Anne Woods (gurner)
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Anne Woods | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 5 December 1947 Egremont, Cumberland, England |
| Died | 29 March 2015 (aged 67) |
| Known for | Most Gurning World Championship wins by a woman |
| Spouse | Alex Woods |
| Honours | Guinness World Records |
Anne Woods (5 December 1947 – 29 March 2015) was a British gurner who won the women's world championship 28 times.[1] Her world record was ratified by the Guinness Book of Records in November 2010, after a protracted effort to have it recognised.[1] Known as "the world's ugliest woman",[1][2][3] she was proud of that title, according to former Copeland council leader Elaine Woodburn.[1] Woods regularly performed her four-minute gurning routine to her signature track, "You're Gorgeous" by Babybird.[1][4]
Woods first started gurning in 1977, when her sons entered her into the competition at the Egremont Crab Fair as a joke.[5] Her first victory came as a surprise to both Anne and her husband Alex, who started gurning himself more than 20 years later.[5] Since her debut, she missed only one competition when she was pregnant with her daughter.[1] Woods became a local community favourite, and as her subsequent successes were covered by the media, she was credited with putting Egremont "on the map".[6][1] In his 2004 book True Brits, journalist J. R. Daeschner described Woods as a "diminutive, grey-headed granny" whose face normally had "a certain sweetness etched with the wrinkles from a lifetime of smoking", but that when she gurned, she transformed herself into "a crater-faced hag".[5]
The book Fantastic Feats and Ridiculous Records suggested that Woods' success "could well be attributed to her being able to remove her dentures, making her wrinkled face as ugly as a squashed prune".[7] Daeschner noted that Alex Woods was also able to remove his dentures, with the added advantage of having a broken nose.[5] In September 2002, Anne Woods suffered a shock defeat, coming in second place to television presenter Michaela Strachan, who gurned cross-eyed.[6] Her rare defeats included a one-off loss to Pauline Hoyle, a local rival who shouted "It's a fix!" each year when Woods won.[5]
In September 2010, Woods collapsed at the Egremont Crab Fair and had to be taken to hospital after claiming her title.[8][1] She died in 2015 at age 67.[9]