Successful GENSB Junior International Tug of War Tournament Held at Keele University!
This weekend, The Tug of War Association had the honour of hosting GENSB 2024 at Keele University in Staffordshire.
GENSB was founded in 1998 by Germany, England, Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium (hence the name “GENSB”). The spirit behind the tournament is to bring young athletes, between 12 and 19, from different countries together to compete at an international level. At the same time, international friendships are formed and tug of war gets introduced to the youth.
Every year, each GENSB country gets the opportunity to organise the GENSB tournament, usually on the last Saturday of August, with the event attracting junior teams not only from the 5 GENSB countries, but also other countries. This year, the GENSB competition was also joined by teams from Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and South Africa with a total of 37 junior teams taking part on the day.
GENSB rules stipulate that the weight category is 560kg, teams can be single sex teams or mixed gender teams, can weigh in with between 7 and 10 pullers, and teams using female pullers get a bonus of an additional 10kg per female up to a maximum team weight limit of 600kg.
From an English perspective, we had 8 teams take part – Haldon, PRYFC, Upper Eden, South East Sharks, Kilroe, Holland TOWC, and two teams from Felton Eccles (Felton Eccles and Felton Eccles Alstar).
The competition was split into 4 groups with the top four teams progressing to the knock out stages of the competition. The groups were as follows:
Group A – Kilroe (England), G&B (Ireland), Loftadalens DK (Sweden), Ayrshire (Scotland), PRYFC (England), Fishguard YFC (Wales), Eibergen (Netherlands), Mix (mixed team of spare pullers), Berketrekkers (Belgium), Thurtal-Waldkirch (Switzerland).
Group B – Mosnang (Switzerland), Ballinastoe (Ireland), Mertensmannen (Belgium), Oele (Netherlands), Pfahlbronn (Germany), Haldon (England), Holland TOWC (England), Drostdy (South Africa), Sins (Switzerland).
Group C – Luthern (Switzerand), Ebersecken 1 (Switzerland), Brunnsbergs IF (Sweden) Streefkerk (Netherlands), Wieden (Germany), Hay-On-Wye Tigers (Wales), South East Sharks (England), Felton Eccles (England), TTV Powerrangers (Belgium).
Group D – Niilen (Belgium), Stans-Oberdorf (Swtizerland), Okia (Netherlands), Ebersecken 2 (Switzerland) Hovmantorp DK (Sweden), TSV Buch (Germany), Hay-on-Wye Panthers (Wales), Felton Eccles Alstar (England), Upper Eden (England).
England had a total of 8 teams competing which was fantastic to see. The following teams from England came out with the following results in the group stages:
Kilroe
Kilroe, whilst being a long standing club in the TOWA were competing at GENSB for the first time and started their campaign with a good 2 ends to 0 win against Eibergen, followed by a 1-1 draw with Ayrshire, 1-1 draw with Thurtal-Walkirch, 2-0 win against the mixed team, 1-1 against Berketrekkers, 2-0 win against Fishguard, Loftadalens, G&B and PRYFC and eventually finished in third place in the group to progress to the last 16.
Image credit: Jamie Dewsberry
PRYFC
PRYFC were competing in GENSB for the first time in the same group as Kilroe, and despite being very light competed really well throughout coming away with a good 2 ends to 0 win over Loftadalens DK from Sweden and went 1-1 with the mixed team to finish the competition with 4 points. Whilst this was not enough to progress from the group stages, it was a great experience for them and their final rank was 31st overall out of 37 teams – well done – we hope you all enjoyed your first GENSB experience!
Image credit: Michela Koch
Haldon
Haldon have had a senior team on the TOWA circuit previously and it has taken themselves a little while to re-establish themselves after not fielding a senior team in the first year back after Covid. The club has been getting back out on the Far Western Area circuit in recent seasons and this year has been competing with a junior team. They then entered GENSB, and gave a great account of themselves in the group stage starting off with a good 2 ends to 0 win against Pfahlbronn from Germany, then won 2 ends to 0 against Ballinastoe, a 1-1 pull against Mertensmannen, a 2-0 win against Holland TOWC, 1-1 against Oele, a 2 ends to 0 defeat against Mosnang and wrapped up the group with a 2 ends to 0 win against Sins. This put Haldon in third place in the group and they progressed to the last 16, a great achievement for another club at their first GENSB competition!
Image credit: Jamie Dewsberry
Holland
Holland were in the same group as Haldon and they started with a 1-1 pull against Oele, followed by a 2 ends to 0 defeat to Mosnang and Sins, before getting back on track with a win against Pfahlbronn, then losing out 2 ends to 0 to Haldon. They then went 1-1 with Ballinastoe, and then finished with 2 ends to 0 defeats to Mertensmannen and Drostdy. Whilst Holland TOWC have been an established club for a long time, this was another team competing at GENSB for the first time which was great to see, and whilst they didn’t progress from the group this time, they ranked 27th out of 37 teams. Well done!
Image credit: Jamie Dewsberry
South East Sharks
South East Sharks were a mixture of pullers from England pulling as South East Sharks. They started off their campaign with defeats to Streefkerk and Powerrangers, Ebersecken, and Weiden, before picking up a win against Brunnsbergs IF, and were then defeated by Felton Eccles before rounding off the competition with a win against Hay-on-Wye Tigers to finish on 6 points. This placed the team in 26th place out of 37 teams. Well done everyone involved in this team.
