spitting Championship at Eau Claire, Michigan, USA in 2004. On the same day in the freestyle competition he spat a stone 33.62 m (110 ft 4 in).

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/cherry-stone-spitting-greatest-distance

Manjimup Cherry Spit 2015

My Block - December 20

YES, IT'S SPITTIN' TIME AGAIN!

What can we expect this year?

The big spitting Clint World's Best Practice Thomson will be back to defend his Globe Vista Australasian Championship belt.


They sent this bloke, Mike Wardill (right), a couple of years ago and he did fine but this year, guess what, Two Big Guys.

Shane and Jack Jordan know how to chop, spit, and talk.

Back home in Taranaki Jack should be mayor and if he wasn't so young, he would be.

Steve Hollander from Hilux New Zealand Rural Games said Shane and Jack could do anything - play rugby, cricket, arm wrestle, even bake a pavlova.

This is Jack Jordan.

LET THE SPIT OFF BEGIN!


To watch Shane Jordan  rip threw a log, go here:

And don;t forget to go here to check out the general news.

Cherry Festival Latest

CLINT WINDY THOMSON WINS THE WORLD

32.32 minutes in, the NZ Cherry Stone Spitting Championships.

MANJIMUP
SATURDAY
13/12/14

THE new GlobeVista Australian Cherry Pip Spitting Champions previous winner Clint "Howling Wind" Thompson.

He won it last two years ago and came back this year a dark and quiet horse but once that pip was clean and ready it went like a bullet.

Next year, 2015, Clint will spit off in Queenstown for the right to say: "I am the Champ of the Southern Hemisphere."

It won't be easy. The New Zealanders not only have a buoyant economy, they have a way with the cherry stone.

These two idiots (below) called the big event and had to work on their feet when a spitter caught a small child on the side of the head and very nearly removed his ear.

In Manjimup, health and safety is never forgotten and ambulance officers raced to the scene and stretchered off Doust (he's the old one with the beard) after they found him gasping, coughing and wobbly on his feet. 

You want to see footage? (There will be more later.)

Click here

Organisers are saying it was the biggest festival yet and no better example than the 3000 standing gawking at grown people spit.

Cherry Pip Spitting at it's best!

MANJIMUP
December, 2014.

On Saturday the 13th it will be someone's lucky day. Lucky because no-one can tell in the spitting game - one spitter who spat 13 metres in a heat will choke and only manage 10 in the final.

It has happened. And this year will not feature the current Australasian Champion, New Zealand's Mike "Wide Mouth" Wardill. 

Not only will Mike stay home, he will keep his son, Bob "The Blaster", who was poised to pip the spit of his dad.

Over the ditch there are moves and shifts and changes and we can expect a contender to head to Manjimup for the 2015 season.

This year contenders will face the current Australian Champ, Manjimup's very own Adam "Atomic" Buckley. Adam has been hard at it all year to improve his technique and is disappointed that the "Wide Mouth" will not be challenging him on the 13th.

Once again thousand will flock to West Australia's food bowl in the Southern Forests and around 2000 will stand stunned in the main street of Manjimup and watch grown men and women spit their hearts out to win the Globe Vista trip of a life-time - a ticket to Queenstown, New Zealand, and a spit off against the "Wide Mouth" and his fast developing son, "The Blaster".

You looking for details?
Go here:
http://www.cherryfestival.com.au/

Home town advantage

Friday, 10 January 2014

Spitting titleholder's family has talent

Cromwell cherry stone spitter Mike Wardill successfully defended his national title on the weekend and it seems his family is set to follow in his footsteps.

With a winning spit of 12.09m, Mr Wardill smashed his previous record of 11.5m and outspat the Australasian champ Adam Buckley, of Manjimup, by just better than 2m.

Mr Buckley had beaten Mr Wardill at the Australasian championships held during the Manjimup Harmony Cherry Festival in Western Australia about three weeks ago and travelled to Cromwell to compete in the New Zealand competition on Saturday.

