Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The Lead Championship Cup

In June 2006 the World Cup kicks off in Germany. The nations of the world compete for the ultimate sporting prize, supremacy on the soccer field. As a rugby playing nation where soccer is a minor sport, it’s not surprising that New Zealand was, as usual, eliminated in the qualifying rounds. I’ve reviewed a lot of mechanical pencils, but not any leads, so it seems time to start the competition for the Lead Championship Cup. The competition is only open to 0.5mm HB grade leads, and consists of 4 pools of 4. The contestants will be fitted to a Pentel Fiesta mechanical pencil and compete in contests of blackness, strength, smear resistance and erasability. The four pool winners plus the two best runner-ups go through to the final round of competition where extra criteria are introduced and a winner declared.

The contestants are
Pool A – Pentel, Parker, Staedtler and Students Choice
Pool B – Faber-Castell, Rotring, Zebra and Waterman
Pool C – Cross, Mont Blanc, Micro and Caran d’Ache
Pool D – Lamy, Pilot, Papermate and Insung Hands

Pool A kicks off in a few days. Let the competition begin!

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