Hello, Everyone!! Well, the first International Interwebs Welly Wanging Competition has officially come to a close. I’m sorry if you were not able to find the time to join in (ahem! to my brother, who promised he would get to it), because it turns out that Welly Wanging is super fun! But don’t worry – it was SO much fun that I’m pretty sure we’re going to celebrate spring NEXT year with another competition.

We got a lot more entries in under the wire today because Alden had her 6th birthday party, and we included Welly Wanging as one of the activities. It was great fun. We split up the various jobs associated with our particular tournament, and swapped them around for each round. There was, obviously, the Welly Wanger.

Then there was also the line judge (that’s Alden’s job in this photo):

The measurer:

The score recorder:

And the photographer:

There were also two guards per round who stood at the end of our sidewalk and made sure no unsuspecting folks leaving Doug the Baker’s with a bag full of sun buns would get hit by a flying welly. Six different people were spared the offense (and we were spared any lawsuits) thanks to those guards.

Also, perhaps THIS photographer should have had a guard or two protecting her (I’m talking about ME):

Do you see it? Do you see the threat? Here, let me help:

Do you see that boot? The one headed straight for my head? Well, I didn’t see it. I was too busy taking pictures. I really could have used those guards there. Thank goodness we weren’t using standard issue wellies, because we might have had to broadcast this post from the emergency room. Hallelujah for not entirely following the rules!

Alright. The upshot of this all is that we had a great time, and definitely see more Welly Wanging in our future.

BUT – FOR THE PRESENT:

We have our official listing of the entrants and their measurements –

In the kid category:

Sydney: 9 yards
Grace: 8 yards, 1 inch
Quentin: 6 yards, 2 feet, 8 inches
Harvey: 5 yards, 6 inches
Alden: 4 yards, 2 feet, 8 inches
Anna: 5 yards
Lily: 5 yards, 1 foot, 9 inches
Gabby: 5 yards, 1 foot, 5 inches
Liza 4 yards, 2 feet, 4 inches
Kato: 4 yards, 2 feet, 2 inches
MJ: 4 yards, 5 inches
Bailey: 4 yards
Harry: 2 yards, 2 feet, 1 inch
August: 2 feet, 8 inches

In the adult category:

Mark: 27 yards, 1 foot, 2 inches
Guyberg: 25 yards, 2 feet, 6 inches
Matthew 24 yards, 2 feet, 5 inches
Jeany: 15 yards, 1 foot
Peter 24 yards
Robbi: 10yards, 7 inches

And so, we are proud to announce the winners of this year’s first International Interwebs Welly Wanging Competition!

The trophy goes to Sydney, with a final distance of 9 yards even!! Congratulations, Sydney! The trophy will head your way shortly!! I hope that you can find some time to send us a photo of you once you get it! Good job!!!

The first runner up prize, an 8×10 print of your choice (of any of my past illustrations) goes to: Anna!!!

We were most impressed with Anna’s tough-as-nails approach to the competition, not being undone by a little bit of snow. Congratulations, Anna!!!

And finally, we’d like to award the final runner-up 8×10 print to Team Team Mark-Jeany-Harvey-Harry-and-sometimes-Guyberg!!!

Technically, Mark came in with the highest score, but we think the grown-ups have minor height, strength, power, focus and coordination advantages and shouldn’t be considered in the same running as the rest of the kids.

So there you have it. This officially closes the first International Interwebs Welly Wanging Competition! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

We see a future in this sport, and look forward to a more robust competition next year (along with the invention of a calculator that will convert inches to yards, feet and inches, and not just one of the three).

Thanks to everyone who joined in!!! Happy Spring!