Yorkshires Strongest Man 2011 Open and Novice

8th May - