While many sports were deep in winter hibernation, December saw the pullers of the Irvinestown-based Country Club tug-of-war team straining their way to three major titles.
First off they took the 680kg Northern Ireland Tug Of War Association (NITOWA) title. Then they won the 600kg crown before claiming big one, the 560kg title, seeing off competition from Ballyhegan and Richhill. Northern Ireland have held the World Championship crown in the 560kg class for the past eight years, giving an indication of the world class calibre of the competition locally.
Stephen Hunter has been a core member of Country Club ever since a chat with his cousin Marcus Hunter, the club trainer, first saw him lifting the rope. Indeed tug-of-war has become something of is a family affair for Hunter with his son Simon pulling for the club and his Nadine daughter coaching the team at competition.
Tug-of-war is an intensely demanding sport. It comes down to basic physics, who can generate the greater power to weight ratio. But the work that goes into mastering that equation is truly eye-watering.
“A lot of people don’t realise that it’s not just a case of turning up and lifting the rope,” says Hunter. “When it comes around to a world championships we train five nights a week. A night’s training consists of a 3.8 mile run then we do an hour on the rope and then every Saturday, and Sunday sometimes, we’ll have competitions.
“The big men tend to do the big weights, but at world level the big men have to slim down. Some men would be losing in the region of 20 kilos, about four stone. That’s not easy done, it’s case of watching your diet closely, training hard and sitting in the sauna in the Manor House. We have one or two boys who have done their Body Mass Index (BMI) and they would have the BMI of an athlete.
“You can be naturally handy lifting a cricket bat, a rugby ball, soccer or Gaelic and you can get away with it on the playing field, but when you pull tug-of-war there’s no hiding place. If you don’t put the work in you’ll get nothing out,” said Hunter.
And it’s not just the physical training. Country Club pull in Fivemiletown College, so the club invested time in finding the best mat available to allow them pull lower and harder. The shoes the pullers wear are purpose built to generate the maximum grip. No stone is left unturned.
They are self-sufficient too, Rob Lew Engineering providing a bit of sponsorship, but apart from that they pay their own way, which is surprising given they are one of the few Fermanagh outfits consistently delivering titles at world level.
Pulling at one with Country Club regularly sees Hunter racking up the miles to venues like Clonmany in Donegal and Kingscourt in Cavan, but over the course of the next month the sights will be set slightly further afield.
“We are going to the Dutch championships in February. That’s at the beginning of the month, then at the end of the month we are going to Glasgow to represent Northern Ireland in the UK championships,” said Hunter.
“Our goals for the year are to go to Holland and win gold at the Dutch championship and do well. Then we intend go to the UK championships and pull in the 600kg class and do the best we can and we are also going to enter the 680kg class as Northern Ireland B.”
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