Weekend of sport

This weekend has been more sporty than I've had for many years, unfortunately I wasn't participating, just watching.

On Saturday the roller girls hosted their first bout of 2011, and as a member of the team I had to be there to support them, but also to help out.

Along with Jo, I was selling raffle tickets to everyone possible as they came in (over 300 people!) and during halftime - we sold out!

Photo by Peter Marshall

The bouts were great, Sheffield vs. Middlesbrough and we won by rather a large margin 185 to 34! The girls did so well. Ponds Forge is a great venue, and it was great to see so many people turn up from around the country, teams from Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, London and beyond. I even spoke to one girl on holiday from Australia!

The real entertainment came later, with the boys bout. Made up of refs from across the country they really held no prisoners! It's easy to see why mixed sex derby doesn't happen - we'd be flattened! The boys are much more violent, and watching them is very entertaining.

I didn't go to the after party as I had to be up early the next morning for the next sport of the weekend - Tough Guy Challenge.

Richard and his friend, Stuart, had signed up for this totally mad race on a farm near Cannock. We met up in a hotel car park and went to the donkey sanctuary where the event I'd held, along with 1000s of ore people, over 3000 people are mad enough to enter (many appeared to be forces people).

Stuart and Richard hadn't seen the course so we wandered around for a bit, which might have been a mistake as they quickly became aware of what they were attempting! The plan was for me to locate them near the beginning, and then attempt to follow them round taking photos.

But with so many people, so much mud, and the fact that it was impossible to work out the route of the course, I only saw them once and that was quite near the beginning.

I stood near one part of the course for an age but didn't see them and honestly started to worry about them, especially when I saw the state of some of the people who came through. In fact many of them looked so much in pain that it almost seemed wrong to be watching!

I gave up searching for Richard and decided to wander around taking photos of other participants, and make my way back to the start/finish to find Richard and Stuart.

There were people everywhere, mud and bloody splattered participants, and spectators looking for friends and relatives. Richard and Stuart found me, and they looked wrecked but much better than i'd expected! Tales of electric probes, dark tunnels and freezing cold mud and water, but I have no doubt that both will enter Tough Guy again!

Selection of my photos from Tough Guy 2011