ONLY 47 SECONDS IN IT
UK Qualification Tournament for the
World Cigar Smoking Championships
On a sultry June evening the ten competitors for the UK qualification leg of the World
Cigar Smoking Championships gathered at the elegant Voltaire bar at the Crowne Plaza
Hotel in the City of London. The first order of the evening was the briefing by Marko Bilić
from Club Mareva in Split Croatia who organises the World Championships every year. The
rules are extremely complex but it all comes down to; who can make a Mareva sized cigar,
on the night a Montecristo No 4, last the longest.
Among the gathered competitors were two
experienced campaigners including Darren
Cioffi Owner of Principle cigars in Nashville, the
current world Champion & World record holder
and Aaron Palmer and American living in Europe
who has experience of competing in previous
qualifying tournaments.
Having selected their cigars, each competitor was
given one minute to cut the cigar and then, using
only two matches, a further minute to light the
cigar. Then all the matches are removed and total
silence descends as speaking and drinking is not
allowed for the first 5 minutes.
After five minutes silence, a gentle hum of
conversation returns and after just 14 minutes
the first competitor is out. Gino Rossano Iannillo
from Italy was smoking so slowly that he failed to
keep his cigar alight. Next came Michael Gelardi
of Boisdale. Your correspondent, eager to make
his cigar last as long as possible and puffing just
too infrequently, managed to let it go out after just
26 minutes and the delightful Salome Steinmann
from Nashville and the sole woman competitor
27
was the next to go out after 30 minutes.
There are time penalties for any competitor who
lets ash drop from his or her cigar in the first 40
minutes and after 47 minutes champion Darren
lets his first ash drop as tension started to rise.
At 51 minutes and 30 seconds, and having enjoyed
his cigar just a little too much Toby Brocklehust,
from Kent by way of Havana, is out as his ash
approaches the band.
At 1hr 4 minutes Phillip Ashby Rudd, who is, I kid
you not a sea bass salesman from Dorset, declared
himself done and now it was down to the the last
four, two Brits and two Americans. All the time
Marko is encouraging everyone to enjoy the game
and to ‘focus’.
Amazingly a further 23 minutes elapsed before
Adam Lajca a cigar lover and Master of Habanos
declared himself finished. He told me he had
smoked ten Monte 4 cigars in preparation for the
evening but on the night the burn on his cigar was
very erratic and he stopped just in time to avoid
the 15 minute penalty for burning the band.