Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club are in training on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7.30pm and we compete on most Sundays between March and September.
This year, in addition to our senior squad, we are looking to start up both junior (aged 15-18) and under 23 (18-22) teams to compete at various competitions around the country, including the national tug of war championships.
Anyone wishing to join our junior and senior teams should contact Carl Sinclair on 07802 912528 or e-mail carlbosley@btinternet.com. Anyone of any ability is welcome to come along and join in a training session.
On Sunday 21st August, we will be meeting at the training ground at 09.30am to re-lay the lats, make any repairs to the shed, cut back tree branches, level off the ground and undertake any other maintenance jobs that might be required. All are welcome to come along and help out.
The above maintenance will enable us to get the training ground ready for the 2012 outdoor season. For further details, or if anyone wishes to join us next year, please contact Carl - carlbosley@btinternet.com
Congratulations to Paul and Amanda on the birth of their son Samuel Bosley Paul Lamb. Everyone at the club passes on their best wishes and wish all good health.
After the UK championships, and due to the lack of available pullers for the rest of the season, it has been decided that Bosley will not be competing at the European Championships in Minehead. This is very disappointing for the club, as we had every intention of competing in the open competition and supporting the event and our Association. Some members of the team however will still be there to support the other English clubs at the event.
Good luck to Tom who has been selected to represent the England Youth at the World Junior Championships in Minehead, and also good luck to Tom at the GENSB youth competition with Gloucester and Somerset ACF.
This weekend, we competed in the UK open championships in Bedford. After the disappointment of not qualifying to represent England, we competed in the open instead and competed in the 600 and 640. We took a squad that was down to 7 available pullers, so we had to borrow from other teams to make each weight class.
Unfortunately, we failed to progress to the semi finals of either weight class despite our very best efforts. Thanks to Carl and Simon from Norton and Matt from Felton for helping us out
This weekend we organised a charity tug of war event at the Fermain Youth Centre in Macclesfield to raise a bit of money for the East Cheshire Hospice. The event ran fairly smoothly, despite a few organisational problems early on. Unfortunately we did not have any 6 a side charity teams entered this year, however the Association National Leage event was well supported by TOWA teams. This week, we improved our performance by progressing to the semi finals of the 600 kilos and 640 kilos events, losing 2-1 to Sandhurst in the 640 and losing to Bakewell in the 600. We finished as runners up in the 620 kilos and third in the 680 kilos to round off a good days pulling in which we performed better against most teams.
This weekend, we competed at Ashbourne Highland Gathering in Derbyshire at the Tug of War Association and Tug of War Federation joint event. The competition was held in good spirit, and it was good to take part in a well supported event.
This was our first event since the national championships in June, so it was a good opprotunity to blow off the cobwebs and get some live pulling. Having turned up with 6 rope men and three anchor men, we had to borrow in each weight class. We mixed up with Lincoln in the 600 kilos event, finishing as runners up to Norton, and we also reached the semi finals of the 640 kilos and 680 kilos. In the 680 kilos, Sheen defeated us in the semi finals, and in the 640 kilos, we were defeated by Lutterworth - a disappointing defeat for us, but well done to Lutterworth who handled the wet ground conditions better than we did. All in all, a good day back in action, and we look forward to taking part in our charity fundraiser next week.
Thank you to the TOW Federation for inviting us along to this event.
On Sunday 24th July we will be holding our annual charity tug of war competition in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice. All teams are encouraged to come along and support this worthwhile cause. The event is also a TOWA national league event. There will be a licensed bar, BBQ and other events on the day.
The event will be taking place at the Fermain Youth Centre, Beswick Street, off Oxford Road, Macclesfield SK11 8JG
Weight classes will be:
men - Catchweight, 720, 680, 640, 600, 580
Ladies/Youth - 500, 520, 540, 560
Enter a novice team!
We will also be holding a 6 a side competition for novice teams, pub teams, businesses, local clubs, groups of friends, etc. If you have a novice team, or wish to get a team together, please contact Lara Rigby at the East Cheshire Hospice - e-mail lrigby@echospice.org.uk or phone 01625 433477.
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club were this weekend competing at the Tug of War Association National Outdoor Tug of War Championships, held in Lincoln. Bosley were looking to be amongst the medals in the 600 kilos, 640 kilos, 680 kilos and catchweight events, having won silver in the 600 kilos and bronze in the 640 kilos in 2010.
The Friday evening weigh in went fairly smoothly, despite Dave Platt not being able to attend the championships because one of his children was taken ill to hospital, which left us lighter in the 680 kilos, however we were still able to weigh in with a balanced rope.
Championship day was a day of mixed fortunes for us in the mens championship. Having struggled for consistent form throughout the year, the team got off to a good start to take a surprise silver medal in the catchweight event, having beaten the 2010 silver medallists Holland from Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire in the semi finals. Bosley then met defending champions Sheen in the final and went on to be defeated by 2 ends to 0. A good silver medal nonetheless, and well done to Pete on winning a medal at his first national championships, having only joined us in the middle of last season.
Bosley then went on to finish fourth in the 600 kilos and 640 kilos events, being defeated for the bronze medal in the 600 kilos event by Oxney from Sussex, and Two Dales from Derbyshire took the bronze in the 640 kilos event. We also competed well in the 680 kilos competition, finishing behind Norton and Felton in our group and missing out on a place in the semi finals.
Overall, they weren’t quite the results we were hoping for, but a silver medal and two fourth place finishes is by no means a disaster, after a year of more retirements, and one or two struggling with injury.
The main disappointment is that we missed out on an opportunity to represent England this year at the UK championships as it means that we do not have the opportunity to defend our UK 600 kilos championship title. Good luck to Norton and Felton or Oxney who will go forward to represent England at this weight.
We will continue to compete throughout the season, and our aim now is to compete in the club competition at the European Championships in Minehead, Somerset in September.
Thanks to all of those who came along to support us on the day.
There was one gold medallist amongst us however. Tom Knott, who has been pulling with the Gloucester and Somerset ACF youth team all season won gold in the Junior 560 kilos event. The team has now qualified to be selected to represent England at the World Junior Championships in September. Good luck to Tom and Gloucester and Somerset Youth for the forthcoming GENSB championships and World Junior Championships in Minehead.
Catchweight Team – Tony Henshaw, Richard Pearson, Paul Lamb, Pete Lomas, Carl Sinclair (Substituted for Chris Wood), Gary Heapy, Ben Rathbone, Eric Johnson
680 Team – Bob Steele, Eric Johnson, Rick Pearson, Chris Barker, Paul Lamb, Pete Lomas, Gary Heapy, Ben Rathbone
640 Team – Bob Steele, Eric Johnson, Rick Pearson, Paul Lamb, Chris Barker (Substituted for Chris Wood), Ben Rathbone, Glyn Jones, Grant Davison
600 Team – Tony Henshaw, Chris Barker, Chris Wood, Grant Davison, Paul Lamb, Alan Knott, Glyn Jones, Eric Johnson
This weekend we competed in the third Tug of War Association National League competition at Daventry in Northamptonshire. This event is always well supported from teams around the country, and this weekend, the team was also up against teams from the Republic of Ireland who travelled to the event.
Bosley competed at the event without a couple of first team regulars, however some of the clubs newer members were given the chance to impress. Despite their lack of experience, the new club members competed well, helping the team to the semi final stages of the 580 kilos and 680 kilos events. The team also narrowly missed out on the semi final stages of the 640 kilos after a narrow defeat to Sandhurst (due on the first end to harsh judging decisions), and also competed well in the 600 kilos.
We are still a bit behind the other teams and have 5 weeks left to try and catch up before the nationals.
Thank you to Conversion Solutions of Hurdsfield Industrial Estate, Macclesfield for their kind donation to our club. They made their donation through one of our new members Jon Kenyon.
This weekend, we more or less had a full team to choose from and competed in all four weights - 600, 640, 680, and catchweight.
We started off in the catchweight event, weighing a little over 680 kilos and competed in the competition split into two groups. We started off by defeating Market Raisen, but didn't have enough to defeat Lincoln and Holland to make the cross over.
The 600 kilos event was pulled as a straight group of 6. We started off by being defeated by Norton and beating Lincoln, but that was about as good as it got as we were defeated by Alford and Sheen before going 1 end each with Two Dales which meant we missed out on a spot in the semi-final cross over.
The 680 kilos team faired well, making the cross over with just one defeat in the group stage to Norton. In the semi final we met Sheen. We missed the drop on the first end but recovered to get back into the pull, but Sheen had that little extra power and took us over the line. On the second end, we competed much better and started to get into the pull, only to pick up a couple of soft cautions. We then recieved a third caution and lost the pull on a disqualification, but it was a good effort from those in the team. Photo: Bosley 680 team in action
The final weight of the day was the 640. We again started with Norton first on who beat us by 2 ends to 0. We then won the remaining pulls in our grou to reach the cross over. In the semi-final we met Two Dales. We took the first end reasonably well, however a combination of a fierce effort from Two Dales and some unsettled pulling resulted in Two Dales taking us very close to the line, however we dug deep to take the end we needed to get to the final. We met Norton again in the final, and they again defeated us by 2 ends to 0 to win their third weight of the day.
A much improved performance from last week, however we still have a lot of work to do.
This weekend we competed at Thames Valley and took a team of 8. We weighed in at 640, borrowed two youth pullers for the 600, and weighed in with 7 for the 580 kilos event. The event was poorly supported with only 4 senior teams in attendance.
This week, with different men missing, and fielding a different team, we did not build on the previous weeks improvement, finishing out of any medal positions in the three weight classes we competed in.
We hope to have a full team available for selection at next week's competition hosted by Lincoln.
This weekend we took 9 pullers to Bedford to compete in the TOWA national league event. We did not compete in the catchweight, but competed at 600 kilos, 640 kilos and 680 kilos. We borrowed a youth puller from Glos/Som Army Cadets to make the 600 kilos weight, and competed well, only losing to Norton in the group stage and beating the other teams in our group to make the cross-over. We came up short against Sandhurst to lose the semi final by 2 ends to 0 to miss out on a place in the final.
We then competed with vertually the same team in the 680 kilos and 640 kilos event, with only an anchor change from 640 up to 680. We only weighed 645 in the 680, but again competed strongly, only losing to Felton Eccles in the group. We met an in form Norton in the semi final and they went on to defeat us by 2 ends to 0 so again, we missed out on a final place.
The final weight was the 640. We competed well in this weight again, but lost a silly end to Felton when we were inches from the line, which knocked us down to second place in the group. We again met Norton in the cross over who denied us a place in the final.
A good day of competition, and a vast improvement from the previous week.
Event Sponsored by the Bollington Brewing Company
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club this weekend hosted one of the first Tug of War Association competitions of the season in Bosley, which was supported by teams from across Staffordshire and Cheshire, in addition to teams attending from further afield.
In the warm weather and good ground conditions, the competition was very good considering that it is currently the early stage of the season and most teams are not yet at peak fitness.
We competed in four of the five weight classes on the day, but did not finish with a place in the final in any of the weight classes we competed in. Our best result came in the 640 kilos competition where we finished third.
Whilst we did not compete badly throughout the day, the event certainly showed us that big improvements have to be made to match our achievements from last year.
Norton were the dominant team again winning the 600, 640 and 680, and also finished as runners up in the 720. Felton won the 720 and catchweight events.
We also staged a ladies and youth league fixture, and this was well supported with 7 teams taking part. Well done to Gloucester and Somerset ACF “A” for winning both weight classes. Well done to Tom also who anchored their team this week.
A few thank you’s….
Thank you to Altrincham, Norton, Two Dales, Sandhurst, Sheen, Felton Eccles, Lincoln, Holland, Sheen Ladies, Bedford Ladies, Gloucester and Somerset ACF and Leicester and Northants ACF for supporting the event and making it the success that it was. Thanks also to the officials for judging at the event.
Thank you to the Bollington Brewery for supplying the prizes and also to the Harrington Arms for their support. Thank you to the supporters who came to watch the pulling, and thanks also to those who came along to help us sell refreshments.
Last but by no means least – thank you to Carl for organising the event again this year and to Ken for supplying the gifts to the officials once again.
This March, we loaned out a couple of ropes to Siemens in Congleton, and Sainsbury's in Wilmslow for some charity pulls to raise money for Comic Relief. Photos below are from the tug of war charity fundraiser by Siemens, which raised £500 in the process. Well done to them!
One of the charity fundraising teams in action.
Pictured here on the left is the winning team from the Siemens charity tug of war event.
We will be hosting a charity fundraising tug of war competition on Sunday 24th July in Macclesfield in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice. Further details will be announced in due course.
Sunday 5th August 2010 - NATIONAL LEAGUE FINALS
We finished the outdoor season off by competing at the TOWA national league finals. We went into the final national league event still in with a chance of picking up medals. We competed well at 600 kilos and 640 kilos, but did not collect enough points over the course of the season to win a gold silver and bronze medal.
However, we finished up with a bronze medal in the 680 kilos competition to round off a good end to a very challenging season.
Losing a number of experienced pullers is never easy, but well done to everyone for their efforts this season. With a different squad and a new coach, a silver and a bronze at the national championships, a bronze in the national league and a gold at the UK championships is a great acheivement and we look ahead to 2011 with renewed optimism.
Friday 13th August - UK OUTDOOR TUG OF WAR CHAMPIONSHIPS - ENNISKILLEN - NORTHERN IRELAND
BOSLEY WIN 600 KILOS UK TITLE REPRESENTING ENGLAND A!!!!
