Fortunately the rain held off for last night’s strongest man competition, which was particularly well attended. This year’s events were different to those from last year; they were definitely not for the fainthearted and included:
- Farmers walk.
- Car lift.
- Hold tight.
- Rotate on this.
- Log pull.
The competition was sponsored by Marshall Builders and local plumber Rob Keeling. The events ran smoothly, if not effortlessly on the part of the competitors! Many thanks to Shaun Marshall, Paul Cooper and Rob Keeling, who had clearly put a lot of thought and effort in to the preparation and organisation of the event.
There were nine entrants, many new to the competition, spanning a range of ages and professions. Despite these differences, the thing they all had in common was that they were all ready and willing to take up the five challenges. This year’s competitors (in no particular order) are listed below, along with a group photo taken before the action began:
- James Staley
- Carl Alsop
- Peter Carrington (Posh Pete)
- Tim Ryder
- John Etches
- Robert Bunting
- Rob Staley
- Rob Spencer
- John Hotchin (Hotch)
Continue reading for more photos and the results…
The first event was the farmers walk, a race across the pub car park and back carrying a tractor tyre, which was won by John Etches.
The second event, again won by John Etches, required the competitors to lift a car as many times as possible. This was clearly harder than it looked as three competitors failed to lift the car and Robert Bunting opted to leave the competition at this point.
Thirdly, was “hold tight”, a definite tester for the arms and won by Tim Ryder.
The penultimate event was “rotate on this”, as illustrated below by Hotch and won by Carl Alsop.
Finally, there was the log pull, which had the competitors hauling and turning over three very large logs, that looked more like small trees! This was the third win for John Etches.
So, at the end of the event, all the competitors had earned their free pint and the “scores on the doors” for the prize winners were:
First Place – John Etches
Second Place – Carl Alsop
Third Place – John Hotchin
PARWICH.ORG 
This was a brilliant nail biting event. I am full of admiration for those brave men who put themselves forwards ( with a bit of a push here and there from friends)! The tasks seemed awesome but with the enthusiastic cheering and audience participation the results were impresive.
It is good to see events being so well organised by some of the younger members of our community – well done Shaun and company – superbly organised and very entertaining.