Tommy Mattinson has claimed his 19th victory at the World Gurning Championship at the 2024 Egremont Crab Fair.

The world’s oldest fair returned for 2024, hosting the historical World Gurning Championships on Saturday, September 21.

Egremont Crab Fair dates back to 1267, and it is believed that the fair has been held continuously since this time, except for unavoidable interruptions during the War years, and more recently due to COVID.

The iconic Gurning Championships took place in Egremont Market, and people from as far as Australia poured in, filling the venue, for the return of the facial gymnastics competitions.

Guinness World Record holder, Tommy Mattinson, from Aspatria, claimed his 19th victory as the World Gurning Championship for 2024.

Tommy told The Herdwick News, that his win felt “unbelievable”. He said: “It was stiff competition tonight, I really didn’t expect to win at all. I really didn’t, it’s amazing and very emotional.

“People sometimes say ‘have you not won enough’, but I love doing it, I love taking part and taking it all over the world.”

Dingdong Veg (his real name), from Somerset, took second place, while previous winner Adrian Zivelonghi, from Coventry, came in at third place.

Over in the Women’s World Gurning Championship Claire Lister returned to retain her title as the winner, taking the title for the eighth time saying it feels ‘amazing’ to have won again and will definitely be back next year.

You do get quite nervous, you look at all the people and you can’t actually see what you look like, but it’s good when you’re up and done.

Like Tommy, Claire said she was excited to return in 2025 but added that the inspiration to keep coming back came from her children, who are now entering the junior competition.

In fact, it was Claire’s daughter, Kendal Lister who took her second victory at the Junior World Gurning Champion.

It was the second year the monther-daughter-duo took the titles together for their respective competitions.

A woman named Rachel had travelled all the way from Australia just to take part in the centuries-old tradition.

She said; “I just wanted to come to the Crab Fair and World Gurning Championship. In fact, I based my whole holiday around coming here.”

Rachel got huge applause from the audience for her dedication.