99-år-gammel Annie Duplock går ind i zippos cirkus ring og har knive kastet på hende for hendes 100 års fødselsdag

Most people approaching 100 ask for a quiet lunch. Annie Duplock of Sharnford, Leicestershire, asked to have knives thrown at her. At the end of a Zippos Circus show on Hearsall Common in Coventry, she walked into the ring with her walking aid, stood against a board, and let professional knife thrower Toni Novotny outline her with steel.

Duplock had hung posters for the circus’s advance crew 30 years earlier, at 70. A few months short of her centenary she had her daughter write to founder Martin Burton and ask for the act she had watched from the wings. Burton said yes. He told the crowd: “Annie worked for me 30 years ago, putting up posters. Annie was 70 years old then and she is 100 years old this August.”

BBC medbragte billederne dagen efter. Duplock sagde til journalisterne: "Jeg har altid villet have knive kastet efter mig". Efter bifaldet tilføjede hun: "Jeg er klar til den næste".

Zippos cirkus har været på turné siden. Knivene sidder fast i brættet, ikke i Annie.

Relateret fra organisationen alliance: det land, der forbød dræberhval og delfinavl og Banksys pige med den røde ballon.