Misses are a hit at Kryal Castle

TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD Marcus from Melbourne gripped a beer and stood in the middle of a large stone room at Kryal Castle last night and said he wasn’t sure why he was there.“I’m going to look really ignorant...I’m the wrong person to ask,” the musician from Elwood said.“I got a phone call a couple of hours ago saying would you like to go to a cocktail party, an event. So I came along to represent my band.”It was difficult to blame young Marcus for being confused.Looking around, you could be forgiven for thinking you had stumbled onto a scene from the cult TV show The Sopranos. While there is no suggestion of anything illegal, it was all muscle and miniskirts, free drinks and vol-au-vents. The host of the evening was celebrity Tania Zaetta.There was a large and extremely polite man named Glen who introduced himself as a Melbourne nightclub owner.Glen was one of the sponsors of the event. He showed me his hand, injured years ago from boxing in the army.“This is a great event,” he said. “It’s about charities, about helping the kids.”There was a television producer, a PR executive in a tight white tee-shirt, a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes and boxing legend Jeff Fenech.And on top of that, of course, there were 27 of “Australia’s most talented beauties”.While the rest of Ballarat was doing what it normally does on a cold Wednesday night, Miss World Australia was set up on the edge of town as part of a “jam packed” program.The winner will be crowned in Melbourne on Saturday. Between now and then there’s a fitness session with Mr Fenech, a swimwear parade and a “charity” lunch.Judges and special guests over the weekend will include such luminaries as Wayne Carey, Brendan Favola, Molly Meldrum, and Lillian Frank.Casey Vissenjoux, 18, was doing year 12 last year at Oxley Christian College in Chirnside Park. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Casey said.