| Jaffa Challenge 3 |
| Venue - The Mighty Chedd (Alex's House) Date - 28/06/2002 Competitors Mo "Jaffa King" Das Andrew "The Kev" Evans Nick "Chubby" Owen Lawrie "Only in the Dark" Mark Eric "The Clown" Horn |
| I have to say that this match was the turning point in Jaffa history, but the roots of Jaffa Competitions will never be forgotten. There were also many firsts in this match, that Jaffa fans had never experienced before this battle. It was the first time that more than 2 competitors had competed, it was no longer a Head-2-Head match, and made the match more competitive. And also it was the first time that bets had been taken on the event. Naturally, Mo was hot favourite as he was the veteran of the comp with odds of 1-2. Then Evans and Nick "Chubby" Owen were joint second favourites at 2-1, and outsiders Lawrie and "The Clown" were 3-1 and 4-1 respectively. There was a cool atmosphere prior to the match, each Jaffa Eater preparing in their own way; The Jaffa King relaxing in the pool, sipping his whisky and looking the business, while Owen, Mark and Horn were all quiet in the lead-up with just Mark making the odd complaint about his sunstroke, and Evans went round showboating, making his presence known. People arrived awaiting the tournament, and naturally with their expectations. Half past nine arrived and it was time to introduce the competitors which was down to the organiser Chris Galley. In they came with their own entrance music and mobbed by the record attending crowd, who were as enthusiastic as the particpipants. Dan Christian, assistant oraganiser, then handed each contender their first pack of Jaffas and explained the rules. . . and finally it was time for Eat-Off! As expected the champ, Mo, took a commanding lead being the first to finish his first pack of Jaffas, but closely followed by "The Kev," and Lawrie Mark. Eric and Nick lagged behind from the start, but they had their strategy and of course, its the most you eat, not the quickest you eat them. Mo, Lawrie and Evans, in that order, soon moved on to their 3rd pack of Jaffas, but at this stage "Chubby" was really starting to slow down, and eventually gave in. One of the favourites out early in the competition, maybe we were in for a surprise, but in my eyes, Nick just didn't have the Jaffa stomach to compete. During all this time, the outsider, Eric Horn, was being taunted by one particular drunk fan, Nick Talbot. With comments like "You Loooser!" and, "Quit now Monkey!" along with other profanities which can't be published, he never really stood much chance, and he gave up as soon as Nick had left the table. For someone who didn't even like Jaffas, he finished a respectable 4th and at least he gave it a go. Now things really started to hot up, and the tension increased notably for "The Kev," as he began to feel the pressure and started to light up his 3rd cigarette of the competition. Smoking in the match really dented his performance in my opinion, and it definately showed as he ended up with a total of 38. And then there was two. Mo and Lawrie were left to battle out the title and our favourite drunken Jaffa fan came into play again. Before the game Nick had placed a bet on the hot favourite Jaffa King, Mo, and to ensure he won, at every possible opportunity he tried to taunt or abuse Mo's oppenents and also, kept feeding the King beer thinking that it would enhance his performance. Mo had lead from the start, showing the others how it was done, but when he hit the 55 mark, it was clear that he was starting to struggle and eventually Lawrie took the lead. The pace had now majorly slowed, but thats always expected . . . even at a top level performance like this one. Lawrie was the first to go out, but reaching a huge total of 65 beating the previous record by 4 Jaffas. At this stage Mo was currently on 60, and six would win him the match. Easy you may think but as Mo said after the match, "It just felt like it was physically impossible to eat them when I had got that far." But that bottle of whisky before the match had proved too much for the current Jaffa King, as he brought up a concoction of whisky, chocolate and the jelly orange into a well placed bucket, just after squeezing innhis 62nd Jaffa. A new Jaffa King had arisen to the stage of the Jaffa World and Mo had a new personal best of 62, but in his eyes, that just wasn't good enough. |