The first ever cracker toy spinning world cup
brought together the cream of the sport from
around the world. there were six finalists: Sam and Steve representing
England, Stuart representing France,
Marc
representing Luxembourg, 'Papa' Wass representing Lebanon
and one newcomer to
the sport
Ahmet representing Turkey.
Sam, Wassim and Mark being the joint holders of the current world record were pre-tournament favourites to take the trophy. Steve and Stuart were next in line and Ahmet was seen as the long shot having never spun before.
As you can see from the picture below the first shock of the tournament was 'Papa' Wass crashing out in the first round without registering a score. One of the favourites was out and suddenly it was realised that previous form may be no indication of who would emerge as champion. Steve and Marc both started well with times of 41.53 secs and 40.96 secs respectively.
In the second round Sam was looking worried as Ahmet took to the table. If Ahmet could beat Sam's 31.10 secs then another of the top seeds would bite the dust. Unfortunately disaster struck as the referee forgot to start the stopwatch and Ahmet's promising first spin was declared null and void. Obviously shaken Ahmet was given an extra spin but failed to score and Sam just scraped through at the expense of the rookie.
In round three Sam started with a poor 22.46 secs and was ruthlessly dispatched by the remaining contestants. Only one favourite remained as the competition went into the semi-final.
In the semi final stage Steve was eliminated from the competition by only 0.56 of a second. The final two were decided - the stage was set for the grand finale.
In the final Stuart had paced himself and saved his best for last. A stunning 40.37 secs left Marc with everything to do. Mark decided to go for it and span with true ferocity but his control deserted him as he crashed out without making a score. Stuart was declared Cracker Toy Spinning World Champion!!!