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club were representing England at the United Kingdom Outdoor Championships at the weekend. The championships took place in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, with England teams competing against A and B teams from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the England B team.
Bosley represented England in the 600 kilos event, representing England “A”. England A got off to a good start by defeating Northern Ireland B and Scotland A, but came unstuck in pulls against Wales A and Northern Ireland A, in one of the most competitive UK 600 kilos events for years. England A went into their last match against England B needing a point to reach the semi-final stage of the competition to determine the gold silver and bronze medals. England B were represented by past winners Oxney from Sussex, and England A managed to get the point that they needed to reach the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, England A were drawn against Northern Ireland A. Despite defeat to Northern Ireland in the group, England A had made a substitution and England A controlled the pull well to take both ends to reach the final, where they went on to meet Northern Ireland B, who had defeated Wales A. The final was very keenly contested, with Northern Ireland B taking England close to the line, picking up cautions for sitting on the way, which resulted in England A taking the first end. Both teams again battled hard for the second end, but England A represented by Bosley battled all the way to take the end and the UK title.
This success was a moment of history for Bosley, as it was our first modern major championship title in any weight class below 640 kilos (other than national league which is an open competition).
We did not compete in the open competition, but a few of our pullers gave Lincoln a hand in fielding a team in the open weights.
After a challenging season, this has been a great result for the club, and we would like to thank everyone for their help and support this year. We would like to thank in particular Will Lee, Richard Keithley, and Tony Peck of Lincoln TOWC for pulling with us in Northern Ireland, as without them, we would have struggled to field a team. We would also like to thank Tim Lee and all the other Lincoln lads who have helped us with training when we couldn't make it to a competition.
We will now compete in the remaining national league competitions to try and win medals at these events, as well as supporting the teams that are going on to South Africa to represent England in September - good luck to Felton, Norton, Bedford Ladies and Sandhurst Youth at these events, and good luck to Tom who will be competing at the GENSB youth international tournament in the Netherlands on the August Bank Holiday weekend.
UK Squad - Richard Keithley, Glyn Jones, Tony Peck (sub: Alan Knott), Chris Wood, Ben Rathbone, Paul Lamb, Will Lee, Tony Henshaw, Carl Sinclair (Coach), Tom Knott (reserve), Dave Knott (trainer/tack man).
Sunday 8th August - INTER COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
This weekend we represented Cheshire in the Inter County Championships at 640 kilos. We had a light squad available for this weight, and despite competing reasonably well, we failed to make the cross over to compete for the medals. We also competed in the open event, where we steadlily improved as the day went on. We were lacking a bit of good competition practice for this event, but hopefully we can compete better next week at the UK Championships where we will be representing England A at 600 kilos.
Sunday 1st August - EAST CHESHIRE HOSPICE
This weekend we helped to organise the charity tug of war event for the East Cheshire Hospice at the Fermian Centre in Macclesfield. This event has been really well supported in the past, however this year, the event was not very well supported by the senior mens teams, or the charity teams. The event was well supported by ladies and youth teams however. We competed in 4 weight classes at this event - the 600, 640, 680, 720 and catchweight, finishing as runners up in the 600, 640, and 680 behind Lincoln and Sheen. Thanks to all the teams and supporters who did support the event. Hopefully the event will be better supported next year.
Saturday 10th July 2010 - CONGLETON CARNIVAL
This weekend we took part in the tug of war event at Congleton Carnival. Tug of war returned to this event for the first time in a few years, with a small number of teams taking part. With a lot of experienced pullers away due to holidays and work commitments, this gave us an opportunity to give a number of our new members who have been training this year a chance to get some competition experience. Despite a shaky start, the team improved once the ground cut up to finish in third place in the 600 kilos event, and runners up in the 640 kilos and 680 kilos event. Hanging Bridge were the winners of these weight classes on the day. We would like to congratulate all of our new members for their efforts. Keep up the good work in training!
WALLACE STREET
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club are saddened to hear of the loss of former Wood Treatment Bosley puller Wallace Street. Wallace first started his tug of war career with the Outwood team, before joining Bosley where he won the 1967 European 720 kilos title under the stewardship of Alex Brown. Wallace later finished his pulling career with Sheen.
Wallace passed away on 16th June at the East Cheshire Hospice, and his funeral took place on 28th June.
Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.
We are hosting a fundraising tug of war competition on Sunday 1st August for the East Cheshire Hospice. Details below. All teams are welcome.
EAST CHESHIRE HOSPICE CHARITY FUNDRAISER
This year we will once again be organising a tug of war and family fun day for the East Cheshire Hospice. The event takes place on Sunday 1st August and we will be running a competition for TOWA teams and also a novice tug of war competition for 6 a side teams. This event is always well supported by TOWA teams, novice teams, the local business community, and the general public, and this has helped us to raise over £2000 every year for the hospice.
If you are a novice team, and would like to take part, then please download the entry form by clicking here. Further details can be obtained from Alan Knott on 07976 591222 or e-mail alan_p_knott@hotmail.com.
Weights for TOWA teams (in pulling order) are - Men Catchweight, 640, 580, 720, 600, 680 and there will be a ladies and youth competition - weights in pulling order are 560, 520, 540, 500. All teams welcome.
The weigh in will be between 10 am and 11am with the first pull taking place at 11am. The 6 a side novice competition will commence at 12 noon.
2010 NATIONAL OUTDOOR TUG OF WAR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Saturday 19th June saw us competing at the 2010 national outdoor tug of war championships in the Peak District. The weather was dry, which gave excellent pulling conditions. We knew going into the 2010 season, that winning titles was going to be difficult given that we have lost 8 of last years squad, so any medal was going to be a bonus for us.
We started off in the 640 kilos weight class, coming away with a bronze medal, after finishing 1 point behind Lincoln. Felton were the worthy winners of this weight. We had a disappoinitng competition in the 580 kilos, but we came away with a great silver medal in the 600 kilos, losing in the final to Norton. This has put us in a position to be selected as the England B team at the UK championships in this weight class, which is a great achievement for those pullers involved who have only ever been on the fringes of the team before.
We also competed in the 680 kilos event on the day, but a few tired bodies meant that we did not make it through to the cross-over.
All in all, great results for the club and coach Carl Sinclair.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate everyone involved in the club this year, and we would like to also thank former coach Phil Marlow, and other former members of Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club who came along to support us on the day.
We now look forward to the rest of the summer outdoor fixtures.
SUNDAY 6TH JUNE - SANDHURST
This weekend we competed at Sandhurst's annual competition, and despite not having the foreign teams in attendance as in previous years, the competition was still tough. The ground was hard to start with, but soon broke up to give teams some big holes to work with. We started the day in the 580 kilos event with a hard pull first on With Sandhurst A who we went on to defeat by 2 ends to 1. We won all of the other pulls in the group, but went on to lose to Norton to miss out on a place in the final. We then competed with an underweight side in the 680 kilos, which made sure that we had to work hard on every end to compete. Competing with a light side against heavier teams is difficult at this stage of the season as the bigger sides start to get their teams down to weight in the build up to the national championships. We did not get out of the group, and finished behind Sheen and Lincoln, with Sheen going on to the final to be defeated by Felton Eccles. The 600 kilos event was by far our hardest competition of the day. We started off by winning our first couple of pulls, before being made to really work hard against Sheen in order to stop their lifts, eventually beating them by 2 ends to 0. We then had a disappointing pull against Forge Lane, losing by 2 ends to 0, which meant that we missed out on a spot in the final. There were quite a few sore and tired pullers going into the 640 kilos event, but we competed OK eventually finishing third in the group.
It was all too much for some (although we did get a few minutes of quiet time!!!!!!)
SUNDAY 30TH MAY - CHESHIRE YOUNG FARMERS RALLY
On the evening of Sunday 30th May, the Cheshire Young Farmers Rally took place at Reaseheath College, near Nantwich, with 9 teams taking part - they were Malpas, Middlewich, Congleton, Sandbach, Macclesfield, Altrincham, Nantwich, Stretton, and Knutsford. A few pullers who have been training with us took part in the event with different clubs, and competed well. Some of the best pulling came between Stretton and Sandbach, Altrincham and Nantwich, and Macclesfield and Nantwich, with Stretton finishing as winners, with Sandbach as runners up, followed by Altrincham and Macclesfield. The event was supported by a large crowd of spectators, who all got behind the teams on every pull. Photo - Sandbach YFC
Stretton YFC - Cheshire County YFC tug of war champions
Macclesfield YFC
SUNDAY 30TH MAY - WESSEX OPEN - CHRISTIAN MALFORD
This weekend we had more or less a full squad available, and competed in four weight classes - the 580, 600, 640, and 680. We first competed in the 580 kilos weight class, pulling well throughout to win the competition without losing an end, followed closely by Oxney. In the 680 kilos event, we weighed in light, losing out to eventual winners Felton Eccles who went on to defeat Oxney in the final. We then competed in the 600 kilos event, but came unstuck in the deciding pull of the group with Oxney who went on to beat us by 2 ends to 1. The final weight of the day was the 640 kilos event, and we went on to win all of our pulls, except for the one against Norton to finish as overall runners up.
SUNDAY 23RD MAY - FELTON ECCLES
This Sunday we took a squad of 9 to Felton Eccles to compete in their annual competition. This was one of the hottest days of the year so far, which made for difficult conditions, and with pullers missing, we entered three weight classes. We entered the 580 with 7 men, and also the 640 and 680 kilos competitions. We first competed in the 680, pulling well, but finishing as group runners up to eventual winners Norton. We then competed in the 580 with 7 men, pulling well to win our group to make it to the final, where we lost out to a good Forge Lane team. In the 640, we started to run out of steam, but competed OK to finish third in our group.
SUNDAY 16TH MAY - MIDLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS - TELFORD
This weekend, we had pretty much a full squad to select from and competed in all weight classes, except the catchweight, although some of our members joined Sandhurst for this weight for a bit of extra training. We weighed into the 580 kilos weight class with 7 men, pulling well to beat Hanging Bridge first on by 2 ends to 1, then went through the rest of the competition only losing to Sandhurst who finished as eventual winners, leaving us as runners-up. We then finished second in the group of the 680 kilos, missing out on a place in the final to Norton, who went on to beat Felton Eccles in the final. We then went on to finish as runners up in both the 600 kilos and 640 kilos weight classes, pulling well in both, only to lose to a very good Norton team in the end. There is still a lot of hard work to do, but hopefully we can continue to improve up to the national championships in June and make a serious challenge for medals on the day. Photo: Bosley 680 kilos team
SUNDAY 9TH MAY - DAVENTRY
This weekend we competed in Daventry. We had just a squad of 8 pullers, plus Tom who pulled in the youth competition. We only weight 640 with our own men, so borrowed from Felton Eccles to get up to 680 kilos, and we also weighed into the 580 kilos weight class with 7 men. We competed well in the 680 kilos, being defeated by Felton Eccles to miss out on a spot in the final, where Felton were defeated by Norton. We then competed in the 580 kilos event with 7 pullers, competing well with most teams to give us tighter pulling, only being defeated by Hanging Bridge and Sandhurst A, who were both one of the few teams who competed with 8. The 640 kilos event was the final weight of the day and our first opportunity of the day to compete with 8 of our own pullers. We competed well, then went on to lose to Hanging Bridge. The team then started to tire a little, but still competed well to get some good training out of this weight.
We look forward to competing at the Midland Championships this weekend with a full turnout of pullers following their return from holidays and work commitments.
Sunday 2nd May - Harby, Melton Mowbray
This weekend we hosted a competition which was organised by Lincoln TOWC. We were missing a couple of pullers again this week, but we still fielded a team in all four weight classes, including the catchweight. We competed well in the catchweight, but did not have quite enough weight to compete with the bigger sides from Sheen and Felton. We did compete much better in the 600 kilos and 640 kilos events this week, finishing as runners up to Norton in the 600 kilos, and finished as group runners up again to Norton in the 640 kilos as they went through to the final to meet host club Lincoln. We competed in the 680 kilos event in the final weight of the day 20 kilos light becuase we had no heavier pullers available. We competed well, only to lose to Sheen in the group who went on to lose to Norton in the final.
Sunday 25th April
This weekend, we did not have enough pullers available to travel to Thames Valley to compete in their competition, so we held a training session in stead. The Cheshire caravan club took part in our training session as they look to improve their teamwork for their rally in May.
18th April - Kemptson, Bedford
This weekend we entered all four weight classes. After a good performance in the lighter weights at our own competition, we struggled to make an impact this weekend, finishing third in our group in the 600 kilos event. The 640 kilos team also struggled for a strong performance, but we performed better in the 680 kilos event, finishing as runners up in the group to Felton Eccles who went on to the final where they were defeated by Norton. We also competed in the catchweight, but did not make an impact on the final standings.
JOHN HOLLINSHEAD MEMORIAL TROPHY
This weekend, a memorial trophy was presented in memory of former coach John Hollinshead.
John Hollinshead passed away late last year. John was coach during the 1970’s and 1980’s winning over 100 championship gold medals with the club, including national, AAA, European and World titles. A memorial team trophy was presented by John’s wife Joyce, and son Stuart to the winners of the 640 kilos event, Norton from Stoke-on-Trent. All of the pullers and spectators who attended the event then gave three cheers in tribute to John. Photo: Sturat Hollinshead (right), son of former Wood Treatment Bosley Coach John Hollinshead presenting Dave Calcutt (left)of Norton TOWC (640 kilos winners) with the John Hollinshead Memorial Shield
SUNDAY 11TH APRIL - BOSLEY TUG OF WAR CLUB OPEN COMPETITION
This weekend we hosted our own tug of war competition, which was attended by Sheen, Norton, Hanging Bridge, Lincoln, Felton Eccles, and Sandhurst who fielded both A and B teams.
