One last egg toss for Gov. Markell

For the last eight years, Gov. Jack Markell tossed his share of eggs at the Delaware State Fair on Governor's Day.

He and partner Miss Delaware, Amanda Debus, of Middletown, made it look easy on Thursday.

"I'm going out on top," the governor said just after the final round of egg throwing. Splat went the egg of the one remaining team. The Markell-Debus team made a picture perfect throw and catch. "It was all about Miss Delaware," he said. "She is one of the best egg toss tossers."

Debus never even bobbled the jeweled crown atop her head. Her secret -- lots of hair clips.

For the record, the governor, over the last eight years, has been the victor in three state fair egg toss competitions -- a number he knew right off the top of his head.

Miss Delaware came into the event with limited egg tossing experience. Softball wasn't her sport. She said she was a soccer goalie.

She was so excited when she caught the governor's first throw that she tossed it right back. Markell landed it in the palms of his hands. That one didn't count.

The day-long event is as much a tradition at the Delaware State Fair as the pretty animal contest and lunch at The Grange.

The governor learned how to pick a really great, Delaware-grown watermelon from Paige Vincent, president of the Delaware 4-H Teen Council.

The top of the melon should be a deep green, she explained. And that yellow streak along the bottom is supposed to be there, a sign that the melon was field-grown.

Want to know if it's ripe? Tap it, she said.

"It should make that thump" sound.

"It's amazing what I've learned from doing this for eight years," Markell said.

Once the governor knew how to pick a watermelon, he competed in the melon speed eating competition.

Delmar resident Tyre Birckett, 16, showed everyone else how it was done, plowing through the pink melon first.

"It's delicious," Markell said. But "as I'm eating it I'm waiting for someone else to please win."

Throughout the morning and afternoon, the governor passed out ribbons and awards, visited the pig and cow barns and even bought a chance on the Holstein calf that is raffled off each year.

Delaware's Dairy Princess, Spring Vasey, 17, of Lincoln, didn't let her outfit of a princess sash, a dress, heels and her crown stand in her way of showing a cow. When they came to the Jersey cow she was showing in the fair, she walked through the straw bedding, turned the cow around and invited the governor and Miss Delaware to step in for a meet and greet.

Vasey is also showing hogs and sheep at the fair. Stepping through a thick layer of straw bedding was nothing compared to the demands of showing all those animals.

"It's one thing to the next," she said.

Over at the Grange, the governor took a lunch break.

"The corn comes from a field in Wyoming. The potatoes are from Virginia on Delmarva. The tomatoes come from Suddlersville, Maryland, said Paul Buckley, of Smyrna. The beef in the burgers comes from the Cordel Farm in Clayton. Buckley has been volunteering at the Grange booth for 39 years but many of the other volunteers have been helping with fair duties for much, much longer, he said.

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The proceeds from the Grange booth, which is only open during the 10 days of the fair, go to fund two scholarships at the University of Delaware and two at Delaware State University, each year, he said. They go to students interested in animal science or agriculture.

Markell said he will miss coming to the fair for Governor's Day.

But he plans to come back next year.

"I love this place," he said. "You see friends at the fair you don't see anyplace else."

Reach Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.