Mr Wardill's son Bob (13) had also travelled to Manjimup, winning the junior category there.
He repeated that win on Saturday with a spit of 8.91m while sister Anna (12) won the junior female category with a spit of 5.87m.

FULL STORY

Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival

The above is from the Weekend Australian.

Note the last line from a second generation cherry grower.

He knows his fruit.

  

What this means is, the cherries you buy in winter, those from the USA, will never taste as good as the cherries this season, right now, from the farm down the road. Why? Because by the time they get here from the US, they are well past their prime.

Same goes for cherries from Adelaide.

And, even then, if the retailer down your street does not refrigerate them, they will collapse before you get them into yours.

Now, back to taste, every so often, someone will say the best cherries ever come from Tasmania, or Budapest, or Helsinki. 

Here are three things to consider:

- variety. There are over 1000. At least one will suit your pallet and you may have been lucky and eaten that one in Helsinki. My favourites: bing, lapin, stella, van, sumleta.

- soil. Like all stone fruit, the cherry tree likes a good soil.

- time of year. you may have eaten an early variety, or a late.

- the season. Some are good, some are bad.

The cherry is a fragile fruit.

Good luck in choosing yours.

A view from the Long Table Lunch: Manjimup Bridgetown Times, December 18, 2013

MANJIMUP
DECEMBER 14,
2013.

IN a remarkable victory local boy, Adam "Winner" Buckley, spat 11.9 metres to win the annual GlobeVista Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Championship of the Entire World.

Normally a spit of 11.9 might get you second place but not this year.

With the temperature at a bone melting 39.9 degrees Celsius it was always going to be the toughest, the meanest, the most battled hardened and it was no surprise to the locals who have long hankered for a Buckley win.

In the past Buckley always spat well in the heats, always made the final, then, in the face of onslaughts from bigger men, New Zealand men, and women from down the road a bit, he could never pip the pip at the post and make it a winner.

Little did we know that he was saving himself, building for the hottest battle of all time. He was like Alan Border, chipping away in a fading team, waiting for the arrival of perfect conditions, then, BANG SPIT POW, the ashes were his, the cherry was his.


There was good competition from the Land of the Long White Shroud, Mike "Thunder Tongue" Wardill, spat his best but had buckly's against Buckely.

The Wardills did not go home empty handed, however, as the young Wardill, Bob "Surprise Package" won the under 15 event with a spit proving he may well be a champ of the future.

If you were asked to pick the winner of the women's spit you would quickly reply: Jo "Perennial" Perry. And you would be right. In fact, she spat so well this year she went straight into the final against all comers.

One of the pleasing aspects of the GlobeVista challenge is the increasing number of overseas champs willing to put their reputations on the line. This year's comp featured the Hong Kong Open Spitter, the national champ of Estonia and some bloke from France who spat more like an Englishman clearing his throat.


Here he is, the man they call "The Winner".

In other news, there were plenty of cherries on hand for all comers and many left town full and flush and knowing they would be back next year.

In the timber park on the Saturday night Todd Johnston showed he has lost none of his rock and roll charm and despite a rough and tumble in one corner, the vest majority of punters in attendance danced until their legs gave out.

Harvey Giblett's Newton Orchards once again hosted the Longest Table Lunch ever and the affable Simon Klopper arrived in his helicopter and whisked away more than one damsel never in distress.

THE GLOBE VISTA AUSTRALASIAN CHERRY PIP SPITTING CHAMPIONSUIP OF THE WORLD

MANJIMUP

December 2013.

THIS year's festival will be blessed with the spitting prowess presence of the current New Zealand Champion Michael "Pulp" Wardill.

In 2012 Michael spat the Aussie Champ Clint "Dark Cloud" Thompson in the grand final in Cromwell, a town forever to be known as a shadow to holiday central, Queenstown.

It was a remarkable comedown for the Dark Cloud because to win in Manjimup he had to spit a blood red pip over 20 metres, or 15, or 10, no-one was counting on the day.

