ladbible homepage
ladbible homepage
  • iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK
    • US
    • World
    • Ireland
    • Australia
    • Science
    • Crime
    • Weather
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV
    • Film
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • Netflix
    • Disney
  • Sport
  • Technology
  • Travel
  • Lifestyle
  • Money
  • Originals
    • FFS PRODUCTIONS
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Archive
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content Here
  • SPORTbible
  • Tyla
  • GAMINGbible
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • FOODbible
  • UNILAD Tech
The world's greatest gurner is from the UK and he even gurned in front of the Queen

Home> Community

Published 19:29 25 Jan 2023 GMT

The world's greatest gurner is from the UK and he even gurned in front of the Queen

Tommy Mattinson has been named the World Champion of gurning more than a dozen times

Emily Brown

Emily Brown

google discoverFollow us on Google Discover

Basically anyone who's been to a festival will have come face-to-face an extreme gurner at one point or another, but one man is so good at it that he's won more than a dozen Guinness World Records.

Who knew gurning could be so rewarding?

The man in question is Tommy Mattinson, from Aspatria, Cumbria. As hard as it might be to get your head around, gurning actually ran in Mattinson's family, with his own father becoming a 10-time world champion before Mattinson came to steal his record.

Advert

Contests for gurning, which typically involves sticking out the lower jaw and using the bottom lip to cover the top lip, are a rural English tradition, and it's through this tradition that the world's greatest gurner found fame.

Queen Elizabeth II and the king of gurning.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Mattinson showed off his moves at Egremont Crab Fair in Cumbria, where he first won the World Gurning Championships in 1986.

He went on to win again in 1987 before embarking on an epic winning streak from 1999. In 2019, he racked up his 17th win during another appearance at the event.

Mattinson has previously described the expression he pulls when gurning as 'a cross between an alien and a wolf man'.

Following his win in 2013, Mattinson said: "That said, this year in particular I really, really tried hard. I put in a lot of effort, and now have a sore head and all the muscles in my neck ache."

The Queen didn't look to impressed by Mattinson's skills.
PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

The World Champion's gurning abilities even earned him an audience with Queen Elizabeth II in 2008, when Her Majesty travelled to Cumbria to officially reopen The Beacon museum in Whitehaven.

Mattinson showed off some of his funny faces for the Queen, though she didn't look too impressed by his ability to gurn so brilliantly.

Following his win in 2019, Mattinson said every win is 'special' to him.

"It’s nice to have the support from Egremont, and it’s great that this tradition’s carried on," he told the News and Star.

Mattinson insisted he would 'always come back' to the contest for as long as he can, with runner-up Gordon Blacklock agreeing that the tradition 'must be supported'.

"If we stop doing this, the event is going to die and we can’t let that happen," he said.

Mattinson has not been able to compete in the event since 2019 as organisers of Egremont Crab Fair made the decision to cancel following the death of the Queen in September 2022.

In 2020 and 2021, the event was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Featured Image Credit: Trans World Sport/YouTube

Topics: UK News, The Queen

Emily Brown
Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.

Recommended reads

What young Anakin child actor looks like now after his mum provided sad update on life(Lucasfilm)Actress who used dead son’s sperm to have his baby opens up about unique situationInstagram/ana_obregon_oficialFamily of Tony Parsons got six-figure pay-out after remains weren't found for three yearsPolice ScotlandOnly two people have ever been banned from Met GalaNeilson Barnard/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Advert

Choose your content:

6 days ago
7 days ago
9 days ago
  • Instagram/@no_limbs_
    6 days ago

    Woman with no limbs hits back at hate after answering question ‘everyone wants to know’ with husband

    Briel Adams-Wheatley said the days of her 'crying over comments' left by trolls are long behind her

    Community
  • Instagram/Lily Phillips
    7 days ago

    Lily Phillips' boyfriend has content boundary she can never cross after 101 men in a day challenge

    The 24-year-old OnlyFans star says her new boyfriend loves her 'not because' of her job and even left her a gift after a controversial shoot

    Community
  • Getty Stock Images
    9 days ago

    Eight signs your marriage is over including fantasy ‘all women have’

    Relationship expert Annalie Howling has seen many relationships come and go, which is why she knows how they end

    Community
  • LinkedIn
    9 days ago

    Multimillionaire forced to pay ex-wife £100 million after second life reveal

    Mikhail Kroupeev and Elena Kroupeeva married in 1988 and were together for 35 years

    Community
  • Haunting past of ‘world's most infected island' full of human skulls that is less than a mile away from UK coast
  • Terror adviser warns of 'national security emergency' as threat in UK raised to 'severe'
  • Queen Elizabeth’s response to Andrew and Virginia Giuffre pictures revealed
  • Update in murder case of Sonia Exelby hoping for 'violent death' after flying to US to meet man from 'fetish website'