NSPCC steam in to flatten the opposition

5:14pm Wednesday 20th October 2004

"It's David Beckham," said a mother. "No it's not," said her daughter. "It's a lookalike."

Alas, Brent Cross did not have the pleasure of the England footballer's presence last Saturday, but made do with that of a professional lookalike, who headed up the Alternative English Football Squad in the 2004 Tefal Ironing Olympics.

Extreme Ironing (EI), which started in 1997, may be the better known element of this sport' which involves ironing in remote locations such as at Mount Aconcagua's summit in Argentina but speed, precision, vertical and marathon ironing were judged last weekend by the Good Housekeeping Institute.

The Corinthian spirit which marked out the extreme ironing pioneers has inevitably been diluted in the cash-rich commercial era. With a compere providing ironing tips and information on where to buy the irons in use at special prices, the NSPCC, the super-skilled NHS carers, the professionals (Gary Perkins Dry Cleaners) and Get Connected magazine competed, using the requisite Tefal irons, for the gold, silver and third-place prizes.

Many shoppers were bemused at the thought of ironing as a sport.

"It's really surreal, bizarre," exclaimed Mathieu Glasman, a management consultant from Dollis Hill, shaking his head.

The NSPCC came top, winning £5,000 worth of Tefal household products, which they will use as raffle prizes. Gary Perkins Dry Cleaners came second, winning £3,000 worth of goods and Get Connected won £2,000 worth of prizes. Each team were given £1,000 to donate to their chosen charity.

David Jeanson, of the Get Connected team, worked for Rowenta which has sponsored many EI events and took part in the First EI World Championships held in Germany in 2002.

He said: "We wanted to do something very different in terms of PR. For six years I have been thinking about ironing every day I am sad."

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