Rumour has it that the Pulp Wardill has been spitting timber mill off-cuts to toughen his mouth for what he believes will be his toughest test since he played for the Otago Under 12s in the South Island junior rugby grand final in 1923.

Or was that 1983?





The three winners from 2012:
Jo "Perennial" Perry, Kieran "Big Bucks" Grant and Clint "Dark Cloud" Thompson.

This year's event will be bigger than ever. In the crowd you will see politicians, celebrities, people you love, people you never thought you'd see again, and people who will pretend they don't know you.

You want facts?
You want detail?
This is not the page.
Go here: Manji Cherry Harmony Festival.

THE LONGEST TABLE LUNCH

MANJIMUP

NEWTON ORCHARDS

SUNDAY

9.12.12

THE longest table lunch ever in the history of Manjimup, Australia and probably most other regions, was held in the middle of a cherry orchard today (or last weekend).

The brains behind the event organised for four World Class Chefs to prepare five courses to eat alongside the best wines available on the planet.

It should also be made clear that the almost 250 people sat at one table, not five alongside each other. If you were down one end you had to call a taxi to get to the other end. One patron, separated from his partner, took five hours to make his way under the table in a frantic search for his loved one, or someone to love, or someone he once loved, no-one knew.

In fact, the food was delivered along the length of the table from the back of a truck.
 

And here, right after the inaugural Loquat Stone Spitting Championship of the Planet, are three men who featured but lost.

On the left is up and coming spitter, Jeff Pow, in the middle the spit-caller, Jon Doust, and on the right an up-and-coming spit-caller, Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd.

The spitting competition was won by someone whose name we have forgotten, but he will be back to spit again, he assured us, made it clear he felt chuffed and pumped by his win, even though no-one congratulated him or went anywhere near him when the event was over.

MANJIMUP
December 8,
2012

LOCAL BOY WRESTS CROWN

IN a dramatic finish to the Australasian GlobeVista Cherry Pip Spitting Championships, local lad Clint "Dark Cloud" Thompson spat a hug 14 metre, or 12 metre, or maybe just over 11 metres, to win this years championship.

In the final were the current Australasian champion, New Zealander Aaron "Thunder Tongue" Collins and last years Australian champ Grant "Hercules" Hetherington.

One local estimated the crowd at around 15,000, while an out-of-towner suggested the number might have been closer to 5000. It made no difference, all were treated to the very best of spitting from the Australasian region.

Clint has his passport ready and is willing to fly to Cromwell in the middle south of the south island to defend his title against all the Kiwis have to spit at him.

Aaron Collins was shattered by his loss and has sworn to avenge his defeat. His manager, Ben "Haka" Wakefield said Aaron seemed out of sorts and it may have had something to do with the local beers. When reminded that all local beers were made by a New Zealand beer making corporation he quickly swallowed his and ordered a bottle of gin.

The scene is set. The next round of the Australasian Pip/Stone Spitting Championships will be spat out in Cromwell, South Island, New Zealand, on January the 4th, 2013.

Clint "Dark Cloud" holds high the trophy he won in a dash and flash of pip and saliva.

The three winners from all divisions:
Jo "Perennial" Perry, Kieran "Big Bucks" Grant and Clint "Dark Cloud" Thompson.

"Face of the Festival" Jordan Piggott with his arm around past pip spitting champ Craig "Blow Hard" McSharer.

THE ANNUAL GLOBE VISTA CHERRY PIP/STONE SPITTING CHAMIONSHIP OF THE ENTIRE WORLD ... well, some of it ... IS ON AGAIN!

MANJIMUP
4.12.12
It's on again and this year the boys and girls from Big Timber Country are determined to wrest the trophy back from the Ditch Dudes.

The New Zealanders piked out last year. They were too frightened to send someone over, but we sent them Hercules Hetherington. Here's how it was reported on this very page:

IN a startling turn of events, a school teacher claiming to be from Green Island, an island off the coast of Dunedin (NZ), has won the Globe Vista Australasian Cherry Pip/Stone Spitting Championship.

