A German team beat off the Brits this weekend as the big guns of the marbles world gathered in Sussex.
The Bombadier British and World Marbles Championship was held at the Greyhound Inn at Tinsley Green, near Crawley, yesterday.
The Saxonia Globe Snippers 1 won a convincing victory.
Tinsley Green is considered by aficionados to be the Wembley of the sport, and reputedly the scene of an epic Elizabethan marbles battle between two men for the hand of a local maiden.
A total of 126 people in 21 teams competed in the tournament, including two German sides and a team which has participated every year for the last 50 years.
The winners are the first team to knock half of their opponents' marbles out of a 6ft circle.
The Globe Snippers, from Chemnitz, near Leipzig, beat the Black Dogs, from Crawley, 25-1 in the final.
Team representative Andreas Haldebrandt said: "It's the first time a German team has become a world champion in marbles and I think this will produce a great rivalry with England now that we are the favourites."
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