SOON THAT'S ALL THEIR TROOPS WILL BE ARMED WITH:

Pea shooters fight it out for world championships (William Langley, 12 Jul 2009, Daily Telegraph)

George Hollis's opening volley flew across the village green like machine gun fire. Puff-puff. Ping! Ping!

The crowd at Saturday's World Peashooting Championship looked on in wonder as George, 58, the sport's reigning superstar, languidly lowered his laser-guided shooter. This was no kiddie toy. This was a weapon of mass peastruction.

In an age of advanced ballistics, it's tempting to scoff at the humble peashooter – essentially a lung-powered piece of pipe – but technology prospers in improbable places, and there was enough of it at Witcham, Cambridgeshire, to impress the Pentagon.