COME ON AUSTRALIA!

We're in with a shot.
Rumour had it that we would never compete with the North Americans, that their wind blew too hot, too hard, but we can.
Just take a look at this news story.
Our local boy, Craig McSharer, if he makes a big effort, if he puts in, can do it.
He's got the body, got the bulk, got the wind, but has he got the ticker.
First step, New Zealand.
Once he has spat the TransTasman Globe Vista Trophy all the way back to West Australia, then we can take on the Americans, the Yanks, the Big Blows.
It's up for grabs.



updated 10:39 p.m. ET July 5, 2009

Pit-spitting championship is all in the family

Husband, wife from Arizona win international titles

EAU CLAIRE, Mich. - A husband and wife are tops at this year's International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship.

Rick "Pellet Gun" Krause, of Tuba City, Ariz., spit for the win Saturday at the contest, held in the state of Michigan. In somewhat windy conditions, he shot a pit 48 feet and half an inch [Blogger: that is about 14.94metres.]

Organizers say his wife, Marlene, took first place in the women's contest, spitting a pit 36 feet, 3 inches.

You want to read the full tale, go here.

Local rag stands tall

The local paper, known to most as the Manjimup Bridgetown Times, but to me as The Warren Blackwood Times, did another fine job for the Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival.


Why should this blogger persist in calling it by its original name?
Because my grandfather worked on one, and started the other.
And because the two great rivers, the Warren and the Blackwood, denote two regions, and suggest homage.
All right, homage does not exist, but it should.

The new Local Champ steps up his campaign

Craig McSharer and Jon Doust with GlobeVista's Tanya Izzard and Aidan Montague
(Photo by Natalie Bell)

Craig McSharer is the Australian Cherry Pip Spitting Champaign.
There is no dispute.
He beat last year's champ, the Mighty Marky Mark Vitler, with an amazing spit that crushed Vitler by 3cms.
Or was it 2, or 1.1?
Who can remember.
The action was hot and fast and furious and all attention was on the 13.3 metres by the crazed New Zealand, Mike Foam at the Mouth Bassett.
We know Craig is the Australian champ because spitters from Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia - all cherry growing states - failed to turn up, to accept the challenge, to even acknowledge the sport.
Craig says to all spitters, Australia wide: "Bring it on! If you think you can spit, let's see your saliva."
If you want to see Craig glow in his glory, go here.

The press can't leave him alone

New Zealand town celebrates

Wanaka
Monday
The newly crowned GlobeVista Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Champion Mike Bassett is fast becoming a local hero.
Wanaka is a neat little town perched up high in Central Otago in the middle of the South Island.
Surely 'The Hound Dog Man' can't be the region's first international celebrity, but you can be sure New Zealanders on both ends will make the most of his success with nothing more than a big mouth and a fine set of cheeks.
If you want to read how the prestigious Otago Daily Times is reporting his success, click here.

THE TROPHY GOES OFFSHORE - AGAIN!

Mike 'The Dogman' Bassett has won the Trans-Tasman GlobeVista Cherry Pip Spitting Championship.
He is pictured above doing a haka with local hero Mark 'Spooky' Vitler looking on.
The crowd in Manjimup, Western Australia, was left standing numb after Mike spat 13.3 metre, through a wind, round a corner, across a road, up a street, over a truck and between audience legs.
It was stunning performance from the man someone from his home town of Wanaka, New Zealand south island, once described as "a young lad who has been nowhere and likes it here".
Current Australian champion Mark Vitler described his own performance as "not much better than a chook with a head cold".
Mark spat so bad he even gave up the Australian trophy to Manjimup boy Craig McSharer.

Mike took a fancy to his massive trophy and forgot to hand it back to the Manjimup Visitor Centre, was arrested on the outskirts of town, spent three minutes in gaol, was bailed, and returned later that night for a meal with the local sergeant's family.
All in all, the 15,000 people who visited Manjimup for the Cherry Harmony Festival agreed they had had the best time ever in their entire miserable life so far and vowed to return next year, the year after, and very year until the conceptualiser, Jon Doust, was either run out of town, or choked to death on a cherry pip.

EXCITEMENT BUILDS

THURSDAY, Manjimup
The current New Zealand Cherry Stone Spitting Champion has arrived in Manjimup, Western Australia, pumped, aggressive, ready.
In a blatant and provocative move, as soon as Mike Bassett got out of the car on arrival at the Manjimup Tourist Centre, he spat.
The town is hot, well, cold, because the weather refuses to cooperate, but the town's cherry growers are promissing cherries from the Southern Forests Region.
These folk don't promise unless they can deliver. They will deliver.
And the current local champ, Mark Mr Big Vitler, from Mt Barker, is angry.
He lost in an awkward moment in Cromwell NZ and is determined to wrest back the trophy he never held.
It should be an exciting day, a day of big spits, a day of cherries, happiness, goodwill and exhuberance.
And the weather?
The gods have laps, and they keep them to themselves.

DISASTER

SATURDAY, New Zealand
IN a shocking result for Australian cherry pip spitters, Mount Barker's Mark Vitler spat his way into second place in the Australasian Cherry Pip Spitting Championships first round.
The big man from the Porongurups huffed and puffed and spat but only managed to sneak in behind the eventual winner, Mike Bassett, from Wanaka, a town just up the road from Cromwell, home of New Zealand's finest cherries and biggest spitters.
Thousands gathered at Cromwell's Saturday markets to watch mouths of all sizes blow air behind cherry pips.
With snow still resting on nearby mountains, the local atmospheric temperature was cold but the competition hot.
Bassett spat 11.42 metres from a field of 48 spitters.
All in all the 48 contestants gobbed 408 cherries pips, or as the Long Cloud's like to call them, "stones".
This means round two in Manjimup this Saturday, December 13th, will be the hottest round ever contested.
According to late reports, Vitler was angry at his loss, blaming his manager, coach, an uncle by marriage, the colour of his socks and New Zealand food.
"There is no way I should have lost this spit," he is believed to have said. "When I get back to Manjimup on the 13th, which is my lucky number, by the way, people can expect to see one of the greatest spits ever.
"I'll show them a 1 in a 100 years spit!"
Local news suggests the competition's frist ever winner, Jo Perry, has been practising with great vigour and is keen to be the first woman to win the big trip over the ditch and spit for Australia.
Manjmup will also see the return of last year's first round winner, Paul Omodei Junior, keen to revive his family's fortunes and remind festival goers that he holds the local record of 12 metres, or 17 metres, or 23, any number greater than any number bragged about by any other spitters.
In the field will also be the winner of 2008 local heats from Donnybrook, Mt Barker and Manjimup.
Not to forget The Bassett Man, the current New Zealand Champ and winner of round one.