QUIRKY WORLD... Tough competition to crown this year’s Mr Ugly
For the first time since the competition began in 2011, organisers will hold preliminary rounds to whittle the number of hopefuls who will compete in the finale on November 20 from 36 to 12.
Organiser David Machowa said: “We are looking for natural ugliness.”
Facial features count the most, but contestants will also be judged according to their confidence when walking the runway and how they handle the Q&A round.
Explaining why he launched the event, Machowa said: “People have always seen ugliness as something to be ashamed of. Looks are God-given. We should all be proud of who we are.”
He plans to expand it to other countries in southern Africa. There is no female version of the contest.
William Masvinu has held the title since 2012, when there were only five contestants. He won a small sum of cash and a voucher for a night’s stay at a hotel, which he cashed in for food.
He still works at a market in Harare, hauling vegetables. He had hoped the wins would lead to advertising contracts but they have not materialised.
A retired garage owner has been reunited with a car he fell in love with 43 years ago — after his son unwittingly bought it at auction.
John Edwards, 81, sold the 1972 Saab 96 from new for £1,023 when he was director of Westbury Garage in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
He was so taken with the car, registration BAW 77IL, that he photographed it and hung the picture in the garage for many years.
Last month, his son James, who took over the running of the garage when his father retired in 1996, spotted a 1972 Saab 96 at auction.
He recognised the vehicle had been registered in Salop — the official name of Shropshire between 1974 and 1980 — as old-style number plates start with three letters identifying the place of registration. But he had no idea the car, which he bought from Richard Edmonds Auctions in Chippenham, Wiltshire, had been sold by his father 43 years ago.
Edwards was stunned to see the vehicle returning to the garage’s forecourt, in which archives contained the paperwork of its original sale. His son now plans to use the car and display it in the garage, which is now an all-makes service centre, and is researching its history.
A plucky pooch has rolled into the record books after skateboarding under the longest human tunnel.
Otto the bulldog coasted under the legs of 30 people to earn the Guinness World Records entry in Lima, Peru.
Footage of the cunning canine shows him jump on his board and skate through the legs, steering from side to side as he pushes himself along.
UK stunt driver Alastair Moffatt also clinched a world record when he performed the tightest reverse parallel park. Moffatt managed to squeeze his motor into a tiny spot at Brooklands Museum in Surrey with a handbrake turn.
A team of dancing firefighters have re-created a scene from Mary Poppins to encourage residents to get their chimneys swept.
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Black Watch are seen dancing with brushes on a rooftop in homage to the Dick Van Dyke scene from the 1964 film.
Six firefighters are seen performing an acrobatic routine to the song ‘Step In Time’ before delivering the message “Don’t make a song and dance about it: Get your chimney swept” in a cockney accent.
