Richhill Tug of War Club

I will try to get them re-uploaded at a higher quality if possible, splitting the video has caused it to decrease considerably.

Richhill successfully defended their crown as champions of the world, representing Northern Ireland in the 560kg competition. They beat England in the final.

Northern Ireland progressed through the group stage of the Championship finishing second behind England after being blown out in both ends of the group stages. Scotland and Netherlands joined both Northern Ireland and England in the semi finals.

The first end went to Northern Ireland against Netherlands, however in the second end Northern Ireland were blown out for 3 cautions. With a third end looming Northern Ireland pushed Netherlands the whole way to pave the way for their appearance in the finale.

In the other semi final Scotland faced England, in the group stages they took an end each. With a final spot up for grabs England took the initiative pushing the Scots out, in the second end however Scotland fought back to bring it to a third end tie breaker. If only it was as simple as one more end for either side to get into the final as on two occasions a no pull was declared, meaning it took 5 ends for England to finally book their place in the final and deny Scotland the chance to try go one step further than in Faenza two years ago.

As Northern Ireland and England prepared Scotland had a third place pull off against Netherlands to contend with. The first end went to the Dutch, however not to be outdone they fought back in the second again and beat them. In the deciding pull Scotland were able to give it that bit more and earn themselves a Bronze medal.

With so much excitement leading up to the final, one had to wonder how it could live up to the ends that preceded it, but it did not disappoint. In the first end England pushed from the offset and slowly gained rope on Northern Ireland, however with them midway Northern Ireland stopped them in their tracks and began to take rope back, before they were taking the whole way they were blown out for 3 cautions.

Richhill were just one end away from winning back to back World Championships but with what had happened previously it was never going to be that simple. During the 2nd end there was 3 no pulls, every one of them being just like the very first end but unfortunately Northern Ireland were unable to sustain the pressure long enough to push England over the line.

Now into their 5th end both teams where clearly struggling. Again this end continued in the same vein as the previous 4 with England pushing Northern Ireland a few feet, however this time Northern Ireland responded, pushing them on with England again being blown out for 3 cautions.

With that came an amazing achievement for Richhill, back to back World Championships for their country. A small panel of men from a small village in Rural Armagh went out onto the World Stage and proved once and for all that they are one of the top teams in the World, removing any doubt that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Eight members of Richhill Tug of War Club attended the opening ceremony to represent Northern Ireland at the World Championships, a member of Country Club’s 600kg team and the Glens of Antrim Ladies Team was also in attendance. The spectacle involved speeches from numerous members of TWIF, Italian Sports Ministers and the Mayor of Cesenatico. The ceremony was closed with an acrobatics spectacle highlighting TWIF’s 50th Anniversary.