I just came across this today, and my god have I struck gold. This “event” (There’s simply no way I can actually call this a sport) is a annual Championship event held in Wilaston, Cheshire, which is in England for those who don’t know. The English can be weird, like really weird, but they’ve truly outdone themselves with this event. The name of this annual championship is the World Worm Charming Championship. Yes, this is a competition to see who can charm the most worms to come out of the ground. If there is any blog that I’ve written this year that makes you question life and the existence of sports, let it be this one. When I started researching this event, I had my own mini life reflection. No matter if you think that it’s incredible that people come up with shit like this to do, or if you have lost all hope in humanity, I’m here today to help you through your entitled opinions on this oddity.
This “event” is quite straightforward: you have to get the most worms out of the ground by any means (except for digging) in a certain amount of time. There are two rules: you cannot dig the worms out and you cannot bring worms to the event illegally, i.e., all worms counted must be acquired from the grounds of the competition. Each competitor gets a three meter plot of land in the competition grounds where they are allowed to woe their worms. The championship is open to anyone for all ages. After the allotted amount of time for the competition is over (which I can’t find for some reason, I would guess the competition is anywhere from 1 hour to like 7 hours), there are two prizes awarded. One for the single largest worm specimen and one for the most worms acquired from the ground during the competition. You are allowed to use any techniques to woe your worms. Popular techniques include vibrating the ground by sticking stuff into it, playing music for your worms (which I’d like to just make clear – worms do not have eyes or ears so playing music is pointless), or patting the soil.
The different prizes are shown above, and yes three are shown even though I said there are two. The one in the middle and on the left are for the winner of the championship, the one who gets the most worms. The one on the right, the THICK one, is for the person who finds the THICKEST worm. And damn I must say, that shit looking like a snake. I would be scared for my life if I found a worm that big – it would probably eat my skinny ass alive. Like honestly you can’t tell me worms that big actually exist.
Something to note, the record for this championship was set in 2009 by a ten year old who acquired a total of 567 worms. First off, I don’t think I’ve seen nearly that many worms throughout my entire life, total, so the fact that she was that charming is quite impressive. Also, just to think that there are that many worms just in a three meter plot of land is scary, because I hate worms, so you won’t be catching me in Wilaston this year, or even ever for that matter.
This seems like a sport I’d read about on the Onion or some other satire website. I also like how two of the trophies are worm-related statues and there’s another that’s just a regular trophy. This is probably the most bizarre sport you’ve covered on this blog so far as I’m aware. I wonder how often worms actually just decide to randomly come out of the ground when people are nearby. I’d think they might avoid the motion that people would make but I guess not if someone was able to get 567.
That kid who got 567 worms is insane. I really can’t wrap my head around how it could be true. This is very close to the weirdest topic you’ve covered, but also one of the most interesting. I don’t know if it’s especially boring in England, but the sports, games, and competitions they have over there are really really dumb.