We fielded a team in all five weight classes, and we also gave 4 new pullers their first competition experience. We were lighter than some teams in the catchweight event, but still competed well, but did not make it into the final placings. Our 640 kilos and 680 kilos teams were a little unbalanced, but we competed well to finish 3rd in the 640 and 4th in the 680. Norton were the fittest team in these weights and were worthy winners. Photo: Bosley competing in the catchweight with 2 new pullers.
Our best results came in the 600 kilos and 620 kilos event, finishing as runners up in the 600 kilos event with two new pullers on the rope, as well as a youth anchor. This involved a very hard pull with Hanging Bridge to finish second. Sandhurst A were the winners. We then finished as runners up in the 620 kilos event, losing 2 - 1 to Sandhurst A in the final in a close pull. Bosley took the first end, but one of the pullers from Sandhurst had to withdraw after picking up an injury. We then dropped a man to ensure both teams were equal, but Sandhurst turned us around on the next 2 ends to take the win. Photo: Bosley competing in the 600 kilos event with 2 new pullers and a youth anchor
Overall, for a new and much changed team without their senior anchor and 2 other experienced pullers absent due to work commitments, we competed very well. We hope to continue building up our training and look forward to competing at Bedford this weekend with a full squad.
Thank you.....
Wood Treatment Bosley would like to thank the Harrington Arms for assisting the club in staging the competition, as well as the Bollington Brewery who provided the prizes for the first and second place teams in each weight class on the day.
Bosley would also like to thank the officials on the day - Peter Craft, Mike Callaghan and Mick Grimston who were the judges, and Betty Craft for undertaking the timekeeping duties. We would also like to thank Ken for donating gifts to the officials on the day.
TRAINING
We are now back in training for the 2010 outdoor season. Our first goal is to compete successfully at the 2010 National Outdoor Championships in June which are taking place not too far away in Sheen. We are currently trainng on Tuesday and Thursday evenings starting at 7.30pm. Anyone interested in joining in a training session should contact Carl on 07802 912528
October 2009 - John Hollinshead
It is with sadness that the club has learned of the passing of former coach John Hollinshead. John coached the team following in the footsteps of Alex Brown, coaching the team to further success nationally and Internationally. Our thoughts go out to John's family and friends.
European Outdoor Championships - Assen, Netherlands, 17-20 September 2009
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club were representing England at the European Outdoor Tug of War Championships in Assen, Netherlands recently. Wood Treatment Bosley were representing England in the mens 720 kilos weight class.
Bosley first competed in the European Club event in the 680 kilos weight class, where we progressed from the group stages into the knock-out stages in the competition. In the last 16 we met Boley from the Republic of Ireland, the team who defeated us in the final of the World Club championships in Sweden last year. Bosley competed very well against the strong Irish side, but it was the Irishmen that progressed through to the next round of the competition by 2 ends to 0, eventually finishing up as gold medal winners.
We then had the closed 720 kilos event to look forward to. Unfortunately it was not to be for Bosley representing England in the 720 kilos event, as we were hoping to add a European medal to the World Games, national, UK and AAA titles which the club has already won this year. England started off against current World Champions Switzerland, losing out by 2 ends to 0. The club later went on to be defeated narrowly by the Netherlands and Sweden to miss out on a spot in the semi finals, finishing in 5th place overall. Thanks to Dave Calcutt and Ian Daniels from Norton for helping us out in the 720 kilos following injury to Rob Johnson in the run up to the Championships.
On reflection, whilst it was dissapointing not to win a medal at the European Championships, winning two national titles, a AAA's title, a UK title and a national league title in addition to a fantastic bronze medal at the World Games only counts as a very successful season, conisidering injuries, huge financial commitments to attend these competitions, and work commitments.
Acknowledgements
A big thank you to all those who have helped the club behind the scenes this year. There is certainly more to running a tug of war club than just turning up to training. Thanks go to the following who have helped the club this year:
Carl Sinclair (club secretary) for sorting out puller registrations, organising all of the travel and accommodation arrangements to the National Championships, World Games, UK championships, and European Championships. Glyn Jones for getting us accommodation at short notice for the UK championships. Ken Chrimes for supplying gifts for the judges at the competitions that we hosted and for looking after us at competitions every week. Chris Wood for getting all the new kit and polo shirts. Bollington Brewery for supplying all of the prizes for our competitions. Eddie Allen for providing the catering at the last competition we hosted. Alan Knott for organising the charity competition in Macclesfield and running the web site. Dave Knott, Ben Rathbone, and Dave Bowyer for doing the minibus driving to and from the UK championships in Scotland and the trip to Wembley Stadium. Robert Johnson for sorting out the field for the two competitions we held in Bosley. The Tug of War Association for their financial support when we represented Great Britain at the World Games in Chinese Taipei and England at the European Championships in the Netherlands
European Championships
Good luck to our team members travelling to Assen in the Netherlands to compete in the European Championships in the open club competition and also the closed competition where we will be representing England at 720 kilos. Results and pictures will appear here following the event
Tug of War Demonstration at Wembley
This weekend members of the club took part in a tug of war demonstration at Wembley Stadium. The demonstration was part of pre-match entertainment prior to the Saracens vs Northampton Saints Rugby match, the rugby union game to be staged at the new stadium.
This was the first time the club has competed in such a large stadium since the days when the AAA tug of war championships used to take place at the White City Stadium.
The pull took place 40 minutes prior to kick off in front of around half of the 45 000 attendance for the game and was a good advert for tug of war. Bosley competed as Saracens against a team of challengers from Northampton. The pull was well recieved by both sets of supporters with us winning by 2 ends to 0 for Saracens.
Both teams really enjoyed the event, and we would like to thanks Saracens for inviting us to the game. We would also like to thank Area 2 for providing us with a mat to pull on.
Sunday 6th September - 2009 National League Finals - Daventry
This weekend we competed at the National League Finals in Daventry. The national league weights are 600, 640, and 680 kilos, and we managed to field a team in all three weight classes. This was our final domestic competition before the European Championships.
The first weight was the 600 kilos, and in this weight we gave our youngest member Tom Knott a pull in the anchor. Tom has been training in anchor with us all year, as well as competing on some weekends with Leciester and Northants ACF. The 600 kilos was run as a straight group, with the top 4 teams over the national league season progressing through to semi finals. We managed to progress to the semi finals along with Norton, Hanging Bridge and Sandhurst. We were drawn against Sandhurst in the semi final, and we managed to pull off a hard fought 2 ends to 1 win over Sandhurst to meet Norton in the final. Norton were the stronger team in the final to beat us by 2 ends to 0, but we were very pleased with this result, particularly Tom who didn't stop smiling all day!
We also progressed through to the semi finals in both the 640 and 680, reaching the final of the 640 where we were defeated by Norton, but we went to the final of the 680 kilos competition where we went on to beat Norton by 2 ends to 0.
The Bosley Squad at the National League Finals
These were very good results for the club considering we have lost pullers since the nationals due to work commitments, holidays and injuries.
We now look ahead to the European Championships in Assen, Netherlands where we will be representing England from 17th-20th September.
Saturday 22nd August - UK Outdoor Championships
This weekend we were on England duty at the United Kingdom outdoor tug of war championships.The event this year was hosted by the Scottish Tug of War Association, and was held in Banff in the north of Scotland. we represented England "A" in the 680 kilos weight class and were up against A and B squads from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the "B" squad from England which was represented by Sandhurst.
The championships kicked off with the 680 kilos competition. We defeated Wales B first on, and then defeated the English B side in our second match. Wethen went on to defeat the other Welsh and Scottish sides to go through to the semi-finals. We met Scotland A in the semi-final, who were touted as potential outsiders for the title. The Scottish A side had very strong lifts, which were tough for England to contain at the start, but we held firm to progress to the final against Wales A. The Wales A team pulled with similar style and determination to the Scottish A team, but again, we held firm to win the UK title by 2 ends to 0.
The team was coached by Dave Knott on the day, and the team comprised of Ian Hulme, Glyn Jones, Dave Bowyer, Eric Johnson, Dave Murphy, Paul Lamb, Richard Pearson, and Robert Johnson, with Ben Rathbone as reserve.
Sunday 16th August - Bosley Club Competition
This weekend, we hosted our own competition in Bosley. We held four weight classes at 600 kilos, 640 kilos, 680 kilos and catchweight. The competition ran smoothly and was finished at a reasonable time. We finished as runners up in the 680 kilos and catchweight competitions, losing to Felton by 2 ends to 1 in the final of the catcweight, and we lost to Norton in the final fo the 680 kilos event. Norton were the dominant team on the day, winning the 600 kilos and 640 kilos events in addition.
We now look ahead to the UK championships where we will be representing England "A" at 680 kilos.
A message of thanks......
Thank you to Sandhurst Tug of War Club who have donated £50 to the East Cheshire Hospice. Sandhurst were unable to attend our charity event on 26th July due to other commitments, and so they have made a very kind donation to the hospice. In total, and despite the rain, we raised of £1600 pounds for the hospice on the day, so thank you very much to everyone for their contributions. We look forward to seeing everyone again at our event this weekend.
Inter County Championships
This weekend, we represented Cheshire in the Inter County Championships, where we won the silver in the 680 kilos competition. This year, we unfortunately were unable to defend the 640 kilos shield which we won last year, which was won by Staffordshire (represented by Norton), who were worthy winners.
We then went on to win the 720 kilos open weight, finishing ahead of Forge Lane who were worthy runners up.
This weekend, we are holding our own competition in Bosley, next Bosley school, opposite the Harrington Arms. We look forward to seeing as many teams and supporters there as possible. Further details are available from Club Secretary Carl Sinclair using the "contact us" page.
Fido (Phil Marlow) celebrates his 60th Birthday!
On Friday 7th August members of the club past and present joined Fido at his house to celebrate his 60th birthday. Fido has been involved with the club as a puller and coach over many years, recently coaching the team to a bronze medal at the world games in chinese taipei. Pictured here is Fido making a speech after recieving a gift on behalf of the team from Robert Johnson.
Fido has since announced his retirement from coaching, and has left Dave Murphy and Steve Morten in charge of team affairs for the rest of the season. The birthday celebration was an enjoyable night for everyone, and Fido was presented with a gift from all of the current members of the club. Fido also very kindly asked for friends to make donations to the club, instead of giving him gifts for his birthday. This is very much appreciated by all at the club.
Fido with some of the past and present club members
Congratualtions Fido. We wish you well for the future.
Sunday 26th July - East Cheshire Hospice Charity Competition
This weekend saw us help to organise a charity tug of war event in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice. This is the fourth year that this event has taken place at the Fermain Centre in Macclesfield, and we hosted a 6 a side novice tug of war competition, as well as a full competition for Tug of War Association teams. This took place alongside a family fun day to generate funds for the Hospice.
Unfortunately the weather at the start of the day wasn't great, and that put quite a few spectators off attending the event, but we still got 7 teams taking part in the novice competition, made up of local clubs, businesses and young farmers teams.
Once the rain stopped we had a good day of competition, which was enjoyed by all of the teams and spectators that attended on the day.
The novice competition was won by Waterhouses YFC with Stretton YFC winning silver and Integral finishing third, defeating the Macclesfield Round Table for the bronze.
The full TOWA competition was reasonably well attended. We managed to field A and B teams in the 680, 720 and catchweight events, as well as fielding teams in the 640 and 600 competitions. The senior mens weights were fought out against Lincoln, Hanging Bridge, Norton, Leicester and Northants ACF and Pentre from Wales. Our A teams secured the honours for the team on the day, winning the 680, 720, and catchweight events, and finished as runners up to Norton in the 600 and 640 events. Hanging Bridge finished as runners up in the 680 and 720, with Lincoln finishing as runners up in the catchweight, defeating Bosley B by 2 ends to 1 to win the silver medal.
The ladies and youth weights were contested by Leicester ACF, Northants ACF and Beford. Leiceser were the winners of both the 520 and 560, with Bedford finishing as runners up in the 560, and Northants ACF finishing as runners up in the 520.
Thanks to Ray Fray-Smith, Mike Callaghan, Roger Beardsmore, Matt Cowlard and Jill Thomas for undertaking the judging and timekeeper recorder duties on the day.
A big thank you to all of those teams who came along to support our competition. We hope to see you all again for our next event on Sunday 16th August.
World Games 2009
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club represented Great Britain at the World Games in Chinese Taipei on Saturday 18th July. The World Games takes place every four years, with many sports forming the programme over 10 day. The World Games is held under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee, and contains most of the candidate sports who are awaiting inclusion in the Olympics, including tug of war. The event opened on Thursday 16th July with a spectacular opening ceremony in the main stadium, and the members of the team that travelled out there were very proud to take part in this in their Great Britain tracksuits. Photo: Opening Ceremony Fireworks - Photo Courtesy of World Games 2009
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club represented Great Britain in the Mens 680 kilos competition on Saturday, and were up against 5 of the other top 6 countries in the world at this weight class, which included Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Latvia, and Germany. In hot and humid weather conditions, Great Britain had a tough start against Sweden, losing out by 2 ends to 0 first on, but defeated Germany in their next pull to get back on track. Photo: Team GB at the Opening Ceremony. Photo Courtesy of Ben Rathbone
Despite losing an end to Latvia, Great Britain progressed to the semi finals, where they were drawn against the defending champions the Netherlands. Despite a great effort, the Dutchmen were too much for Great Britain, and they had to settle for a place in bronze medal pull off, where they again met Sweden. Great Britain made a substitution for the bronze medal match, and powered their way to a 2 ends to 0 win over Sweden to take a hard earned bronze medal. The Netherlands won the gold medal, with Switzerland winning the silver. Photo: GB 680 Team in action. Photo Courtesy of World Games 2009
The club would like to congratulate those team members who travelled to the event to achieve this fantastic result. We would also like to congratulate and thank those other squad members who have also put the work in on the training ground to help give these pullers the very hard live pulling that they needed. Thanks are also expressed to club secretary Carl Sinclair for his efforts in making sure the team got to Taipei. Well done to all at the club for their efforts this year despite injuries, absences, and financial difficulties. Photo: Team GB 680 kilos team on the podium with their bronze medals. Photo Courtesy of Ben Rathbone.
We would also like to thank the Tug of War Association for their financial support for this trip, and all of the other clubs in the Association who have given us some good competition this year.
Highlights from the World Games will be shown on Eurosport 2 on Thursday 23rd July at 14:00
Bosley TOWC Open Competitions
This is just a reminder to all, that we are hosting competitions on Sunday 26th July, and Sunday 16th August
The competition on Sunday 26th July will take place at the Fermain Centre, Oxford Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 8JG - Weights are Men 600, 640, 680, 720, and Catchweight and Ladies and Youth 520 and 560. A 6-a-side novice competition will also take place at the event.
The event is a fundriasing event for the East Cheshire Hospice and is taking place in conjunction with a family fun day. ThIs will include a licensed bar, barbeque, childrens sports and games, climbing wall, bouncy castle, trampolines, tombola, East Cheshire Hospice Raffle - win a new car, face painting, hair braiding, coconut shy, etc.
We would appreciate everyones support for this worthy cause. If you know of anyone interested in entering the novice 6 a side competition (no TOWA pullers in Charity teams), then please contact the East Cheshire Hospice to enter a team - e-mail fundraising@echospice.org.uk or phone 01625 433477.
On Sunday 16th August, we are hosting an international event. The weights are Men 600, 640, 680, and 720. This event will take place in Bosley near Macclesfield. For further information, contact Carl Sinclair on 01270 762684 or e-mail carlbosley@btinternet.com.
World Games
This coming weekend, our club has the honour of representing Great Britain at the World Games, which are taking place in Chinese Taipei. We will be representing GB in the 680 kilos event, and will be up against Sweden, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, and Switzerland in what will be a very tough competition.
The 680 kilos competition takes place on Saturday (18th July). Results should be available via the world games web site at www.worldgames2009.tw as they happen.
We wish the lads travelling out to the event the very best of luck. We also pass on our best wishes to our other counterparts who will be representing Great Britain at the event - Felton Eccles (in the 640), and Sheen Ladies (in the ladies indoor 520).
Meanwhile there are a few members of the club who have not travelled to the event that will continue training on Tuesday and Thursday evening from 7.30pm.
AAA Championships - Sunday 12th July
2009 AAA Catchweight winning team - top row L-R - Paul Barber, Dave Murphy, Dave Bowyer, Steve Morten, Richard Pearson, Ken Chirmes - Bottom Row L-R - Paul Lamb, Robert Johnson, Phil Marlow (Coach), Ben Rathbone
This weekend we took a squad to the AAA championships, which were held at Sandhurst in Berkshire. The AAA tug of war championships are organised by the Tug of War Association on behalf of the Amateur Athletic Association of England, but the competitors still get the same medals as the athletes who compete in the track and field events. The AAA tug of war championships historically were held with track and field events at the White City Stadium, which is the venue where the club first won a gold medal in the AAA championships. Photo - Rob Johnson with the AAA catchweight winners trophy, winning this weight for the first time.
In a different setting from those days, we entered both the 640 kilos and catchweight events, performing well in the catchweight event to win the gold medal without losing an end. Sandhurst claimed a surprise silver medal, finishing ahead of Felton Eccles, Oxney, Sheen, and the British Police.
Thigs were different in the 640 kilos however, as it took us a couple of pulls to sort out our line up, but we came through to finish in third place, with Norton finishing as worthy winners, with Sandhurst winning another good silver medal.
We performed well in the open competitions with some changed lineups to allow the lads travelling to the world games a last opportunity for some match practice, although we failed to reach any finals.
The Bosley Stone
Sunday 21st June saw a tribute being made to the past and present Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War team, in recognition of its successes from the late 1950's onwards. The club has been recognised by the village for its remarkable achievements over the years, and the standards it made in the 1960's and 1970's, with the erection of a commemorative stone on the main A523 road through Bosley in Cheshire.
The stone has an inscription on both sides of it. The stone was unveiled by Hilary Brown, the ex Bosley Anchor, along with other past and present members of the squad. It was certainly a fitting tribute, on the same weekend that the club achieved its 50th national outdoor tug of war title.
National Outdoor Tug of War Championships - Saturday 20th June
This Saturday we competed at the national outdoor championships in Blandford, withthe aim of defending the four national titles we won in 2008.
The day started out with the catchweight competition, where we reached the final, losing out to Sheen by 2 ends to 1. We then won silver in the 640 kilos event, losing out to Felton Eccles in the final, but our hats go off to them, as they fully deserved the win on the day. We competed really well in the 560 kilos weight class, finishing in 4th place in the end, after some really gruelling pulling with the likes of Forge Lane, Hanging Bridge and Felton Eccles. Photo: the 720 kilos team in action.
The team got its first gold medal of the day in the 720 kilos event, winning the competition without losign an end, with Sheen getting the silver medal. The lads then competed in the 600 kilos competition, finishing in fourth position in the group overall, and then the 680 kilos team rounded off the day winning another gold medal - the 50th national outdoor title for the club.Bosley now look to concentrate on thepreparations for the world games in July where we will be representing Great Briatin at 680 kilos. Photo: Phil Marlow (coach) collecting the 680 kilos title from TOWA president Tony Martin
2009 Squad Photo
Pictured above is the 2009 Bosley squad with some of the trophies won in 2008 (missing from the photo are Richard Pearson, Ian Hulme, Steve Morten, Dave Heath, Eddie Allen, T.J. Singh and Gary Heapy.
The t-shirts that the squad are wearing have been kindly provided by the Bollington Brewery. Our thanks go to them for their support this year.
Sunday 7th June - Sandhurst TOWC Open Competition
This event is always well supported by teams, and is normally the last big event before the national championships. Despite the odd rain shower, the ground was good, which made for some good competition.
The team competed in 5 weights on the day, fielding A and B teams in three weight classes. The A team won the catchweight competition after a really good battle with Felton, which went to three ends, but missed out on a spot in the final of the 680 after narrowly losing out to Norton by 2 ends to 1 in the group in another close pull. The team also competed well in the 580 kilos competition, but ran out of steam after pulling Hanging Bridge. The team also competed well in the 600 kilos competition, finishing as runners up in the group behind Norton, who were the eventual winners. The 640 was the last weight of the day, which was run as a knock-out competition. The A team defeated the B team first on, but were eventually knocked out by Sandhurst who went on to the final, only to lose out to winners Norton.
Well done to Tom also who won the junior 560 competition, anchoring for the Leicester and Northants Army Cadet team
Sunday 31st May - South West Open Day - Felton, Bristol
This weekend we competed at the South West Open competition in our second trip there this season. This event normally takes place in July, but was moved because of the world games in July, which gave us another good competition to help in our preparation for the nationals.
This weekend we had a few more men at our disposal after competing with a reduced squad for the past couple of weeks. The day started with the 680 kilos, and we fielded A and B teams. We competed well in the group, but we weren't good enough to beat Norton on the day who went on to lose to Felton in the final. We finished second again in our group in the 600 kilos competition, but we managed to progress to the final of the 640 kilos competition, where we met Norton. Again we weren't quite good enough to get into Norton and they won the final by 2 ends to 0. The final weight of the day was the catchweight competition, which was pulled as a straight group. We just fielded the one team in this competition, and pulled well to win this weight without losing an end.
Sunday 24th May - Cheshire County Rally
The Sunday evening saw a few of our younger members competing for different teams in the Tug of War Competition at Cheshire County Rally. 9 teams took part in the event from Beeston, Altrincham, Knutsford, Congleton, Macclesfield, Sandbach, Stretton, Nantwich, and Malpas. The finalists were Sandbach and Stretton, with Stretton winning the final by 2 ends to 0. The competition was judged by James Ekin.
As Cheshire are not members of the national federation of young farmers, the teams will not be going forward to the regional eliminator, but have more comeptitions to come at the Nantwich Show, the Cheshire Show, as well as competitions at Macclesfield Sheep Dog trials, and an annual event hosted by Ray Brown in Goostrey.
Sunday 24th May - Midland Championships
This weekend, we again had a depleted squad with people taking holidays over the bank holiday, and we competed in all 5 weight categories, weighing in with 7 men in the 560 kilos event, and competing with 8 men in the other weights. We got to the semi finals of the catchweight, losing out to Felton in our semi. In the 560 kilos event, we competed well with 7 men to finish joint second with Sandhurst. We then had to pull them again for the silver medal, but lost out by 2 ends to 0. We had a tough time in the 600 kilos competition, finishing joint second in our group behind Lincoln, and we also finished as runners up in our group in the 640 and 680 kilos competitions. Overall, it was a tough days pulling for the small squad we had out on the day, but it showed what hard work we still have to do for the national cahmpionships which take place in 4 weeks time. Photo: the catchweight team competing against Felton
Sunday 17th May - Felton Eccles Open Competition
This Sunday, we competed in horrendously wet weather conditions. We had a few pullers missing, some who had work commitments, with a couple more being unable to make it because of a breakdown on the motorway. We competed in four out of the 5 weight classes on the day, finishing as runners up in the catchweight event, finishing behind Lakehill from Ireland. We then missed out on a place in the final of the 600 kilos event after losing to Tavistock in our first pull of the group. We won our group in the 680 kilos event, going into a three way pull off with Felton and Norton. We lost to Norton first on, then lost by 2 ends to 1 to to Felton to finish in third. We competed well in the 640 also, only losing to Sandhurst A in the group who were the eventual winners.
Sunday 10th May - Daventry
Bosley took a squad of 19 to compete at the open competition in Daventry. The event was very well attended by teams from all over the country, and we entered A and B teams in the catchweight, 640, and 680 events, and also fielded teams in the 580 and 600. This week, we won the catchweight event without losing an end, with Lincoln finishing in the runners up spot, followed by Felton who finished third. We didn't make any of the finals in the 600 and 580 kilos event, but we performed well in the 680 kilos, coming through a strong group. We had to pull Norton in our last pull of the group, with the winner of this pull going to the final. Norton gave us a really hard pull, which we managed to win by 2 ends to 0, and we went on to the final to meet Felton Eccles. Despite approaching the final with a bit of fatigue, we still gave Felton a reasonably hard pull, but they had the edge over us, and won by 2 ends to 0. In the 640 kilos event, we fielded A and B teams, with the A team reaching the semi finals, losing out to Sandhurst by 2 ends to 0. The eventual winners were Norton, who defeated Sandhurst in the final.
Bollington Festival
Saturday 9th saw a handful of the clubs members take part in the carnival parade at Bollington festival. The team members, in their club kit took part in a long procession through the stone mill town carrying a tug of war rope to the carnival field where a tug of war competition was to take place between the local pubs in Bollington. Photo: the team at the start of the procession
Those members who took part then helped to run (but not take part in) this 6 a side competition where 6 teams entered. The competition was run as a straight group, and all of the teams that took part thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The winning team were the Crown Bikers, with the Spinners Arms finishing in second place. After being presented with their medals they requested an end against 6 of the Bosley pullers there. Bosley accepted, and managed to beat quite a strong team in the end. Photo: parading the rope through Bollington behind all of the other tug of war teams
Photo: one of the teams taking part in the tug of war competition
Sunday 3rd May - Harby, near Melton Mowbray
This Sunday we took a squad of 13 to compete at a competition hosted by Lincoln tug of war club, and we competed in 4 weight classes - 600, 640, 680, and catchweight. The catchweight was on first, and we finished in third place, losing to Felton Eccles by 2 ends to 0 who finished first, and Sheen finished second after beating us by 2 ends to 1. We then finished second in our group in the 680, losing to Norton who were the eventual winners, and we again failed to progress beyond the group stages in the 640 event. We competed with 7 men in the 600 kilos weight class, which was pulled as a straight group and despite not finishing in the top 2, we got some good training out of it. This weekend, we will be competing at Daventry, where hopefully we will have a full squad competing.
Sunday 26th April - Sheen
This weekend we took a nice short journey to Sheen, taking a squad of 19, fielding A and B teams in all four weight classes. The catchweight was run as a knockout competition and we knocked Sheen out by 2 ends to 1 in the first round. We then progressed all the way through to the final to meet Ashover, winning the pull by 2 ends to 0. We then won the 680 and 640 competitions, and fielded two teams of 7 in the 600 kilos event, with the A team finishing as runners up to Hanging Bridge. Photo: 680 A team
Sunday 19th April - Bedford
This weekend we travelled to Bedford for the East of England Championships with a smaller squad than what we fielded in the previous couple of competitions. We competed in all four weight classes on the day, finishing second in our group in the 600 kilos event, and we finished 4th in the catchweight competition. Our best result if the day came in the 640 kilos competition, where we finished as runners up to Sandhurst A.
Sunday 12th April
This weekend we hosted our own competition at the Harrington Arms in Bosley. The weather, the ground and the competition turned out to be fantastic. With 5 weights on offer, we entered all five weights, entering A and B teams in four of them. We finished in the runners up sport in the 600 and 680 kilos competition, and finishing joint 3rd with Sheen in the 720 and catchweight events, after some gruelling three enders with them in both weights! Well done to our B teams also, who competed much better this week. Norton were in good form again this week, winning the 600, 640 and 680 titles, and Felton won the 720 and catchweight events, Lincoln finishing as runners up in those two weights. Photo: Bosley in action in the catchweight event
A big thank you to Norton, Lincoln, Hanging Bridge, Sheen Ladies, Sheen Men for supporting the event. Thanks in particular go to Felton and Sandhurst who travelled from much further afield to compete. The teams gave the local spectators who came along to the event a good demonstration about what our sport is all about.
Huge thanks must also go to Ernie Jones, Dave Kitchener, Peter Craft, Tony Henshaw and Betty Craft for fulfilling the judging and timekeeper recorder duties. Without everyone, we would have had no competition.
We would also like to pay particular thanks to the Harrington Arms for all of their help and hospitality in providing car parking and refreshments during the presentation, and also the Bollington Brewery who provided us with prizes for the teams. Thank you also to Ken Chrimes who provided gifts for all of the officials on the day.
This weekend we will be competing at Bedford at the first national league event of the season.
This weekend we host our own competition.......
Sunday 12th April will see us hosting our own competition in Bosley, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. We will be holding 5 mens weight categories - 600 kilos, 640 kilos, 680 kilos, 720 kilos, and catchweight.
The weigh in will take place at 10am and the pulling will commence at 11am. The weigh in will take place on the Harrington Arms car park with the pulling taking place on the field opposite (it is the same venue as that used for the 2007 Inter County Championships).
We look forward to seeing as many teams supporting our event as possible.
The post code for the venue is SK11 0NX. For a map, please click here
For further information, please contact Carl Sinclair on 01270 762684 or e-mail carlbosley@btinternet.com.
Wiltshire County Open - Sunday 5th April 2009
This weekend we competed at our first outdoor competition of the season. We took along a squad of 17 pullers fielding A and B teams in the 640, 680 and catchweight competitions, and fielding one team in the 600 kilos competition. We finished third in the catchweight event behind Felton Eccles from Somerset who finished second, behind Norton who finished first. We also finished third in the 600 after a tough round of competition, losing to Norton by 2 ends to 0 in a close pull, then defeating Sandhurst A by 2 ends to 1. We finished in joint second position with Sandhurst, only to lose out to them by 2 ends to 1 in the pull off. We then went on to finish second in the 680 kilos competition, losing out by 2 ends to 1 to Norton in the final in a good final, and finished in fourth place overall in the 640 kilos. Photo: Bosley 600 kilos team
The event was a good test for the team, and has clearly shown the team the amount of hard work that is required on the training ground to maintain the high standards we set ourselves last season. Photo: Only Ben knows what he is doing here!
UK Indoor Championships - Northern Ireland
On Friday 13th February we represented England 'B' in the 600 kilos event at the UK indoor championships held at the Ballymena North Recreation Centre in Northern Ireland. This was the first time that the club had represented England at Indoor tug of war. We made a strong start in the competition, but after some close pulling, and the loss of a couple of ends too many, we failed to reach the cross over. Everyone in the team should be praised for their efforts, and a special mention should go to Dan Williams, Chirs Wood, Dave Platt, and Dave Heath who all gained their first England Shirts. Also a big thank you to John Webb who assisted us with our training and coaching.
In the open competition, we put in another great performance, coming through a tough group, containing Clonmany from Ireland, Richill from Northern Ireland, Raunds, and TTV Lagerweij from Holland where we on to the semi finals. We then lost out to Kilroe in the semis, and missed out on the bronze medal after losing out to world 640 champions Clonmany.
Overall it has been a great indoor season for the team, and we now eagerly await the start of the outdoor season. Anyone interested in joining the team for the outdoor should contact us.
UK Indoor Championships
This Friday (13th February) Bosley will be representing England at the UK indoor tug of war championships in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. We will be representing England 'B' in the 600 kilos event, which will be a very challenging competition, which will include stong teams from Scotalnd (current world indoor 600 kilos champions), Northern Ireland, and England A (represented by Kilroe), as well as teams from Wales and the Channel Islands. We will then compete in the club competition on Saturday, which will also include teams from the Republic of Ireland.
Good luck to all of the lads competing at this event.
Saturday 6th December - National Indoor Tug of War Championships
Bosley competed in the 600 kilos, 640 kilos and 680 kilos weight classes at the national indoor championships in Smethwick, Birmingham. We competed well in all three weight classes, picking up a medal in all three weights, all of which were bronze. We finished behind Sheen and Raunds in the 640 and 680, and we finished behind Sheen and Kilroe in the 600. A full report from the national championships is available on the Tug of War Association web site at www.tugofwar.co.uk.
This was another big improvement on our 2007 indoor season where we won bronze in the 680. Well done to all of our pulling members for another great result, and thanks to everyone who has supported us throughout 2008.
600 Team - Eric Johnson, Dave Platt, Dave Heath, Gary Heapy, Chris Wood, Paul Lamb, Grant Davison, Ed Holland, Ian Hulme (coach)
640 Team (pictured) - Eric Johnson, Dave Platt, Ian Hulme, Dave Heath, Gary Heapy, Chris Wood, Paul Lamb, Robert Johnson, James Ekin (Coach)
680 Team - Ian Hulme, James Ekin, Dave Platt, Eric Johnson, Dave Heath, Paul Lamb, Dan Williams, Robert Johnson, Chris Wood (Coach)
We now look forward to 2009 which will be a busy and challenging year to the club as we will be representing Great Britain at the World Games in July in Chinese Taipei. Anyone interested in sponsoring the team for this trip or supporting the club in any other way should contact Carl Sinclair on 01270 762684 or e-mail carlbosley@btinternet.com
Sunday 30th November
This was our final weekend of competition before the national indoor championships at the weekend. We had a couple of th lads missing, but we still competed in 4 weight classes. We finished third in the catchweight and 680 kilos events (Raunds from Northamptonshire were winners of those two weights ahead of Sheen), but performed much better in the 640 kilos event this week, finishing in second behind Sheen. We gave a good account of ourselves against them, but didn't quite have enough this week. Hopefully we will make that big step up for the national championships. We also competed in the 600 kilos event, borrowing two of the Sheen girls. We competed well in this weight again, only finishing second behind Sheen and Kilroe.
We go into the weekend hopeful of picking up some medals in the weight classes we will be competing in. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of those who have trained very hard this indoor season, and we look forward to a good day of competition.
Sunday 23rd November
This weekend we were looking to follow up our silver medal at the AAA championships with another good performance. We finished third in the catchweight event, second in the 600 kilos event and 680 kilos event, but we missed out on the runners up spot in the 640 kilos event, again finishing third.
AAA Championships - Sunday 16th November
This weekend we competed at the AAAs indoor championships. We competed in the 640 kilos and catchweight events with the 640 being the first weight of the day. We started off with a very hard pull against Sheen first on, but came away with a 2 ends to 1 win, going through the remainder of this weight unbeaten, meeting Kilroe in the final. It was a good tight pull, but Kilroe just had enough to edge us over the line by 2 ends to 0, so we came away with a good silver medal, behind Kilroe who won gold. We also performed well in the catchweight event, however we missed out on a second silver medal after slipping up against BAC. The eventual gold medallists were Sheen, with BAC winning silver. Bosley finished third, ahead of Raunds after beating them by 2 ends to 1. We also did very well in the open weight categories, finishing second in both the 600 and 620, losing out to Sheen by 2 ends to 1 in the 600 after another good match against them, and we lost the final of the 620 kilos to Kilroe.
AAA 640 Kilos silver medal winning team - Eric Johnson, Dave Platt, Dave Heath, Chris Wood, Gary Heapy, Paul Lamb, Steve Morten, Rob Johnson, Ian Hulme (Coach)
Indoor - Sunday 9th November
This weekend, we were again competing at the Harry Mitchell Centre, and we competed in the 720, 680, 640 and 600 competitions. We started off in the 720, which turned out to be one of the most competitive weights of the day. We lost out in a very close pull by 2 ends to 1 to Sheen first on before eventually finish third behind Raunds. We then finished third in the 680, and went on to win the 640 competition with a good 2 ends to 0 win against Sheen in the final pull. This weekend we will be competing at the AAA indoor championships at the Harry Mitchell Centre
Indoor - Sunday 2nd November
This weekend we competed at the Harry Mitchell Centre in Birmingham, competing in 4 out of the 5 weight categories. We competed in the 620, 640, 680 and catchweight competitions. We made a strong start in the catchweight, eventually finishing second behind the eventual winners Raunds. We then finished third in the 620 behind Kilroe and Sheen, before competing in what turned out to be a very close 680 kilos competition, which was eventually won by Sheen, with Raunds finishing second and Lincoln third. We finished the day strongest in the 640 kilos event, finishin first without losing an end ahead of Sheen who finished second.
Indoor - Sunday 19th October
This weekend we competed in 4 weight categories at ther event held at the Haden Hill Leisure Centre in Birmingham. We weighed in with 7 men in the 580 kilos, winning this weight ahead of Uppetown from Derbyshire. We also competed well in the 720 kilos, 680 kilos finishing 3rd in the 720. We then went on to finish 2nd in the 640 kilos, finishing second to Sheen from Staffordshire, after we won a hard fought 3 ender with Kilroe from Manchester. We will this weekend be competing at the Harry Mitchell Centre in Smethwick, where competitions will now be taking place every week.
World Outdoor Tug of War Championships - Stenungsund - Sweden
Bosley competed in the 680 kilos open club competition on Thursday, reaching the final of the competition against Boley from Ireland. Bosley took the first end, but Boley managed to turn the tie around to win the gold medal by 2 ends to 1.
We then represented England in the 680 kilos closed event. Unfortunately, we narrowly finished in third place behind the Netherlands and Latvia, and so we missed out on a place in the semi finals. We were involved in a 5th/6th place pull off against Germany which we won by 2 ends to 0 to finish 5th. This ensured that Great Britain qualified for the world games which take place in Chinese Taipei next year, along with Latvia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany. Great Britain also qualified for the 640 kilos event at next years world games after England represented by Felton won a hard earned and well deserved 640 kilos silver medal. Our thanks go to Liam Watterson from Oxney who joined us to help strengthen our team for this event.
Two of our pullers - Dave Murphy and Dave Bowyer were drafted in to help strengthen the England 720 kilos team which finished a creditable 6th place, with Holland Sports representing England for the first time.
All in all it wasn't quite the ending to the season which wehoped for as we wanted to win a medal for England, but we have had a great season this year. Thanks to all of the pullers and those that work hard behind the scenes to make this season such a success.
National League Finals
This weekend we were competing in our final domestic competition of the 2008 season before going off to represent England at the World Outdoor Championships in Stenungsund, Sweden. The photo on the left is of the 640 kilos team in action.
We were aiming to add a national league title to the long list of domestic honours which we have secured this year. We competed in the 640 kilos and 680 kilos weight categories, and we managed to take gold in the 640 kilos, finishing ahead of Sandhurst from Berkshire who finished second. We then added the 680 kilos national league title after finishing ahead of Felton Eccles from Somerset. The photo on the right is of the squad after the presentation.
We now look forward to representing England at 680 kilos at the World Championships in Sweden where we can hopefully secure a medal for England.
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our squad members who have trained and competed with us throughout the year, which has helped us to achieve our domestic success to date. Left: Richard Pearson doing a spot of light reading!
UK Championships
Bosley this weekend were representing England A at 680 kilos at the UK Championships which were hosted in Daventry, Northamptonshire. Representing England A, we won gold after defeating England B (Felton Eccles) by 2 ends to 0 in a hard final. The photo on the tight is of the 680 kilos team representing England A.
We then competed in the open club competition on the Sunday, winning the 680 kilos, by beating Felton Eccles in the final, and also finished second in the 640 after a hard fought 2 ends to 1 defeat to Norton, and also battled to a well earned thrid place in the 600 kilos event, overcoming Hanging Bridge by 2 ends to 1 in the thrid place pull off. The photo on the right is of Carl Sinclair receiving the winners trophy from president of the TOWA Tony Martin.
England A 680 kilos team - John Etches, Glyn Jones, Dave Bowyer, Eric Johnson, Dave Murphy, Paul Lamb, Richard Pearson, Robert Johnson, Coached by Carl Sinclair.
680 kilos Open Team - Grant Davison, Liam Watterson, Dave Bowyer, Eric Johnson, Dave Murphy, Ben Rathbone, Ricard Pearson, Robert Johnson, Coached by Dave Knott
640 kilos Open Team - Alan Knott, Liam Watterson, Chris Wood, Grant Davison, Dave Murphy, Eric Johnson, Richard Pearson, Ed Holland, Coached by Dave Knott
600 kilos Open Team - Grant Davison, Glyn Jones, Chris Wood, Eric Johnson, Alan Knott, Paul Lamb, Peter (from TTV Lagerweij), Ed Holland, Coached by Carl Sinclair
A full report from the UK championships is available on the Tug of War Association web site at www.tugofwar.co.uk
Ken Proudlove
It is with sadness that we report the passing away of ex Wood Treatment Bosley puller Ken Proudlove, who passed away on Sunday Morning.
A respected man in the tug of war world, Ken was one of Bosley's most successful pullers, winning numerous national and international titles throughout the late 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's.
We are sure that many of you have fond memories of Ken and it would be great if you could share some with us via our guestbook.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Ken's family and friends at this sad time.
Bedford - National League Competition
This weekend, Bosley competed at the National League event, hosted by Bedford. The team had a mixed day, with a disapointing performance in the catchweight event, finishing outside of the top two, and competed with 7 men in the 600 kilos. The team made a good recovery in the 680 kilos, winning the final after a tough pull with Felton Eccles. The team entered the 640 kilos in the final weight a little jaded, but still competed reasonably well, but finished outside of the top two positions. The team is hoping for a big improvement going into the UK championships at the weekend where we will be representing England A at 680 kilos.
Boley International Tournament
The final of the Boley International Tournament is now on Youtube. - Watch by clicking here
Sunday 27th July - Inter County Championships - Macclesfield
Bosley were this weekend representing Cheshire at the Inter County Championships in Macclesfield. The weather was very hot, and the team were looking to build on the success of the previous week after winning the 640 kilos at the Boley competition in Ireland.
The number of teams taking part was down on last year, and it was disappointing that certain teams did not support the event after we have supported their events numerous times over the years. The photo on the left is of coach Phil Marlow being presented with the 640 kilos shield by the Mayor of Macclesfield.
We went on to win the 640 kilos shield - a very prestigious trophy, after beating a very strong Norton team by 2 ends to 1 in the final,and we also won the open 720, 580 and 600 kilo competitions, whilst also finishing second in the open 640 kilos event. The picture on the left is of the Bosley open 720 kilos team.
Sam and Joseph Murphy (sons of Dave Murphy) taking part in the childrens fun pull which took place at the event.
Sunday 20th July - AAA's Championships and Boley International Tournament
This weekend, Bosley had two teams competing in different competitions. 10 pullers travelled to Ireland to compete in an invitation competition hosted by Boley tug of war club to celebratetheir 35th anniversary, and 12 pullers travelled to the AAA's championships in Somerset to compete in the 640 kilos and catchweight events at the AAA's championships.
The AAA's teams competed well with many inexperienced pullers on the team, but finished outside of the medals in both weight categories.
The team that travelled to Ireland however had an excellent competition. As well as being up against many of Irelands' top tug of war teams, they were also up against some strong opposition from Wales, Sweden and the Netherlands in both the 640 kilos and 680 kilos weight classes.
The 640 kilos event was first and was pulled as a straight group of 9 teams. Bosley started off with some tight pulling against Breamore, Lakehill and Gortletteragh before meeting host team Boley in the 4th round. This pull was a really tough task for Bosley, with Bosley dropping the first end after recieving 3 cautions (the final one of which was picked up by our tack man - wasn't it Ben!). Bosley then went on to take the next two very tough ends to turn the pull round. Bosley then went on to defeat Llanboidy from Wales, Grove from Ireland, Killylough from Ireland, and Loftadalens DK from Sweden in the final round. (Picture above - Bosley 640 kilos team)
The four teams that progressed to the semi finals were Bosley, Boley, Lakehill and Braemore. Bosley were drawn against Lakehill, whilst Boley were drawn against Braemore. Both Bosley and Boley won their respective semi-finals by 2 ends to 0 to reach the final. The final was a good pull between both sides. Bosley attacked from the drop on the first end to try and get Boley under some pressure. After some steady pressure, Bosley managed to take some rope from Boley and had to work very hard to carry on taking it as Boley have a very good lift, and can still keep a very tight rope even if they have lost their positions. Bosley managed to keep atacking Boley and gradually edged them over the line to take the first end. The second end was equally as tough, but Bosley managed to just edge out Boley to take the econd end, and a hard earned win against the current European 640 kilos champions. (Picture above - Bosley competing in the final against Boley)
640 kilos team - Steve Morten, Alan Knott, Dave Bowyer, Eric Johnson, Dave Murphy, Paul Lamb, Richard Pearson, Robert Johnson, Coach Phil Marlow
Bosley then competed in the 680 kilos competition, which was split into two groups. Bosley made a couple of changes from the 640 kilos team to bring the team up to weight. A little bit of fatigue started to creep into the team as the competition wore on and the team started to struggle, losing out by 2 ends to 1 against Loftadalens DK from Sweden, and then Lakehill by 2 ends to 0 in their final two pulls in the group, which meant that the team missed out on the semi finals. The 680 kilos was on by TTV Koapman from the Netherlands, with Boley winning silver, and Lakehill the bronze, with Loftadalens DK from Sweden finishing 4th. (Picture above - Bosley 680 kilos team)
680 kilos team - Eric Johnson, Chris Wood, Dave Bowyer, John Herty (Sub Steve Morten), Dave Murphy, Ben Rathbone, Richard Pearson, Rob Johnson, Coach, Phil Marlow.
At the end of the day the presantations were made, with the winning teams being presented with some really nice medals, which had been specially commissioned by the Boley team, and these will be very much treasured by our team members. The photo on the left is of Wood Treatment Bosley with the Boley team.
We were then treated to a dinner with all of the other participants at the event, and a very emotional speech was made after dinner by current Boley coach Bill Kehoe, thanking the teams for coming along to the event. Presentations were also made to past and present pullers and coaches of the Boley team to celebrate their 35th anniversary.
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club would like to express our sincere thanks to Bill Kehoe and the Boley team for inviting us to take part in this competition, and for looking after us so well over the weekend, and making our stay so enjoyable. It was an absolute honour and a privelidge to be looked after by one of the best teams in the world, and we cannot thank you enough for your hospitality. We very much look forward to seeing you all again at the World Championships in Sweden.
We would also like to take the opportunity to publicly thank our club secretary Carl Sinclair for all of his hard work in helping us to make this trip over to Ireland, and for all of his hard work behind the scenes so far in making sure that the team can compete at the highest level.
Paul Lamb providing a bit of Physio.
Eric Johnson and his son Ollie after the competition.
Area 7 Championships (National League Week 5)
This weekend we won the catchweight, 680 and 660 competitions and finished 3rd in the 640 kilos competition. A full report is available on the Tug of War Association web site at www.tugofwar.co.uk. The photo on the left is of us competing in the 660 kilos competition. It was also our first weekend competing in our new kit, which has been kindly sponsored by Bowden's Wood Waste Recycling and Wood Treatment Limited.
Truck Pull - WBB Minerals - Saturday 12th July
This weekend we participated in a truck pull at WBB Minerals near Congleton at their annual open day, which involved quarry tours, as well as other attractions. Many other community groups and sports clubs were also involved in the event. This was in return from some sponsorship from the firm towards our trip to Sweden where we will be representing England at the World Outdoor Championships. Our thanks go to WBB Minerals for their kind donation. Below are a few photos taken during the day.
The truck pull involved pulling one of the WBB mineral tankers, as well as a racing truck.
The team taking part in a photo shoot for the local press and the company magazine.
Another photo opportunity - this time in the bucket of one of the large trucks that operates at the quarry.
The team pictured with the racing truck.
National Championships - Saturday 21st June
At the national championships held at the West Midland Show, Shrewsbury, we won a remarkable 4 gold medals, winning the catchweight, 720 kilos and 680 kilos as well as winning the 640 kilos after defeating Felton Eccles in a very hard final. Felton Eccles had won the 640 kilos title for the previous 12 years in succession. We also competed very well in the 600 kilos finishing in 4th place behind Sandhurst, Norton and eventual winners Oxney Vines Cross. We will now go on to represent England at the UK championships in August, and the World Championships in September.
Rob Johnson - Recieving the 640 kilos national championships trophy from Tug of War Association president Mr. Tony Martin.
Catchweight Team: Ian Hulme, Richard Pearson, Dave Platt, Dave Bowyer, Dave Murphy, Eric Johnson, James Ekin, Rob Johnson
720 kilos Team: Ian Hulme, Richard Pearson, Dave Platt, Dave Bowyer, Dave Murphy, Eric Johnson, James Ekin, Rob Johnson
680 Kilos Team: Ian Hulme, Ben Rathbone, Dave Bowyer, Eric Johnson, Dave Murphy, Paul Lamb, Richard Pearson, Rob Johnson
640 kilos Team: Steve Morten, Grant Davison, Dave Bowyer, Eric Johnson, Dave Bowyer, Paul Lamb, Richard Pearson, Ed Holland
600 Kilos Team: Steve Morten, Grant Davison, Alan Knott, Chris Wood, Dan Williams, Carl Sinclair, Dave Heath, Tony Henshaw.
European Championships 2007
This is us winning silver at the European Championships in Minehead Somerset in September 2007. We also won bronze in the closed 680 kilos competition representing England.
Championship day was a day of mixed fortunes for us in the mens championship. Having struggled for consistent form throughout the year, the team got off to a good start to take a surprise silver medal in the catchweight event, having beaten the 2010 silver medallists Holland from Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire in the semi finals. Bosley then met defending champions Sheen in the final and went on to be defeated by 2 ends to 0. A good silver medal nonetheless, and well done to Pete on winning a medal at his first national championships, having only joined us in the middle of last season. 
Bosley then went on to finish fourth in the 600 kilos and 640 kilos events, being defeated for the bronze medal in the 600 kilos event by Oxney from Sussex, and Two Dales from Derbyshire took the bronze in the 640 kilos event. We also competed well in the 680 kilos competition, finishing behind Norton and Felton in our group and missing out on a place in the semi finals.
The main disappointment is that we missed out on an opportunity to represent England this year at the UK championships as it means that we do not have the opportunity to defend our UK 600 kilos championship title. Good luck to Norton and Felton or Oxney who will go forward to represent England at this weight.
There was one gold medallist amongst us however. Tom Knott, who has been pulling with the Gloucester and Somerset ACF youth team all season won gold in the Junior 560 kilos event. The team has now qualified to be selected to represent England at the World Junior Championships in September. Good luck to Tom and Gloucester and Somerset Youth for the forthcoming GENSB championships and World Junior Championships in Minehead. 
This weekend we competed in the third Tug of War Association National League competition at Daventry in Northamptonshire. This event is always well supported from teams around the country, and this weekend, the team was also up against teams from the Republic of Ireland who travelled to the event. 
The 680 kilos team faired well, making the cross over with just one defeat in the group stage to Norton. In the semi final we met Sheen. We missed the drop on the first end but recovered to get back into the pull, but Sheen had that little extra power and took us over the line. On the second end, we competed much better and started to get into the pull, only to pick up a couple of soft cautions. We then recieved a third caution and lost the pull on a disqualification, but it was a good effort from those in the team. Photo: Bosley 680 team in action
Event Sponsored by the Bollington Brewing Company
This March, we loaned out a couple of ropes to Siemens in Congleton, and Sainsbury's in Wilmslow for some charity pulls to raise money for Comic Relief. Photos below are from the tug of war charity fundraiser by Siemens, which raised £500 in the process. Well done to them!
One of the charity fundraising teams in action.
Pictured here on the left is the winning team from the Siemens charity tug of war event. 
Bosley represented England in the 600 kilos event, representing England “A”. England A got off to a good start by defeating Northern Ireland B and Scotland A, but came unstuck in pulls against Wales A and Northern Ireland A, in one of the most competitive UK 600 kilos events for years. England A went into their last match against England B needing a point to reach the semi-final stage of the competition to determine the gold silver and bronze medals. England B were represented by past winners Oxney from Sussex, and England A managed to get the point that they needed to reach the semi-finals. 
In the semi-finals, England A were drawn against Northern Ireland A. Despite defeat to Northern Ireland in the group, England A had made a substitution and England A controlled the pull well to take both ends to reach the final, where they went on to meet Northern Ireland B, who had defeated Wales A. The final was very keenly contested, with Northern Ireland B taking England close to the line, picking up cautions for sitting on the way, which resulted in England A taking the first end. Both teams again battled hard for the second end, but England A represented by Bosley battled all the way to take the end and the UK title. 
After a challenging season, this has been a great result for the club, and we would like to thank everyone for their help and support this year. We would like to thank in particular Will Lee, Richard Keithley, and Tony Peck of Lincoln TOWC for pulling with us in Northern Ireland, as without them, we would have struggled to field a team. We would also like to thank Tim Lee and all the other Lincoln lads who have helped us with training when we couldn't make it to a competition. 
This weekend we took part in the tug of war event at Congleton Carnival. Tug of war returned to this event for the first time in a few years, with a small number of teams taking part. With a lot of experienced pullers away due to holidays and work commitments, this gave us an opportunity to give a number of our new members who have been training this year a chance to get some competition experience. Despite a shaky start, the team improved once the ground cut up to finish in third place in the 600 kilos event, and runners up in the 640 kilos and 680 kilos event. Hanging Bridge were the winners of these weight classes on the day. We would like to congratulate all of our new members for their efforts. Keep up the good work in training!
Saturday 19th June saw us competing at the 2010 national outdoor tug of war championships in the Peak District. The weather was dry, which gave excellent pulling conditions. We knew going into the 2010 season, that winning titles was going to be difficult given that we have lost 8 of last years squad, so any medal was going to be a bonus for us. 
We started off in the 640 kilos weight class, coming away with a bronze medal, after finishing 1 point behind Lincoln. Felton were the worthy winners of this weight. We had a disappoinitng competition in the 580 kilos, but we came away with a great silver medal in the 600 kilos, losing in the final to Norton. This has put us in a position to be selected as the England B team at the UK championships in this weight class, which is a great achievement for those pullers involved who have only ever been on the fringes of the team before.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate everyone involved in the club this year, and we would like to also thank former coach Phil Marlow, and other former members of Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club who came along to support us on the day.
This weekend we competed at Sandhurst's annual competition, and despite not having the foreign teams in attendance as in previous years, the competition was still tough. The ground was hard to start with, but soon broke up to give teams some big holes to work with. We started the day in the 580 kilos event with a hard pull first on With Sandhurst A who we went on to defeat by 2 ends to 1. We won all of the other pulls in the group, but went on to lose to Norton to miss out on a place in the final. We then competed with an underweight side in the 680 kilos, which made sure that we had to work hard on every end to compete. Competing with a light side against heavier teams is difficult at this stage of the season as the bigger sides start to get their teams down to weight in the build up to the national championships. We did not get out of the group, and finished behind Sheen and Lincoln, with Sheen going on to the final to be defeated by Felton Eccles. The 600 kilos event was by far our hardest competition of the day. We started off by winning our first couple of pulls, before being made to really work hard against Sheen in order to stop their lifts, eventually beating them by 2 ends to 0. We then had a disappointing pull against Forge Lane, losing by 2 ends to 0, which meant that we missed out on a spot in the final. There were quite a few sore and tired pullers going into the 640 kilos event, but we competed OK eventually finishing third in the group. 
It was all too much for some (although we did get a few minutes of quiet time!!!!!!)
On the evening of Sunday 30th May, the Cheshire Young Farmers Rally took place at Reaseheath College, near Nantwich, with 9 teams taking part - they were Malpas, Middlewich, Congleton, Sandbach, Macclesfield, Altrincham, Nantwich, Stretton, and Knutsford. A few pullers who have been training with us took part in the event with different clubs, and competed well. Some of the best pulling came between Stretton and Sandbach, Altrincham and Nantwich, and Macclesfield and Nantwich, with Stretton finishing as winners, with Sandbach as runners up, followed by Altrincham and Macclesfield. The event was supported by a large crowd of spectators, who all got behind the teams on every pull. Photo - Sandbach YFC 
Stretton YFC - Cheshire County YFC tug of war champions
Macclesfield YFC
This weekend, we had pretty much a full squad to select from and competed in all weight classes, except the catchweight, although some of our members joined Sandhurst for this weight for a bit of extra training. We weighed into the 580 kilos weight class with 7 men, pulling well to beat Hanging Bridge first on by 2 ends to 1, then went through the rest of the competition only losing to Sandhurst who finished as eventual winners, leaving us as runners-up. We then finished second in the group of the 680 kilos, missing out on a place in the final to Norton, who went on to beat Felton Eccles in the final. We then went on to finish as runners up in both the 600 kilos and 640 kilos weight classes, pulling well in both, only to lose to a very good Norton team in the end. There is still a lot of hard work to do, but hopefully we can continue to improve up to the national championships in June and make a serious challenge for medals on the day. Photo: Bosley 680 kilos team
This weekend we competed in Daventry. We had just a squad of 8 pullers, plus Tom who pulled in the youth competition. We only weight 640 with our own men, so borrowed from Felton Eccles to get up to 680 kilos, and we also weighed into the 580 kilos weight class with 7 men. We competed well in the 680 kilos, being defeated by Felton Eccles to miss out on a spot in the final, where Felton were defeated by Norton. We then competed in the 580 kilos event with 7 pullers, competing well with most teams to give us tighter pulling, only being defeated by Hanging Bridge and Sandhurst A, who were both one of the few teams who competed with 8. The 640 kilos event was the final weight of the day and our first opportunity of the day to compete with 8 of our own pullers. We competed well, then went on to lose to Hanging Bridge. The team then started to tire a little, but still competed well to get some good training out of this weight.
John Hollinshead passed away late last year. John was coach during the 1970’s and 1980’s winning over 100 championship gold medals with the club, including national, AAA, European and World titles. A memorial team trophy was presented by John’s wife Joyce, and son Stuart to the winners of the 640 kilos event, Norton from Stoke-on-Trent. All of the pullers and spectators who attended the event then gave three cheers in tribute to John. Photo: Sturat Hollinshead (right), son of former Wood Treatment Bosley Coach John Hollinshead presenting Dave Calcutt (left)of Norton TOWC (640 kilos winners) with the John Hollinshead Memorial Shield 
We fielded a team in all five weight classes, and we also gave 4 new pullers their first competition experience. We were lighter than some teams in the catchweight event, but still competed well, but did not make it into the final placings. Our 640 kilos and 680 kilos teams were a little unbalanced, but we competed well to finish 3rd in the 640 and 4th in the 680. Norton were the fittest team in these weights and were worthy winners. Photo: Bosley competing in the catchweight with 2 new pullers.
Our best results came in the 600 kilos and 620 kilos event, finishing as runners up in the 600 kilos event with two new pullers on the rope, as well as a youth anchor. This involved a very hard pull with Hanging Bridge to finish second. Sandhurst A were the winners. We then finished as runners up in the 620 kilos event, losing 2 - 1 to Sandhurst A in the final in a close pull. Bosley took the first end, but one of the pullers from Sandhurst had to withdraw after picking up an injury. We then dropped a man to ensure both teams were equal, but Sandhurst turned us around on the next 2 ends to take the win. Photo: Bosley competing in the 600 kilos event with 2 new pullers and a youth anchor
Bosley first competed in the European Club event in the 680 kilos weight class, where we progressed from the group stages into the knock-out stages in the competition. In the last 16 we met Boley from the Republic of Ireland, the team who defeated us in the final of the World Club championships in Sweden last year. Bosley competed very well against the strong Irish side, but it was the Irishmen that progressed through to the next round of the competition by 2 ends to 0, eventually finishing up as gold medal winners.
We then had the closed 720 kilos event to look forward to. Unfortunately it was not to be for Bosley representing England in the 720 kilos event, as we were hoping to add a European medal to the World Games, national, UK and AAA titles which the club has already won this year. England started off against current World Champions Switzerland, losing out by 2 ends to 0. The club later went on to be defeated narrowly by the Netherlands and Sweden to miss out on a spot in the semi finals, finishing in 5th place overall. Thanks to Dave Calcutt and Ian Daniels from Norton for helping us out in the 720 kilos following injury to Rob Johnson in the run up to the Championships.
The first weight was the 600 kilos, and in this weight we gave our youngest member Tom Knott a pull in the anchor. Tom has been training in anchor with us all year, as well as competing on some weekends with Leciester and Northants ACF. The 600 kilos was run as a straight group, with the top 4 teams over the national league season progressing through to semi finals. We managed to progress to the semi finals along with Norton, Hanging Bridge and Sandhurst. We were drawn against Sandhurst in the semi final, and we managed to pull off a hard fought 2 ends to 1 win over Sandhurst to meet Norton in the final. Norton were the stronger team in the final to beat us by 2 ends to 0, but we were very pleased with this result, particularly Tom who didn't stop smiling all day!
On Friday 7th August members of the club past and present joined Fido at his house to celebrate his 60th birthday. Fido has been involved with the club as a puller and coach over many years, recently coaching the team to a bronze medal at the world games in chinese taipei. Pictured here is Fido making a speech after recieving a gift on behalf of the team from Robert Johnson.
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club represented Great Britain at the World Games in Chinese Taipei on Saturday 18th July. The World Games takes place every four years, with many sports forming the programme over 10 day. The World Games is held under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee, and contains most of the candidate sports who are awaiting inclusion in the Olympics, including tug of war. The event opened on Thursday 16th July with a spectacular opening ceremony in the main stadium, and the members of the team that travelled out there were very proud to take part in this in their Great Britain tracksuits. Photo: Opening Ceremony Fireworks - Photo Courtesy of World Games 2009
Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War Club represented Great Britain in the Mens 680 kilos competition on Saturday, and were up against 5 of the other top 6 countries in the world at this weight class, which included Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Latvia, and Germany. In hot and humid weather conditions, Great Britain had a tough start against Sweden, losing out by 2 ends to 0 first on, but defeated Germany in their next pull to get back on track. Photo: Team GB at the Opening Ceremony. Photo Courtesy of Ben Rathbone
Despite losing an end to Latvia, Great Britain progressed to the semi finals, where they were drawn against the defending champions the Netherlands. Despite a great effort, the Dutchmen were too much for Great Britain, and they had to settle for a place in bronze medal pull off, where they again met Sweden. Great Britain made a substitution for the bronze medal match, and powered their way to a 2 ends to 0 win over Sweden to take a hard earned bronze medal. The Netherlands won the gold medal, with Switzerland winning the silver. Photo: GB 680 Team in action. Photo Courtesy of World Games 2009
The club would like to congratulate those team members who travelled to the event to achieve this fantastic result. We would also like to congratulate and thank those other squad members who have also put the work in on the training ground to help give these pullers the very hard live pulling that they needed. Thanks are also expressed to club secretary Carl Sinclair for his efforts in making sure the team got to Taipei. Well done to all at the club for their efforts this year despite injuries, absences, and financial difficulties. Photo: Team GB 680 kilos team on the podium with their bronze medals. Photo Courtesy of Ben Rathbone.
This weekend we took a squad to the AAA championships, which were held at Sandhurst in Berkshire. The AAA tug of war championships are organised by the Tug of War Association on behalf of the Amateur Athletic Association of England, but the competitors still get the same medals as the athletes who compete in the track and field events. The AAA tug of war championships historically were held with track and field events at the White City Stadium, which is the venue where the club first won a gold medal in the AAA championships. Photo - Rob Johnson with the AAA catchweight winners trophy, winning this weight for the first time.
Sunday 21st June saw a tribute being made to the past and present Wood Treatment Bosley Tug of War team, in recognition of its successes from the late 1950's onwards. The club has been recognised by the village for its remarkable achievements over the years, and the standards it made in the 1960's and 1970's, with the erection of a commemorative stone on the main A523 road through Bosley in Cheshire. 
The stone has an inscription on both sides of it. The stone was unveiled by Hilary Brown, the ex Bosley Anchor, along with other past and present members of the squad. It was certainly a fitting tribute, on the same weekend that the club achieved its 50th national outdoor tug of war title.
The day started out with the catchweight competition, where we reached the final, losing out to Sheen by 2 ends to 1. We then won silver in the 640 kilos event, losing out to Felton Eccles in the final, but our hats go off to them, as they fully deserved the win on the day. We competed really well in the 560 kilos weight class, finishing in 4th place in the end, after some really gruelling pulling with the likes of Forge Lane, Hanging Bridge and Felton Eccles. Photo: the 720 kilos team in action.
The team got its first gold medal of the day in the 720 kilos event, winning the competition without losign an end, with Sheen getting the silver medal. The lads then competed in the 600 kilos competition, finishing in fourth position in the group overall, and then the 680 kilos team rounded off the day winning another gold medal - the 50th national outdoor title for the club.Bosley now look to concentrate on thepreparations for the world games in July where we will be representing Great Briatin at 680 kilos. Photo: Phil Marlow (coach) collecting the 680 kilos title from TOWA president Tony Martin
The team competed in 5 weights on the day, fielding A and B teams in three weight classes. The A team won the catchweight competition after a really good battle with Felton, which went to three ends, but missed out on a spot in the final of the 680 after narrowly losing out to Norton by 2 ends to 1 in the group in another close pull. The team also competed well in the 580 kilos competition, but ran out of steam after pulling Hanging Bridge. The team also competed well in the 600 kilos competition, finishing as runners up in the group behind Norton, who were the eventual winners. The 640 was the last weight of the day, which was run as a knock-out competition. The A team defeated the B team first on, but were eventually knocked out by Sandhurst who went on to the final, only to lose out to winners Norton. 
This weekend, we again had a depleted squad with people taking holidays over the bank holiday, and we competed in all 5 weight categories, weighing in with 7 men in the 560 kilos event, and competing with 8 men in the other weights. We got to the semi finals of the catchweight, losing out to Felton in our semi. In the 560 kilos event, we competed well with 7 men to finish joint second with Sandhurst. We then had to pull them again for the silver medal, but lost out by 2 ends to 0. We had a tough time in the 600 kilos competition, finishing joint second in our group behind Lincoln, and we also finished as runners up in our group in the 640 and 680 kilos competitions. Overall, it was a tough days pulling for the small squad we had out on the day, but it showed what hard work we still have to do for the national cahmpionships which take place in 4 weeks time. Photo: the catchweight team competing against Felton
Bosley took a squad of 19 to compete at the open competition in Daventry. The event was very well attended by teams from all over the country, and we entered A and B teams in the catchweight, 640, and 680 events, and also fielded teams in the 580 and 600. This week, we won the catchweight event without losing an end, with Lincoln finishing in the runners up spot, followed by Felton who finished third. We didn't make any of the finals in the 600 and 580 kilos event, but we performed well in the 680 kilos, coming through a strong group. We had to pull Norton in our last pull of the group, with the winner of this pull going to the final. Norton gave us a really hard pull, which we managed to win by 2 ends to 0, and we went on to the final to meet Felton Eccles. Despite approaching the final with a bit of fatigue, we still gave Felton a reasonably hard pull, but they had the edge over us, and won by 2 ends to 0. In the 640 kilos event, we fielded A and B teams, with the A team reaching the semi finals, losing out to Sandhurst by 2 ends to 0. The eventual winners were Norton, who defeated Sandhurst in the final.
