Six friends recently turned a competitive day out - vying to be their friend's best man - into a spontaneous clean-up at Gozo's San Blas beach.

Pierre Azzopardi, who plans to get married in May, organised a series of challenges for five of his best friends to shortlist a best man for his wedding.

The group spoke to this newspaper before venturing off to Gozo for the light-hearted competition.

They had to beat each other at strip poker, survive a hill climb, make money by busking, take photos with as many women as possible, and propose the best meal idea for the groom.

Christoffel Diamantino, 38, was crowned the overall winner but the friends all left with a sense of victory.

"We all agreed there was no such thing as a best man among us. We all complement each other in different ways making up a great puzzle of friendship which had led us to this awesome day together as true friends," Mr Azzopardi said.

After finishing one of their challenges, which involved having to collect specially-positioned flags along San Blas, the men came up with the idea of adding another competition: a beach clean-up.

"We all thought it was a fantastic idea, so we headed out to pick up all the rubbish in the bay. We spent about 15 minutes running around picking up all sorts of stuff including plastic bottles, cans and other waste washed up by the sea. It was amazing how much rubbish we managed to pick up in 15 minutes.

"If all Maltese finished their outings with a clean-up we could probably clean our islands in a few months," Mr Azzopardi said.