Vlaams for Punkin Chunkin. The European championships were held in Bikschote, West Flanders (part of Belgium for the geographically challenged) on September 5th. Top 3 finishers threw over 600 meters. Brief video is here: http://www.standaard.be/video/videoplayer.aspx?cat=1&subcat=0&videoid=7279084.

Thom

They frist strated doing this in the U.S. some were near baltimore M.D. [i live about 70 mi away] about 10 yrs or so ago its on the news now each yr and some of the corn mazes near me have there own throwers u can pay to use

The Delaware (not Maryland) chunk is the granddaddy. The Burlington event (north of Seattle) produced some great trebuchet distances before they ran out of room (as in pumpkin splatters in someone's yard). There are other events around the country. Morton IL, is an on-and-off event. Some great machines there, too.

On Thanksgiving the Science Channel will broadcast some of this year's Delaware event. 9PM, with another hour before that with background on a few teams. Last year's was excellent, and it got their highest ratings ever, IIRC.
 

hehe
that was almost in my backyard  8-)

its fun to watch
that farmer grows those pumpkins especially for this event

I believe that there was a team from the usa also and they did pretty good
IF I am correct, they ended up on the second or thirtd place

BommareZ wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2010 at 4:03am:

hehe that was almost in my backyard  8-) its fun to watch that farmer grows those pumpkins especially for this event I believe that there was a team from the usa also and they did pretty good IF I am correct, they ended up on the second or thirtd place

That was Onager. Second place. There is some controversy about the measuring, since the guys doing that are employees of the winner. Third place (Excalibur) said he got shorted 20 meters because the laser device couldn't read the surveying stick from where his longest shot hit.

The winner had a record of breaking down, so this year he brought over a team of advisers (Acme Catapult, from Illinois) and held together for the win. Renamed the machine Acme Catapult Europe.

There are now some videos on YouTube under the Necatour and WeBeTom channels. Hope I spelled those right.

haha yes indeed "onager"
I remember that name from the news

I really like to go watch to that you know
but names???
LOL

@ HurlinThom I guess you are from around to
can that be?

Quote:

De winnaar slingerde zijn pompoen 726 meter ver. Een record!

For those who don't read dutch.
the winner slung the pumpkin 736 metres. A record.

so for you americans scratching your heads that would be: 2381 feet !

Now assume the pumpkin is a small barrel of black powder surronded by shrapnel.
A siege weapon could place that in a castle from so far away you'd barely be able to see the thing.
Serious artillery.

All this nonsense in films of siege engines practically within touching distance of the castle walls - is precisely that, nonsense :-)

BommareZ wrote on Oct 4^th, 2010 at 5:50am:

haha yes indeed "onager" I remember that name from the news I really like to go watch to that you know but names??? LOL @ HurlinThom I guess you are from around to can that be?

Actually I'm from Los Angeles, way over on the far side of the USA. I do correspond with members of the "hurling community", which includes the guy responsible for Excalibur (not the owner, his employee at his engineering company).

I think every worthwhile throwing machine deserves a great name, or at least a unique one.

I'd like to attend the European Championships. Maybe if I start right now I can persuade my wife either to let me go or to plan a trip for us both.  

ah I see
like that

hope you can persuade her
its a nice event

Curious Aardvark wrote on Oct 4^th, 2010 at 8:06am:

Quote: De winnaar slingerde zijn pompoen 726 meter ver. Een record! For those who don't read dutch. the winner slung the pumpkin 736 metres. A record. so for you americans scratching your heads that would be: 2381 feet ! Now assume the pumpkin is a small barrel of black powder surronded by shrapnel. A siege weapon could place that in a castle from so far away you'd barely be able to see the thing. Serious artillery. All this nonsense in films of siege engines practically within touching distance of the castle walls - is precisely that, nonsense :-)

An interesting point about cannon replacing trebuchets was made by Peter Vemming, who built the trebuchet at Warwick Castle. He said that the lack of a good source of saltpeter was a major factor in delaying the process. However, the Chinese, who used the earliest trebuchets used them to fling gunpowder bombs, so your idea is not at all farfetched.

In a way the nonsense of siege engines close to castle walls might make sense. The Hollywood concept of a catapult is such a travesty that one would not be able to throw very far anyhow. Of course your siege engineers would be within arrow range and wouldn't have a good survival rate, but that's the movie biz.

BTW, hometown enthusiasm was responsible for the declaration of a "world record". Measured in feet, meters, shaku, or arshins. The winning throw was far short of the 3091 foot record set by Chucky II in 2008. It beat the trebuchet record, but wouldn't be classified as a trebuchet under WCPC (World Championship of Punkin Chunkin)rules. OTOH, Excalibur did beat the trebuchet record. But the European championship doesn't break machines down by type as WCPC does.

http://www.punkinchunkin.com/records.htm

.

isn't that a little like saying the idea that the landing at Normandy was over and done with in about 20 minutes, because that's what suited Hollywood once? ;)

that said, I am certain that at some stage in the glorious, baffling range that is human history, we HAVE deployed siege weaponry well within visible range of "castle walls". Once, you only had to be out of range of longbows ;) Now, there are SFTG troops deploying mortars at under the 400m mark in Afghanistan. The more some things change, the more some things stay the same.

nice article, thanks for the links. reminds me of that whacky german pumpkin boat racing they do once in a while, which in turn remidns me of the weird british habit of chasing cheese down a hill until you break your neck.

700 or so m is incidentally roughly one third of the way down my dirty old driveway... it's bugger all, really, and if someone was holding a camera perpendicular to the midpoint, it would come out looking pretty much as if it was taking place in my front yard ;)

I understand in europe or britland 700m is the difference between one country and another but here, that's a distance I cover in 20 minutes with my 5 year old daughter every afternoon on our quiet family time walks.... certainly nothing serious.

Of course, the real issue is what is it about pumpkins that makes humans want to chuck them? Is it the loathing of famine food? Their natural cross country shape? I doknow once or twice a year we have so many up on my hill that we bowl em down the road... probably around 700m, or so :P. Extra points for the messiest impact :D

Poor pumpkins...they just want to be eaten ane loved!

It is really impressive to see a line of seige weapons all abreast like that.  Brings to mind that in the ancient seiges, you might see such variation in engines, as there would not have been the regularity suggested by hollywood.  I wonder if ever there was a seige that had such a concentrated mass of weapons.  (if there were as many, I reckon they'de be spread around a bit.)

Chugosh wrote on Oct 17^th, 2010 at 4:15pm:

It is really impressive to see a line of seige weapons all abreast like that.  Brings to mind that in the ancient seiges, you might see such variation in engines, as there would not have been the regularity suggested by hollywood.  I wonder if ever there was a seige that had such a concentrated mass of weapons.  (if there were as many, I reckon they'de be spread around a bit.)

Various seige engines existed because they filled needs. Trebuchets are really out of their element throwing light stuff like pumpkins; normally they would throw round stones in the 200 Kg range to break down walls and other masonry. Arrow-throwers like arbalests and springalds would be anti-personnel. There would be a few other types as well.

Thom

I'd build a siege weapon but there's a good chance I'd never go down off my mountain ever again if I had one :D

I should just stick to bowling pumpkins downhill. I hate cricket (yep, I'm un-Australian) but I cannot resist bowling a green Jap down a hill once in a while...they just seem bred for it!