THE SHUCKING YEAR IN REVIEW

We realized recently that, in the last 26 years, 25 of the winners of the Canadian Oyster Shucking championships have at some point in their careers worked for Rodney Clark.  A pretty good shucking pedigree.  How did we do in 2014?  Here’s a selection of the year’s results:

St. Pat’s Open – Ceili Cottage, Toronto – Julius Chapple, 1^st; David Burns, 5^th
Bytowne Oyster Fest – Whalesbone, Ottawa – Eamon Clark, 1^st; David, 6^th, Jesse Papastavros 11^th (he was nervous)
Tine ‘n’ Vine – Niagara – David 7^th
Ontario Oyster Festival – Rodney’s, Toronto – Pete Endl, 1^st; Julius 2^nd; Eamon 4^th
Rocky Mountain Oyster Fest – National, Calgary – Jesse 1^st
Montreal Oyster Fest – Eamon 1^st; Julius 2^nd; David 7^th
Charlottetown Invitational – Jesse 3^rd; David 9^th
Tyne Valley Canadian Championships – Eamon 1^st (6^th time!); Jesse 9^th
World Cup Invitational – Montreal – Eamon 1^st; Julius 2^nd
World Shucking Championships – Galway, Ireland – Eamon 2^nd

Wow.  Pretty good showing, even by people not named Eamon! And a big thank you to everyone that takes the time to host shucking competitions, to the people that time and judge, and of course, to all the competitors, who go out and open oysters in front of a crowd, and pit themselves against the clock and each other.  Oyster culture continues to get stronger, and it’s great to see so many talented shuckers across the country.  And it’s great that we still do so well.  Modestly well.