The Biggest Liar competition

2004

The biggest liar competition won by the Wasdale Head Inn staff for the third time !

The annual world's biggest liar competition held in memory of the first landlord at the Wasdale Head Inn, Will Ritson, who was reknowned for his tall tale has once again returned to its original home.

Held each year at the Bridge Inn in Santon, the title has been won by Howard Christie the landlord of the Wasdale Head Inn, by one of staff Abri Kruge last year and as of last Friday night by another member of the staff Mike Naylor!

Mike who is a born and bred Wasdale resident and former farmer, triumphed over a packed house with his tall stories.

I hope to have some photos and extracts from his tale soon but until I receive the details arrive then more info from last years event can be found below.

The 2004 winner was Mike Naylor, who brews ale , including his own Liar Ale at Wasdale's micro brewery.

UNDER the new Foxhunting Bill any licensed pack must first notify foxes in writing of any planned hunt.
Well at least that is what one of the 12 entrants told a sell-out
gathering of the World's Biggest Liar contest2004.
But the judges decided after hearing some excellent tales to award this year's prize to a man who entered the room in his best dungarees and green wellies and told the noisy audience he was Micky Mandela. His true
identity was Mike Naylor, a nephew to previous winner, Jos Naylor. Mike told the audience and BBC camera crews that he was from South Africa, but thanks to a Teach Yourself Cumbrian course he was able to
address the gathering in Cumbrian. He said a local firm called Bang! No Folk Left (BNFL) were flooding Wasdale and Herdwick sheep would be replaced by fish farming, monitored by new Defra, "or should we say
Daftra" organisation, the Ministry of Underwater Fisheries and Food
(MUFF).
Wasdale show was to be replaced with spectator events such as sea horse racing. He did say that residents who's homes were to be flooded "would be allowed to keep their homes, with air locks at the door
and cat or dog fish flaps."

It was the first time that Mike, 48, had ever entered the competition, which attracts interest and competitors from around the world.

Last year's event ended in a storm of controversy when South African Abrie Kruger became the first ever overseas winner. As he lifted the coveted World's Biggest Liar trophy last night,
father-of-three Mike shouted, "It's ga'an yam, Abrie!" But it was all in good humour - as Mike, works with Abrie at the Wasdale Head Inn.

Landlord of the Wasdale Head Inn, Howard Christie, was also a
competitor in this year's contest.

More than 120 people from across the country, and as far away as Sweden
and South Africa, packed into The Bridge Inn at Santon Bridge for the
World's Biggest Lia Competition.

 

Mike said last night: "It's the first lie I have ever told in my
life! It hasn't sunk in yet because I didn't think I was going to
win. I just entered for the fun of it and for the laugh. I came down to
support last year's winner who works with me. He got a bit of a rough
deal last year."

He added: "I was born at Wasdale Head and everyone always said Will
Ritson was the world's biggest liar, but he was a gentleman. And he
was always one step ahead of all the people calling him."

James Mason, of Whitehaven, who won in 1998, came second with a tale
that included a line that Tony Blair had asked local MP Jack Cunningham
to "get him two tickets for the show, but Jack said he got lost in
Copeland it was so long since he had been there!"
Taffy Thomas, taking part for the 10th time, came third.

The judges including the Mayor coun Bill Southward and his wife Sylvia,
said the standard of entries was exceptionally high and the results were
very close. Two entrants "froze" part way through their tales so
great is the stage pressure and compere Charles Maudling said: "It
takes courage to come up here and lie through your teeth."
The contest all started in the era 1808-1890 when Will Ritson was the landlord of the Wasdale Inn, set beneath the dark and dangerous crags of Great Gable and Scafell Pike (England's highest mountain). He had a reputation for telling porkies or tall tales. For instance he tried to fool Victorian tourists into believing turnips in the dale grew so large that farm families quarried into them for their meals and the hollowed out root crops could then be used as byres or barns for the Herdwick fell sheep of the area. In this century the local tourist industry exploited the folk tale to make the Biggest Liar Contest an annual event. Contestants have to stand and deliver their tall tales before a lively audience high on the locally brewed Jennings ales and a traditional Cumbrian Tattie Pot supper of mutton, black pudding, potatoes and spicy pickled red cabbage.

2003

Each year the Bridge Inn is the venue for the biggest liar in the world competition, and this year was no differant with the competition being held on Thurs 20 November 2004. The event attracts story-tellers from all over the world to take part, all trying to walk away with the title of the World's Biggest Liar. The event itself dates back to the days of Will Ritson the first landlord of the Wasdale Head Inn who was famous for telling tall stories and promising them as the truth,; such was his reputaion that the competition has been held every year since his death, to comemerate the man's tendency for the elaboration of the truth.

It must be something they put in the water at the Wasdale Head Inn, because the current landlord Howard Christie has himself been the winner of the competition in the past and this year the prize went to one of his staff Abrie Kruger and his sidekick Anje Du Toit who also works at the Inn. Abrie & Anje are both South Africans and they used this to great effect in their story of coming to climb in the valley and setting up a huge cable car ride at the end of the valley, known as Great Cable!

Congratulations to them both