Pete Snowden has been confirmed as having the eighth best Garibaldi beard in the world, and the best in the British Isles.

Pete, 47, who lives in Douglas, recently travelled with his wife Mandy to Antwerp, in Belgium, to compete at the World Beard Championships where he was the highest placed British entry in his category.

The competition didn’t get off to the ideal start though, as the category he had gone to compete in, the ’up to six-inch category’, had been dropped.

Pete said: ’I got my beard trimmed to six inches and then they scrapped that category.

’As the next one went straight up to 12 inches, I decided to enter the Garibaldi category.’

Despite the change of plan, Pete was judged to have the eighth best beard in the competition and finishing as the highest placed entry from the British Isles.

’I was hoping to get a decent finish, I wasn’t thinking top three, but I hoping to get "up there" it’s great to do so well’, he said.

Named after General Giuseppe Garibaldi, who helped unify Italy in the 19th century, the Garibaldi combines a moustache with a full beard that has a wide, rounded base at its bottom.

Mandy said the atmosphere in the competition centre was ’like Eurovision’.

She added: ’The man hosting introduced each country and welcomed them in their own language.

’Afterwards he ran through he checked he hadn’t missed any.

’So I waved the Manx flags at him and he actually came over and asked where we’re from and I told him but he asked "In Norway?".

’I repeated: "No, the Isle of Man", so he shouted that out and we got a bit of a cheer.

’A German man actually asked if he could take a Manx flag home with him, which was nice so we gave him one.’

Pete said that having a good outfit is just as important as the beard to make you stand out which is why he competed in his best Manx tartan suit.

The couple said that the atmosphere was very friendly with competitors and their supporters mixing well in the bars in the town across the weekend.

After the competition, there was a parade through part of Antwerp with all the competitors taking part.

The next world championships are being held in New Zealand in 2021 and Pete is already planning to compete there.

But before then, he has plans for the island.

Having seen the social and charitable sides of beard clubs in the UK and around the world, he wants to establish a Manx beard club.

He said: ’There are teams from all over the world and they do social things, like getting the lads down the pub.

’But what is really great is a lot of the clubs raise money for charities such as Prostate Cancer UK. So hopefully if it gets going well, we’ll be able to do charity events to raise a bit of money for local charities and people can have a good time.’

Pete and Mandy said they will keep Isle of Man Newspapers readers informed on how to join the club when it is established.