2022 AAA Outdoor Tug of War Championships Results
The 2022 AAA Outdoor Tug of War Championships were this year held in conjunction with the Midland Area Open Championships with Stratford-upon-Avon Rugby Club in Warwickshire providing the venue as a last minute change after the Midland Area committee were unable to stage the event in Alcester.
There was a reduced attendance of clubs at this years AAA Championships, but there was still some competitive pulling on the dry and dusty ground. The clubs that participated were as follows:
Men – Lincoln, Felton Eccles, Sandhurst, Bosley (A and B), York.
Ladies – Sandhurst, Army, Bedford, Melton Mowbray (A and B), Bosley
Photo: Felton Eccles
The mens catchweight competition opened the proceeding and the defending AAA catchweight champions were Lincoln. Lincoln performed strongly in the group rounds to top the group without losing any ends. Felton Eccles finished as group runners up ahead of York. Lincoln and Felton Eccles met each other again in the final which Lincoln went on to win by 2 ends to 0. Photo: Aidan Wheeler of Lincoln
You can watch a video of the 2022 AAA catchweight final below.
The next round of AAA competitions saw the ladies 520kg and mens 640kg competitions take place.
In the ladies 520kg competitions, Bedford Ladies were the defending AAA Ladies Champions and they won all of their group round of matches without losing any ends ahead of the other ladies teams that were entered which included Bosley, Sandhurst, Melton Mowbray and the Army. There was a close battle for the second spot in the final between the other clubs which went to Melton Mowbray Ladies with the Army Ladies finishing in third. The final was between Bedford Ladies and Melton Mowbray Ladies with Bedford Ladies again performing strongly in the final to win the gold medal by 2 ends to 0. Photo: Army Ladies
You can watch a video of the ladies 520kg AAA Championship final below.
The 640kg AAA competition was contested between Sandhurst, Felton Eccles, Bosley, Lincoln and York with this years event resulting in a new name being added to the trophy as defending champions Norton were not competing at the event. Lincoln continued their strong performances that we have seen throughout the season so far by topping the group without losing an end. This left the other teams battling it out to see who would finish as group runners up to join Lincoln in the final. The runners up spot eventually went to Sandhurst who put in a creditable performance to get ahead of the other teams. Before the final a third / 4th place match was contested between Bosley and Felton which Felton won by 2 ends to 0. In the final, Sandhurst and Lincoln faced each other. Sandhurst last won the AAA 640kg title in 1983, and Lincoln last won the title in 1984 meaning that a gold medal for either team in the AAA 640kg championship was a long time coming. Sandhurst put up a great fight in the first end to keep Lincoln at bay, but Lincoln proved to be too strong in the end to take the first end. On the second end, Sandhurst were unable to put up the same level of resistance and Lincoln took the second end for the gold medal to make it a AAA double. Photo: Sandhurst
The AAA 640kg final can be watched in the video below.
The open competitions saw 3 mens weights at 600, 640 and 680 take place, as well as 3 ladies weights at 520, 540 and 560 take place, followed by the mixed 580kg competition. All of these competitions were run as points competitions.
The 600kg was a competitive weight class, but it was Lincoln who dominated the proceedings by winning the group without losing an end. There was some close pulling for second place with Felton and Bosley A going 1-1 first on, with Sandhurst beating Bosley A and Felton then beating Sandhurst. Bosley B and York also had a tough battle which went 1-1. After all of the dropped ends throughout the competition, it was Felton Eccles who finished as the eventual runners up. Photo: York taking the strain
The ladies 540kg saw Melton A and B, Sandhurst, Bedford and the Army take the field. Bedford Ladies continued to dominate the proceedings without losing an end, with the battle for second place being won by Melton A.
The 640kg competition and ladies 520kg competitions were next on the field with Lincoln and Bedford Ladies dominating these competitions respectively. Felton Eccles finished as the runners up in the mens 640kg competition and Army Ladies finished as runners up in the ladies 520kg competition.
The final mens and ladies weights were the 680kg and 560kg competitions. The 680kg competition saw Lincoln make it another clean sweep of mens weights by finishing as 680kg winners with Felton Eccles finished as the runners up ahead of the rest of the field. Bedford Ladies won the ladies 560kg competition with Melton A finishing as the runners up. Photo: Bosley Ladies
The final weight of the day was the mixed 580kg. Unfortunately only two teams entered this weight class – Bosley A and Bosley B. Bosley A finished as the winners of this weight class by defeating their B team by 2 ends to 0.
Officials on the day were Ray Fray-Smith, Pete Dyer, Roger Beardsmore, Gavin Corden, Dave Kitchener, Mike Callaghan, Wendy Dyer, Caroline Kenny, Mark Williams, Mick Grimston, Sarah Gallagher.
The next event taking place in the TOWA Calendar is the annual Great Ormond Street Charity event organised by Len Hall in Daventry, Northamptonshire. This is an open competition that is open to all TOWA and non-TOWA teams and all teams are welcome to attend. Further information about this event and other events taking place around the country this season are available on the Fixtures page of this web site
