Tug of war team aims to heave for global dominance

Fifty people from a tug of war club are aiming for global success as they make final preparations for next week's world championships.

Hay-on-Wye Tug Of War, which trains at Clehonger in Herefordshire, qualified at July's Welsh championships, where it won gold in eight categories.

The club will take at least eight teams to Nottingham for the world event, which starts on Thursday next week.

Its men's coach, Fred Pursey, said "everything that we enter we really want to be top three".

"A lot of fitness goes into it," he explained.

"There's weight categories, like a ceiling really, so there's always eight pullers on the rope. You're allowed a sub should anybody get an injury.

"But it's also tactical as well, so say you get into semi-finals, finals, and there's someone struggling, you can sub someone in, providing they're under the weight."

Jamie Parry said growing up in a rural community "there isn't a lot to do"

Mr Pursey also said juniors were "picking up main skills like organisation, commitment, being reliable and communication".

"Those are the type of skills I see them taking forward in their careers as well, when they progress through life, so it's [a] really important part of the club, our junior section."

Asked what the attraction of the sport was for him, competitor Jamie Parry replied that "growing up in a rural community, there isn't a lot to do".

'Kept costs down'

He added: "There's not any boxing clubs and football clubs are in town and through young farmers tug of war is like the sort of go to sport really, so yeah that's what drew me to it."

In terms of the Midlands location for the worlds, rather than going abroad, Mr Parry admitted that "on one hand I would've liked a suntan and a nice trip to a hotel".

But he added "on the other hand it has kept the costs down".

"We're a relatively big club.... so you can imagine if it was in South Africa, like it is next year, then that would be a pretty huge cost, so, yeah, the fact it's in the UK is a bonus."