Saturday 9th saw a handful of the clubs members take part in the carnival parade at Bollington festival. The team members, in their club kit took part in a long procession through the stone mill town carrying a tug of war rope to the carnival field where a tug of war competition was to take place between the local pubs in Bollington. Photo: the team at the start of the procession
Those members who took part then helped to run (but not take part in) this 6 a side competition where 6 teams entered. The competition was run as a straight group, and all of the teams that took part thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The winning team were the Crown Bikers, with the Spinners Arms finishing in second place. After being presented with their medals they requested an end against 6 of the Bosley pullers there. Bosley accepted, and managed to beat quite a strong team in the end. Photo: parading the rope through Bollington behind all of the other tug of war teams
Photo: one of the teams taking part in the tug of war competition
This Sunday we took a squad of 13 to compete at a competition hosted by Lincoln tug of war club, and we competed in 4 weight classes - 600, 640, 680, and catchweight. The catchweight was on first, and we finished in third place, losing to Felton Eccles by 2 ends to 0 who finished first, and Sheen finished second after beating us by 2 ends to 1. We then finished second in our group in the 680, losing to Norton who were the eventual winners, and we again failed to progress beyond the group stages in the 640 event. We competed with 7 men in the 600 kilos weight class, which was pulled as a straight group and despite not finishing in the top 2, we got some good training out of it. This weekend, we will be competing at Daventry, where hopefully we will have a full squad competing.
This weekend we took a nice short journey to Sheen, taking a squad of 19, fielding A and B teams in all four weight classes. The catchweight was run as a knockout competition and we knocked Sheen out by 2 ends to 1 in the first round. We then progressed all the way through to the final to meet Ashover, winning the pull by 2 ends to 0. We then won the 680 and 640 competitions, and fielded two teams of 7 in the 600 kilos event, with the A team finishing as runners up to Hanging Bridge. Photo: 680 A team 
This weekend we hosted our own competition at the Harrington Arms in Bosley. The weather, the ground and the competition turned out to be fantastic. With 5 weights on offer, we entered all five weights, entering A and B teams in four of them. We finished in the runners up sport in the 600 and 680 kilos competition, and finishing joint 3rd with Sheen in the 720 and catchweight events, after some gruelling three enders with them in both weights! Well done to our B teams also, who competed much better this week. Norton were in good form again this week, winning the 600, 640 and 680 titles, and Felton won the 720 and catchweight events, Lincoln finishing as runners up in those two weights. Photo: Bosley in action in the catchweight event
This weekend we competed at our first outdoor competition of the season. We took along a squad of 17 pullers fielding A and B teams in the 640, 680 and catchweight competitions, and fielding one team in the 600 kilos competition. We finished third in the catchweight event behind Felton Eccles from Somerset who finished second, behind Norton who finished first. We also finished third in the 600 after a tough round of competition, losing to Norton by 2 ends to 0 in a close pull, then defeating Sandhurst A by 2 ends to 1. We finished in joint second position with Sandhurst, only to lose out to them by 2 ends to 1 in the pull off. We then went on to finish second in the 680 kilos competition, losing out by 2 ends to 1 to Norton in the final in a good final, and finished in fourth place overall in the 640 kilos. Photo: Bosley 600 kilos team
The event was a good test for the team, and has clearly shown the team the amount of hard work that is required on the training ground to maintain the high standards we set ourselves last season. Photo: Only Ben knows what he is doing here!
On Friday 13th February we represented England 'B' in the 600 kilos event at the UK indoor championships held at the Ballymena North Recreation Centre in Northern Ireland. This was the first time that the club had represented England at Indoor tug of war. We made a strong start in the competition, but after some close pulling, and the loss of a couple of ends too many, we failed to reach the cross over. Everyone in the team should be praised for their efforts, and a special mention should go to Dan Williams, Chirs Wood, Dave Platt, and Dave Heath who all gained their first England Shirts. Also a big thank you to John Webb who assisted us with our training and coaching.
Bosley competed in the 600 kilos, 640 kilos and 680 kilos weight classes at the national indoor championships in Smethwick, Birmingham. We competed well in all three weight classes, picking up a medal in all three weights, all of which were bronze. We finished behind Sheen and Raunds in the 640 and 680, and we finished behind Sheen and Kilroe in the 600. A full report from the national championships is available on the Tug of War Association web site at 
This weekend we were looking to follow up our silver medal at the AAA championships with another good performance. We finished third in the catchweight event, second in the 600 kilos event and 680 kilos event, but we missed out on the runners up spot in the 640 kilos event, again finishing third.
This weekend we competed at the AAAs indoor championships. We competed in the 640 kilos and catchweight events with the 640 being the first weight of the day. We started off with a very hard pull against Sheen first on, but came away with a 2 ends to 1 win, going through the remainder of this weight unbeaten, meeting Kilroe in the final. It was a good tight pull, but Kilroe just had enough to edge us over the line by 2 ends to 0, so we came away with a good silver medal, behind Kilroe who won gold. We also performed well in the catchweight event, however we missed out on a second silver medal after slipping up against BAC. The eventual gold medallists were Sheen, with BAC winning silver. Bosley finished third, ahead of Raunds after beating them by 2 ends to 1. We also did very well in the open weight categories, finishing second in both the 600 and 620, losing out to Sheen by 2 ends to 1 in the 600 after another good match against them, and we lost the final of the 620 kilos to Kilroe.
This weekend, we were again competing at the Harry Mitchell Centre, and we competed in the 720, 680, 640 and 600 competitions. We started off in the 720, which turned out to be one of the most competitive weights of the day. We lost out in a very close pull by 2 ends to 1 to Sheen first on before eventually finish third behind Raunds. We then finished third in the 680, and went on to win the 640 competition with a good 2 ends to 0 win against Sheen in the final pull. This weekend we will be competing at the AAA indoor championships at the Harry Mitchell Centre
This weekend we competed in 4 weight categories at ther event held at the Haden Hill Leisure Centre in Birmingham. We weighed in with 7 men in the 580 kilos, winning this weight ahead of Uppetown from Derbyshire. We also competed well in the 720 kilos, 680 kilos finishing 3rd in the 720. We then went on to finish 2nd in the 640 kilos, finishing second to Sheen from Staffordshire, after we won a hard fought 3 ender with Kilroe from Manchester. We will this weekend be competing at the Harry Mitchell Centre in Smethwick, where competitions will now be taking place every week.
Bosley competed in the 680 kilos open club competition on Thursday, reaching the final of the competition against Boley from Ireland. Bosley took the first end, but Boley managed to turn the tie around to win the gold medal by 2 ends to 1.
We then represented England in the 680 kilos closed event. Unfortunately, we narrowly finished in third place behind the Netherlands and Latvia, and so we missed out on a place in the semi finals. We were involved in a 5th/6th place pull off against Germany which we won by 2 ends to 0 to finish 5th. This ensured that Great Britain qualified for the world games which take place in Chinese Taipei next year, along with Latvia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany. Great Britain also qualified for the 640 kilos event at next years world games after England represented by Felton won a hard earned and well deserved 640 kilos silver medal. Our thanks go to Liam Watterson from Oxney who joined us to help strengthen our team for this event.
Two of our pullers - Dave Murphy and Dave Bowyer were drafted in to help strengthen the England 720 kilos team which finished a creditable 6th place, with Holland Sports representing England for the first time. 
This weekend we were competing in our final domestic competition of the 2008 season before going off to represent England at the World Outdoor Championships in Stenungsund, Sweden. The photo on the left is of the 640 kilos team in action.
We were aiming to add a national league title to the long list of domestic honours which we have secured this year. We competed in the 640 kilos and 680 kilos weight categories, and we managed to take gold in the 640 kilos, finishing ahead of Sandhurst from Berkshire who finished second. We then added the 680 kilos national league title after finishing ahead of Felton Eccles from Somerset. The photo on the right is of the squad after the presentation.
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our squad members who have trained and competed with us throughout the year, which has helped us to achieve our domestic success to date. Left: Richard Pearson doing a spot of light reading!
Bosley this weekend were representing England A at 680 kilos at the UK Championships which were hosted in Daventry, Northamptonshire. Representing England A, we won gold after defeating England B (Felton Eccles) by 2 ends to 0 in a hard final. The photo on the tight is of the 680 kilos team representing England A.
We then competed in the open club competition on the Sunday, winning the 680 kilos, by beating Felton Eccles in the final, and also finished second in the 640 after a hard fought 2 ends to 1 defeat to Norton, and also battled to a well earned thrid place in the 600 kilos event, overcoming Hanging Bridge by 2 ends to 1 in the thrid place pull off. The photo on the right is of Carl Sinclair receiving the winners trophy from president of the TOWA Tony Martin.
This weekend, Bosley competed at the National League event, hosted by Bedford. The team had a mixed day, with a disapointing performance in the catchweight event, finishing outside of the top two, and competed with 7 men in the 600 kilos. The team made a good recovery in the 680 kilos, winning the final after a tough pull with Felton Eccles. The team entered the 640 kilos in the final weight a little jaded, but still competed reasonably well, but finished outside of the top two positions. The team is hoping for a big improvement going into the UK championships at the weekend where we will be representing England A at 680 kilos.
The number of teams taking part was down on last year, and it was disappointing that certain teams did not support the event after we have supported their events numerous times over the years. The photo on the left is of coach Phil Marlow being presented with the 640 kilos shield by the Mayor of Macclesfield.
We went on to win the 640 kilos shield - a very prestigious trophy, after beating a very strong Norton team by 2 ends to 1 in the final,and we also won the open 720, 580 and 600 kilo competitions, whilst also finishing second in the open 640 kilos event. The picture on the left is of the Bosley open 720 kilos team.
Sam and Joseph Murphy (sons of Dave Murphy) taking part in the childrens fun pull which took place at the event.
The 640 kilos event was first and was pulled as a straight group of 9 teams. Bosley started off with some tight pulling against Breamore, Lakehill and Gortletteragh before meeting host team Boley in the 4th round. This pull was a really tough task for Bosley, with Bosley dropping the first end after recieving 3 cautions (the final one of which was picked up by our tack man - wasn't it Ben!). Bosley then went on to take the next two very tough ends to turn the pull round. Bosley then went on to defeat Llanboidy from Wales, Grove from Ireland, Killylough from Ireland, and Loftadalens DK from Sweden in the final round. (Picture above - Bosley 640 kilos team)
The four teams that progressed to the semi finals were Bosley, Boley, Lakehill and Braemore. Bosley were drawn against Lakehill, whilst Boley were drawn against Braemore. Both Bosley and Boley won their respective semi-finals by 2 ends to 0 to reach the final. The final was a good pull between both sides. Bosley attacked from the drop on the first end to try and get Boley under some pressure. After some steady pressure, Bosley managed to take some rope from Boley and had to work very hard to carry on taking it as Boley have a very good lift, and can still keep a very tight rope even if they have lost their positions. Bosley managed to keep atacking Boley and gradually edged them over the line to take the first end. The second end was equally as tough, but Bosley managed to just edge out Boley to take the econd end, and a hard earned win against the current European 640 kilos champions. (Picture above - Bosley competing in the final against Boley)
Bosley then competed in the 680 kilos competition, which was split into two groups. Bosley made a couple of changes from the 640 kilos team to bring the team up to weight. A little bit of fatigue started to creep into the team as the competition wore on and the team started to struggle, losing out by 2 ends to 1 against Loftadalens DK from Sweden, and then Lakehill by 2 ends to 0 in their final two pulls in the group, which meant that the team missed out on the semi finals. The 680 kilos was on by TTV Koapman from the Netherlands, with Boley winning silver, and Lakehill the bronze, with Loftadalens DK from Sweden finishing 4th. (Picture above - Bosley 680 kilos team)
At the end of the day the presantations were made, with the winning teams being presented with some really nice medals, which had been specially commissioned by the Boley team, and these will be very much treasured by our team members. The photo on the left is of Wood Treatment Bosley with the Boley team.
Paul Lamb providing a bit of Physio.
Eric Johnson and his son Ollie after the competition.
This weekend we won the catchweight, 680 and 660 competitions and finished 3rd in the 640 kilos competition. A full report is available on the Tug of War Association web site at 
This weekend we participated in a truck pull at WBB Minerals near Congleton at their annual open day, which involved quarry tours, as well as other attractions. Many other community groups and sports clubs were also involved in the event. This was in return from some sponsorship from the firm towards our trip to Sweden where we will be representing England at the World Outdoor Championships. Our thanks go to WBB Minerals for their kind donation. Below are a few photos taken during the day.
The truck pull involved pulling one of the WBB mineral tankers, as well as a racing truck. 
The team taking part in a photo shoot for the local press and the company magazine.
Another photo opportunity - this time in the bucket of one of the large trucks that operates at the quarry.
The team pictured with the racing truck.
At the national championships held at the West Midland Show, Shrewsbury, we won a remarkable 4 gold medals, winning the catchweight, 720 kilos and 680 kilos as well as winning the 640 kilos after defeating Felton Eccles in a very hard final. Felton Eccles had won the 640 kilos title for the previous 12 years in succession. We also competed very well in the 600 kilos finishing in 4th place behind Sandhurst, Norton and eventual winners Oxney Vines Cross. We will now go on to represent England at the UK championships in August, and the World Championships in September.
Rob Johnson - Recieving the 640 kilos national championships trophy from Tug of War Association president Mr. Tony Martin.