The 34th wormcharming event witnessed the lowest worm count in history, but a brilliant £2,500 was raised for charity.

Last weekend was the Blackawton International Festival of Wormcharming where teams battled it out to encourage the wiggly worms out of the ground.

However, this year the saw the lowest worm count since the event started with the winning adult team called Fat Worms, only collecting 16 worms. Similarly, the winners of the Under 11 category, the Weirdos, only managed to persuade 12 worms out of the ground.

For those who are not familiar with this worming tradition, the record made in 1986 saw 149 worms collected out of the ground.

However, 50 teams entered the popular competition and many have said they will be back again next year.

The iconic fancy dress theme this year was ’70 years of the NHS’, which saw many theatre surgeons, old fashioned and modern nurses and many injured patients coming to Blackawton over the bank holiday weekend. The winner of the fancy dress competition was the Brain Surgeon and the Patients team.

A key part of the event is the fundraising which resulted in about £2,500 being raised for the Devon Air Ambulance and other local causes. The auction held in the George Inn during the evening greatly helped with this fundraising.

A tin of spam brought in £51 and an original sign from the Normandy, a former pub in the town, brought in a £400 bid.

The dog show was a great success and people had the opportunity to rent a dog in a bid for as many people to take part as possible.

A local Dartmouth Academy student, Tori Cox was selected as the official photographer for the event and many young artists from South Devon College performed at the George Inn later in the evening.

Steve Thomas who helped organise the event said he would like to thank all the volunteers who helped run the event, lent equipment, donated prizes for the auction and all who came on the weekend.

Earlier in the year, it seemed that the festival was under threat due to a lack of volunteers but Steve said he was so pleased with how many people answered the call to ensure this tradition carries on.