Image credit: Jamie Dewsberry
Felton Eccles
Felton Eccles are a long standing club in the TOWA who have had junior teams in the past prior to the formation of the GENSB competition, so this was the first time that Felton Eccles had competed at this event with a junior team. I nthe same group as South East Sharks, They started off with defeats to Powerrangers, Luthern, Ebersecken, and Wieden before finding their feet with wins over Brunnsbergs IF, South East Sharks, and Hay-on-Wye Tigers to finish on 9 points. This wasn’t enough to progress from the group stages, but left the team with a ranking of 23rd out of 37 teams, which was a good solid performance for another junior team in their first season. Well done!
Felton Eccles Alstar
This was the second Felton team competing in this event and they started with a tough 2 ends to 0 defeat to Okia and then Stans-Oberdorf, before defeating Ebersecken 2, Nijlen, Hovmantorp DK, Hay-on-Wye Panthers and then went 1-1 with TSV Buch before losing 2 ends to 0 to Upper Eden. This left Felton joint 4th with TSV Buch, however Felton progressed to the last 16 ahead of TSV Buch having received fewer cautions. Another great performance!
Image credit: Michela Koch
Upper Eden
This was the second year running that Upper Eden had competing at GENSB so were technically England’s most experienced junior team there at 2 years of competition. Upper Eden had a good group campaign, defeating Ebersecken 2, Nijlen Hovmantorp, Hay-on-Wye Panthers, TSV Buch, and Okia, before a 2 ends to 0 defeat to Stans-Oberdorf and a final round win against Felton Eccles Alstar to progress to the last 16 in second place.
Image credit: Jamie Dewsberry
The Last 16
England had 4 teams in the last 16 – Kilroe, Haldon, Felton Eccles and Upper Eden.
The last 16 line up was as follows:
Ayrshire (Scotland) vs Sins (Switzerland)
Powerrangers (Belgium) vs Okia (Netherlands)
Upper Eden (England) vs Streefkerk (Netherlands)
Mosnang (Switzerland) vs Berketrekkers (Belgium)
Thurtal Waldkirch (Switzerland) vs Haldon (England)
Ebersecken 1 (Switzerland) vs Felton Eccles (England)
Stans Oberdorf (Switzerland) vs Luthern (Switzerland)
Drostdy (South Africa) vs Kilroe (England)
All of the above were tough match ups and with any competition, it is sometimes down to the luck of the draw as to who meets who and when with may top sides left in the competition at this stage.
Upper Eden performed strongly to take a 2 ends to 0 win against Streefkerk, however the other three England teams unfortunately went down to hard fought 2 ends to 0 defeats in their last 16 matches. Notwistanding missing out on the next round of the competition, Haldon, Kilroe and Felton Eccles can be rightly proud of their acheivements in their first GENSB competition, with Felton Eccles finishing 16th, Haldon 14th and Kilroe 10th. Well done all of you – we know that you will have learned a lot from this experience and it is all good experience to take into next season!
By the time we got to the quarter finals, we were left with 4 Swiss teams, 1 English team, 1 Scottish team, 1 South African team 1 team from the Netherlands.
Upper Eden faced Mosnang from Switzerland who reached this stage of the competition on several occasions before, Despite a very strong performance from Upper Eden where they managed to unsettle the Swiss team, it was the team from Switzerland who emerged as 2 ends to 0 winners and they progressed to the semi final. Whilst Upper Eden missed out on the last 4 and the chance to compete for a medal, this was another great performance from the English team, and going out to the eventual winners is no disgrace at all. Well done all of you.
Photo: Mosnang from Switzerland celebrating their win in the final. Image credit Michela Koch
The eventual final was, for the second year running, an all Switzerland final between Ebersecken, who have won GENSB for the previous 3 years, and Mosnang. And what a final it was, going all the way to 3 ends, with Mosnang eventually taking the third end and snatching the title away from Ebersecken – congratulations to this years winners.
Switzerland also took the bronze medal, with Stans Oberdorf claiming the bronze medal against Ayrshire to make it another Switzerland one two three.
Mosnang lifting the GENSB Cup. Image Credit Michela Koch
From an England perspective, to have 8 teams competing is the most we have had at a GENSB youth tournament for a very long time, and each and every puller, coach, official, parents and the many volunteers who have made this possible can be rightly proud of what has been achieved this year.
So, what’s next?
The TOWA very much wants to continue to increase junior participation further, and we would like to see more senior clubs currently without full junior teams continue to get out there and recruit junior pullers to their teams. GENSB takes place in the Netherlands next year, and of course there will be our national championships where we run junior men, junior ladies, junior mixed and GENSB weight classes, and we very much encourage all TOWA clubs and Young Farmers Clubs to enter those. Then in September 2025, there is the small matter of England hosting the 2025 European Championships in Nottingham that will include the World Junior and Under 23 Championships where there will be both a club competition and the international competition. We would like to see a high level of participation from England junior teams competing in the open club competition in Nottingham, and we will be publishing more information about this event and how to participate very soon, so watch this space for further details!
Let’s keep working together and growing participation in junior tug of war!
If you want to hear what a great sport our juniors think tug of war is, listen to some of them talking passionately about the sport on BBC radio in the clips below in addition to some of the meet the puller clips we shared on social media too. Please give them a share on social media if you haven't already done so:
And finally – big events like this are no easy task to organise. Our thanks go to Keele University for allowing us to use their facilities, as well as the very many volunteers who helped organise the event over the past 12 months, and those who also helped out nearer to the time and on the day itself. There are so many people to mention that we haven’t listed names for fear of missing anyone out, but again, a massive THANK YOU to everyone – you know who you are!
As ever, Jamie Dewsberry took loads of great photos (thank you Jamie) which you can view on Facebook here – 
https://www.facebook.com/tow.jamie/photos
In addition, Michela Koch took a good selection of photos which can be viewed on Flickr here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/193175006@N07/albums/72177720319770418/
The final results book is here.
The full live stream of the event can be watched below:
