It is Richard Keightley’s 50th wedding anniversary in early December, and he could really do with planning something special to placate his longsuffering wife, Ann, after he unwisely described helping Great Britain win tug of war gold at last month’s World Games as “the best time of my life”.
Sadly for Ann, the date of their anniversary clashes with the National Indoor Tug of War Championships in Derbyshire, and there is only going to be one outcome. “What I always tell her is I’ve been doing tug of war since before I met her,” says a chuckling Keightley, fully aware he will be tipping the scales inside an agricultural hall in Bakewell right when his wife would relish breakfast in bed.
Keightley, 72, is a tug of war lifer: first club competition in 1971, first international honours in 1983 and, remarkably, still going strong into his eighth decade. “You kind of get addicted to it,” he says. “I’ve been all over the world doing it.”
Last month, it was Chengdu, China, where he was a reserve for Britain’s victorious men’s 640kg team at the World Games – the “Olympics” for non-Olympic sports (everything from pool to boules and lacrosse to wakeboarding). This weekend, it will take him a fair bit closer to home, when Nottingham becomes the first English host of the World Tug of War Championships for 25 years. For British pullers it is a summer like no other.
Men have been pulling ropes in the name of sport since ancient civilisations, with tug of war included in the Olympics from 1900 to 1920. These days it is firmly in the bracket of niche sporting pursuit, requiring participants to self-fund and offering no prize money to the few who emerge victorious. “You compete for medals, cups, pride and gratitude,” says Alan Knott of the Tug of War Association (Towa), England’s governing body. About 25 clubs are affiliated to Towa, alongside informal leagues, military events and young farmers’ competitions.
Keightley is one of the oldest competitors in a sport that does not discriminate by age. Although only a reserve in China – where Britain’s eight victorious pullers ranged from 23 to 56 years old – he formed part of the Lincoln team that won the national championships earlier in the summer and therefore earned the right to represent Great Britain at the World Games. In Nottingham, the victorious World Games team will compete as England rather than Great Britain.
“It’s not one of those sports where you need to be racing down a field chasing an 18-year-old,” says Knott. “It’s more about stamina and strength. It’s also how you work as a team, being able to read what the rope is doing and keeping your teammates calm. Experience counts.”
Keightley puts his longevity down to a lifetime of manual work as a carpenter – he is planning to build himself a house – mental stubbornness and refusing to relent from a gruelling training regime that tests the description of amateur pursuit.
Top clubs require group training twice a week, daily individual strength or running sessions, and competitions almost every Sunday. As a weight-categorised sport, there is also constant dietary pressure.
“Around Christmas, I usually weigh about 17 and a half stone,” says Keightley’s fellow World Games gold medallist Will Lee, 38. “But when I’m pulling, I pull at 12 and a half stone. That’s how much weight I have to lose throughout the year to be competitive.”
Lee, who runs his own building firm, estimates the total cost of all training and travel during his 24 years in the sport stretches well into five, or perhaps even six, figures: “It’s colossal.” Winning World Games gold in the blue riband men’s 640kg category made it all worthwhile. “When you compete at a World Games – and I’ve competed at three of them – they make you feel like a proper athlete,” he says. “It’s an amazing feeling. You’re a winner just getting to compete there, but then actually winning gold is another level. It’s such a surreal moment.”
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The dream now is to complete a historic double this weekend on home soil. More than 1,200 competitors will descend on the Midlands, representing 20 nations across different weight categories in men’s, women’s and mixed events. The two days of international competition on Saturday and Sunday are already sold out, with 1,250 spectators attending each day at the University of Nottingham. While Chinese Taipei are the predominant women’s nation, Switzerland had long been the team to beat in the men’s 640kg discipline until Britain turned the tables from the previous World Games final last month.
“It’s good that people are chasing us for a change, and we’re not chasing the Swiss,” says Lee. “There’s nothing like pressure. Pressure is good. Hopefully we can do the double and that would be job done.”
Keightley was due to compete in the open club competition on Thursday and Friday before again serving as a reserve for England over the weekend. Whether a golden summer would provide a career swansong seems unlikely. “There’s got to be a point that I stop,” he says. “I keep thinking I’ll do one more year.
“I always keep myself busy though. When I build this house it will be the third I’ve built for myself. That’s the type of person I am. I just cannot sit still.”
