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| CANADA'S SOURCE FOR KER PLUNK HUMOUR, PARODY, AND SATIRE
HANOVER, GERMANY-- Americans Jodie and Keith Whatley simply lost their marbles. For the third straight year, the Evansville, Indiana couple failed to take home the Golden Marble, the prestigious trophy awarded to the winner of the World Ker Plunk Championships. The Whatleys lost a close game in this year's finals to Gregor and Svetlana Myshovelylev of Latvia.
"It went down to the last marble", said Keith, a Ker Plunk expert who has been playing the wacky plastic tube game since 1969, and professionally since 1992. "I knew it was going to be tough from the first twist," admitted Keith, Indiana's state Ker Plunk champion for the past five years. "But when Gregor pulled the 23rd stick and only one of the last twelve marbles dropped, it was basically over." The move turned out to be a brilliant sacrifice for the Latvian. Keith, left with no alternatives, was forced to pull that "one stick that was angled down and away." Added Keith: "When those eleven marbles plunked into my tray, I was devastated. I knew I was sunk. It was like being stabbed in the heart...with a long thin wooden sword." The eleven marbles gave the Whatleys a total of 17, to the Myshovelylev's 15, giving the Latvians the upset victory, and ultimately the championship. "We gave it all we had," said an emotional Jodie. "I just hope we didn't disappoint the tens of hundreds of Ker Plunk fans we have back home." The 17-15 score marks the closest game since the 18-14 tally in the '97 semi-finals in Brussels. That year's Golden Marble went to Norway's Pers and Inge Persson. That was also the year that the Italian Ker Plunkers were disqualified for using tampered straws. As anticipated, The Whatleys intend to take a week off in Germany to rest up after the exhausting tournament. Then it's back to the United States to begin training for next year. "We've only got a month before the Indiana State regionals," said Jodie. "We've got to be prepared." Next year's Ker Plunk Championships are scheduled to be in Vienna, Austria. The World Ker Plunk Federation (WKPF) anticipates it will break this year's record attendance of 23,192, and players from over 14 countries are expected to compete. They hope that the competition will draw more fans than the annual British Battleship Beatdown in Bristol, Seville's Sorry Showdown, or even the prestigious Mousetrap Melée in Marseilles. In Europe,
Ker Plunk, invented by the Ideal Toy Company, is second only to football
in popularity.
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