At precisely two hours, Etan Patel put down his cigar. He was done for the night. When Evgeny Kheyna’s cigar had burned out 23 minutes earlier, it was all set. Patel had won his third British Cigar Smoking World Championship title in a row, with plenty of cigar left.

“He could’ve continued longer, even breaking the 3 hours mark, but he stopped smoking early in order for the prize giving and socializing to take place with enough time before the venue closed,” organizer and CSWC judge Sarah Saunders says.

The competition took place at Boisdale Restaurant in Canary Wharf, London, and it was reportedly “hotter than Managua”. Behind Patel’s impressive performance, Kheyna’s second place didn’t pass by unnoticed either.

“He’s a young and incredibly enthusiastic competitor,” Saunders say. “His father and sister, who came to support him, told me it was great to see Evgeney doing this thing he loves. ‘He’s crazy for this competition,’ they said.

For his performance he was awarded a wild card by CSWC founder Marko Bilic to compete in the grand final later this year. Third place went to a newcomer. Lee Redman smoked for 1 hour 21 minutes and 5 seconds.

Besides the official slow smoking competition, Saunders also organized an open event for anyone to join. The CSWC British Open attracted people from other countries, including Italian CSWC organizer Gino Ianillo from AmiCigar, who ended up winning the whole thing. With a smoking time of 1 hour 35 minutes and 20 seconds he ended up claiming the AmiCigar ashtray he had brought from Italy as a contribution to the prize table. He later gifted it to Patel, for obvious reasons.

“We might do an Italian Open next year,” Ianillo told Saunders afterwards.

Apparently he just came to spy on the event that Saunders started last year. The title was a bonus.

Second place went to Rosalie Barber who smoked for 1 hour 26 minutes and 9 seconds, less than two minutes more than chef gourmand Andrew Grice in third place, who apparently really liked the Oliva CSWC cigar. Not bad from a man with such a refined palate.

Also worth noticing was the performance of 24 year old Thomas Ware, the youngest competitor in the field. He came as a spectator, and left with a 6^th place.

“He was convinced by his uncle to compete,” Saunders says. “Now he’s booking time off work to attend the grand final in Split.”