The Hatchet, real name Scott Heaton - lifting this van with ease. He managed 18 lifts in 70 seconds under the watchful eye of the time keepers

Sponsor:
Lookers Renault, Northwich

300kg super yoke. The Rock - real name Wayne Tunstall, getting ready to start the race. For a lot of the competitors this was their first time ever attempting this event and so gave them a lot of problems. Wayne came 3rd in this event the winner was Reuben Cope with a time of 37.95 over the 25metres

Sponsor:
Brian’s Auto Centre

The Ripper doing the 300kg Conan’s wheel. When you meet Tony for the first time you will know why we gave him this name he stands at nearly seven foot tall and is all muscle. To add to this, the man is 53 years of age and still competing in strongman competitions all over the country - he has a wealth of knowledge so if you compete against him pick his brains for tips.

Sponsor:
Chem-Dry Charlie

Steel log lift. In this event we had two logs going at the same time but placed the competitors back to back so they could not see if their opponent had finished. The starting weight was 100kg; the last two still lifting at 125kg were Scott Heaton and Paul James. Paul was the eventual winner of this event, somehow making it look easy.

Sponsors:
CRS Consultants and Cleaning Force Office Cleaners Ltd.

The wheel barrow race. The skip’s weight is 200kg and then the barrels were loaded over a 25M course. The competitors pictured are Richard Smith and the ‘Pocket Rocket’ Peter Nolan who was the smallest man to compete on the day (at 14st) and Richard was the youngest at only 18, but that did not stop either of them from displaying a great show of strength.

Sponsor:
Ash Skips

This is Johnny Blower. We have a tug-of-war competition every year at the Festival for a trophy kindly donated by Johnny himself. John is paralysed from the neck down after a rugby accident. The money that is raised from the tug-of-war is donated to a charity of John’s choice. If you wish to enter a team in this year’s tug of war then download a form from the web site

‘The Iceman’ a.k.a Mark Hill looking cool and trying to psyhc out his opponent just before the wagon pull

A picture to show what a good turn-out we had on the day. Despite it raining throughout the night attendance was up on last year to just under 2,500