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Strength & Endurance

It was a hot evening and the crowds gathered in anticipation of this year’s strongest man competition….

Twelve fearless competitors of all shapes and sizes gathered to face five gruelling tests of strength and stamina. The twelve included two of the entrants from last year’s competition, a couple of new competitors, and a number of familiar faces from the area and previous Strong Man events. This year’s competitors (in no particular order) were:

The competitors and organisers

• Andrew Fletcher

  

  Don't drink & drive

• Andrew Hall
• Jim Rushton
• Carl Prime
• Alan Gilman
• Lee Marshall
• Pete Etches
• Jim Staley
• Andrew Wayne
• Carl Alsop
• Rob Spencer
• Wayne Allen

The events were:

• Tyre Flip
• Truck Pull
• Rotation
• Chain Hold
• Robbie’s Finger

Tyre Flip

The Tyre Flip required competitors to race up and down the pub car park flipping a huge tractor tyre. There was a brief moment of excitement at the end of one of the races as a tyre, now on its edge, started rolling towards the crowd like an over-sized bowling ball. Fortunately the tyre was recovered before it could create too much havoc! The event was won by Andrew Fletcher, 2nd place went to Carl Prime and 3rd to Jim Rushton.

Truck Pull

Having recovered from being a boat in the carnival parade, the Marshall’s truck found a new use in the Truck Pull. Entrants had to heave the truck (and Tony Marshall who was steering) from one end of the car park to the other as quickly as possible or just pull it as far as they could. The new re-surfacing seemed to help with grip but there was a sneaky subtle slope upwards just as competitors neared the finish line that caught out many of the entrants. The event was won by Pete Edges, with Jim Rushton in second place and Rob Spencer in third place.

Rotation

Rotation required trying to lift a water-filled barrel, somehow pivoted to a central point and supported on scaffold posts, round and round in circles; the idea being to complete as many circuits as possible. Half way through the event, Carl Alsop, who managed to make 6 full turns look easy, looked like the comfortable winner but he was pipped at the post by Lee Marshall’s outstanding effort. Carl Prime took 3rd place.

Chain Hold

Chain Hold sounds and looked like some form of torture. With arms up and out, the entrants had to stand for as long as possible holding up a chain with rather large weights hanging off each end. My own arms felt weak just watching but there were some spectacular efforts and the top three were: first place – Andrew Wayne, second place – Alan Gilman and third place – Carl Prime.

Robbie's Finger

The final event involved flipping what I would call a tree trunk (Robbie’s Finger) over and back as many times as possible within 1 minute. One end of the trunk was fixed in place on a pivot to avoid side ways movement but getting the thing up and over on the vertical plane definitely looked challenging. The event was jointly won by Andrew Fletcher and Jim Rushton. Second place was jointly awarded to Carl Prime, Rob Spencer and Pete Etches.

After all the scores were taken into account the results were:

• 1st place – Carl Prime
• 2nd place – Jim Rushton
• 3rd place – Andrew Hall
• Joint 4th – Rob Spencer, Pete Etches and Andrew Fletcher
• Joint 7th – Carl Alsop and Alan Gilman
• 9th place – Lee Marshall
• 10th place – Andrew Wayne
• 11th place – Jim Staley
• 12th place – Wayne Allen

First

Second

Third

Congratulations to all the competitors and many thanks to the organisers – Shaun Marshall and Rob Keeling, who had clearly put a lot of thought and effort in to the preparation and organisation of the event.

Shaun & Rob

£40 from the raffle takings are being donated to the Parwich Pre-school (Stepping Stones).

Click here to see our photos of the evening.