Aaron Collins spat a massive 12.58 metres to to win the event and the right to spit in the faces of 5000 Australians in the return spit in Manjimup this coming December.

It is believed Hercules Hetherington was handed a drink just before the final and the question has been raised: Was it spiked? Were his knees hobbled? Who was that man in the background? Why did the resident official turn his back at the last minute? 

Hetherington, who normally spits well over 15 metres was left staring at a pip just over 11 metres from his standing position.   

It's been a while since the Australasian Globe Vista Trophy was held by Aussies but all signs suggest this year could be the one.

What are those signs? What has brought us to this point in our fruit growing history where we think that a mob of growling men and women spitting tiny fruit stones, but mainly saliva, is of any importance?

No idea. It just is. It's the way we are. Some bastard has a trophy that belongs to us. We started the bloody thing.

It's like the poor Poms, nothing they would like more than to win the world cup, in anything: rugby, cricket, soccer, tennis. They came up with the lot and they hardly ever see a trophy.

Why did they come up with them in the first place? Good question. The weather, probably, although that is changing so fast it is doubtful they will come up with any more games before we all disappear into the coean.

My tip: be in Manjimup  this Saturday December 8th, for the biggest and nastiest spit-off you have ever seen.

EXTRAS:
BIG HOO HA FRIDAY NIGHT
CONCERT IN TIMBER PARK SATURDAY NIGHT
LONG TABLE LUNCH ON SUNDAY

THE WINNER TAKES THE LOT

CROMWELL
January 2012

IN a startling turn of events, a school teacher claiming to be from Green Island, an island off the coast of Dunedin (NZ), has won the Globe Vista Australasian Cherry Pip/Stone Spitting Championship.

Aaron Collins spat a massive 12.58 metres to to win the event and the right to spit in the faces of 5000 Australians in the return spit in Manjimup this coming December.

It is believed Hercules Hetherington was handed a drink just before the final and the question has been raised: Was it spiked? Were his knees hobbled? Who was that man in the background? Why did the resident official turn his back at the last minute? 

Hetherington, who normally spits well over 15 metres was left staring at a pip just over 11 metres from his standing position.   

Australian champ and Manjimup boy, Grant Hercules Hetherington shakes the hand of the mysterious Aaron Collins.

Aaron Collins blows his pip. 

For those of you wondering, Wikipedia claims Green Island is uninhabited.

Read on: Green Island is a small uninhabited island located at 45°57′11″S 170°23′14″E, 13 km (8.1 mi) southwest of Dunedin, close to the mouth of the Kaikorai Lagoon. The island's Māori name is Okaihae.

It may be the 'Isle of Wight' where the Sydney sealer Brothers, chartered by Robert Campbell and sailing under Robert Mason dropped eight men of a gang of eleven in November 1809. William Tucker who later settled at Whareakeake (Murdering Beach) near Otago Heads was in the gang. Alternatively the 'Isle of Wight' may be Taieri Island a few kilometres to the south. It has been suggested in that case Green Island may be 'Ragged Rock' where the other three men of the Brothers' gang were landed. Some of the men claimed to have stayed on these two islands from 9 November 1809 until 20 December 1810.^[1]

Green Island used to be called St Michael's Mount, suggesting it had been named after the island of that name off the Cornish coast. It is more likely it was so named after Tommy Chaseland's mother ship the St. Michael when he was sealing here in the 1820s. He told Edward Shortland he lost a boat and all its hands when it was dashed on the island while trying to land. He stayed alone overnight and was picked up by another boat the following day.^[2]

In the 1880s the island was mined for guano, bird dung used as fertiliser.

Strange, but is it true?

Can we believe Wiki?

If so, where is Collins really from?

All will be revealed this coming December, as Collins defends his title in Manjimup, part of the great south west of Western Australia and another town in the West's fruit and vegetable bowl.