Ultimate Tradesman Challenge - Guyll Wins it! Guests at the Interbuild exhibition at the NEC in Almost 4000 contestants have taken part in the competition over the past nine months, all demonstrating their skills and vying for a chance to win an amazing IRWIN Porsche 911 sports car at events throughout the Kitchen fitter and joiner Rob Guyll was the eventual winner, driving away in the prize Porsche after a nail-biting competition watched by hundreds of tools enthusiasts. Over the course of Interbuild, Rob, from Yarm in Every contestant had to complete, against the clock, a specially prepared challenge that involves cutting a length of wood using the IRWIN Jack 880 Triple Ground Saw, quickly and accurately marking the wood with the IRWIN Marking Square, clamping it using the new Quick-Grip XP one handed bar clamp and drilling a series of holes with the Blue Groove 6x and Cordless drill bits. The eight contestants battled it out in the knockout stages, consistently racking up some impressive sub-30 second times, until only two were left – Rob Guyll and Dave Brown. The two lightning-fast tool-wielding titans took to the stage to the applause and shouted encouragement of the crowd, which spilled over into the walkways around the IRWIN stand. First blood in the best-of-five competition went to Rob, after Dave, perhaps feeling the pressure, dropped his power drill. The second round saw Dave claw it back, completing in 28.25 to his opponents 28.44, a margin of less than 0.2 of a second! But Rob won the next two rounds with 26.76 and 28.99 seconds, claiming the keys to his prize from Neil Elbeler, the global president of IRWIN. Rob said: “The last few bouts were very close and it was very tense. The other guys in the final were great and I can't believe I won. I've put a lot of time and effort into this. Ever since the first show it was my mission - I even scheduled work around going to shows!” Paul Jakeway, Trade Marketing Manager at IRWIN added: “The Ultimate Tradesman Challenge has been a great success and has really captured the imagination of the industry. We're already looking forward to next year and beginning our search for the Ultimate Tradesman 2010.” Vital Statistics - The UTC Countdown Miles travelled by the UTC Team in 2009: 91,560 (halfway to the moon!) Number of miles travelled by the prize Porsche: 24,982 (on a trailer!) Number of 20mm holes drilled by IRWIN Blue Groove 6x bits 15,872 Number of IRWIN UTC stickers given away 12,600 Number of IRWN Bi-Metal trapezoid blades given away 4145 Number of UTC competitors in 2009: 3968 Number of IRWIN UTC t-shirts given away 3650 Number of tiles broken by competitors: 476 Number of IRWIN Jack 880 Triple Ground saws used: 264 Slowest completion time in the heats in seconds 242 Age of oldest competitor in year: 78 Number of UTC events: 66 Fastest completion time in the heats in seconds 46 Percentage of competitors completing between 1m20s and 1m30s 41 Number of Metabo cordless drills given away as prizes 30 Percentage of competitors who failed the challenge 19 Age of youngest competitor in years: 18 Number of shows attended by most persistent competitor: 7 Percentage of competitors completing in under one minute 5 Number of prize Porsche 911 sports cars 1