The World Dry Foam Flinging Championships are held annually as part of the Bromsgrove Folk Festival (an event of folk music, folk dancing and
folk throwing of bathroom sponges). Mark is on a quest to compete in as many World Championships as his bank balance, sanity and girlfriend allow. I will let him describe the ancient West Midlands tradition of sponge throwing in his own pictures and words:"I have attached a picture of me after the 2006 championships. The bit of foam sticking out of the cup is the foam thrown in the competition. As you can see the foam is not very big so technique is very important. Also going into the competition in the right frame of mind is crucial. Luckily me and my mates had been to the Snail Racing World Championship the day before, thus we where already in a world championships mind set.
As for throwing, the secret is not to throw angry. The harder you throw the foam the less distance it will go. I favoured a gentle over arm lob. As for the competition you get three throws of the sponge. Entry is the princely sum of 20p and you can enter as many times as you want. The first year I won was 2006, when I also set the world record. This stands at 30ft 21/2 beating the previous record of 27ft. At the 2006 event there were two former champions, one of which did the Hakka before throwing. In 2007 I managed to win without a throw taking place. Over the weekend of the competition it was raining so heavily I was half tempted to start building an ark. When I turned up to throw, Bob,the organiser, informed me that it was too wet to throw dry foam. But as I had turned up I had done enough to win the championship. This year I am looking for the hat-trick of titles"
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