Watching paint dry is regarded as one of the dullest things to do but this might match it - the Scottish heats of the British Pipesmoking Championships at Dunblane Hydro in 1979. The contest consisted of smokers being given an identical amount of tobacco and matching pipes. They are then given two matches, five minutes to fill their bowls, and then carefully puff away to see who can make their baccy last the longest. The winner clocked in at 66 minutes.
Elizabeth Turner, centre, from Mount Florida, Glasgow, won the female contest - by dint of being the only female contestant. She did puff up a creditable 48 minutes however. The winner, Edward Smith, was a member of the Tontine Campers Pipe Club in Peebles. There actually were pipe clubs in those days. I cannot imagine how exciting club nights were.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
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