TWO friends are taking a little-known sport worldwide - by spreading the word about piling up cups.

Although it may look easy, sport-stacking is a competitive game which sees participants racing to be the first to create a castle of cups.

Paul Gunter, 25, and Tim Howson, 24, will be spending six months travelling the world with their cups, impressing people from as far away as China and America with their skills.

Paul, of Eastwood Boulevard, Westcliff, said: "We stumbled across this by accident when we were surfing the internet and found a sport-stacking video.

"We thought the footage wasn't in real time because they were stacking the cups so quickly, but then we saw someone walking behind them and realised it was.

"We had a go and thought, actually, we're not bad at this', so the pair of us decided to do a world tour and take part in competitions."

Paul and Tim, a graphic designer from Grays, will be setting off on their travels next month.

After returning in March, they are hoping to travel to the annual championships, held in Denver, America, in April, and represent Britain.

They have just got a sponsorship deal with Speed Stacks, which provides equipment for the international competition.

Paul, also a graphic designer, said: "When we started practising it was just fun, but the main benefits are it improves your physical and mental agility because you are using both sides of the brain.

"We just want people to support us and log onto the website to see what we're up to."

If you want to keep up-to-date with their cup stacking antics, log on to www.ukstackpack.com