See the wildest faces from the World Gurning Championships a look inside the wacky competition

Rubber-faced Tommy Mattinson won the World Gurning Championships for a record 19th time — and vowed: “I want to win 30.”Tommy, 52, beat off stiff competition to take home the crown in the men’s category, while Claire Lister, 37, won the woman’s category for an eighth consecutive time.Claire’s daughter Kendal was named champion in the junior category of the wacky competition, held annually in Egremont, Cumbria.Judges crown the winning contestant based on whoever displays the starkest transformation between their normal face and their gurning face.Tommy, who’s dad was a gurning champion, said: “It’s amazing, I’m so pleased to win it again.I didn’t expect, I never do, but there was some stiff opposition tonight.“When I pull my face, I go into my zone and I don’t hear the crowd and I don’t feel anything.“I’ll be coming back.

I want 30.I think if you’re a champion, you should come back and defend it.

As long as I’m alive and kicking, I’ll come back and support it.“People think ‘oh have you not won it enough?’ but I love winning, I like it.“I do a lot of tv and I meet a lot of stars, I’ve done some Saturday night tv and children’s tv and I love all that aspect of it.“I remember winning the juniors for the first time.I started gurning when I was a little child, trying to copy my dad, who was a world champion.“My mom said I was always I was pulling faces as a kid.”Dozens of hopefuls took part in the event, which is part of the Egremont Crab Fair, which also sees wheelbarrow races and horn-blowing competition’s.Entrants try to pull the most grotesque face possible while wearing a large horse collar.Their face contortion efforts are then scored by a panel of five judges, who are looking for “the biggest transformation in face”.The fair is thought to date all the way back to 1267 — when crab apples were given to the townsfolk by the Lord of the Manor.Hometown hero Claire Lister, who has won the women’s compet...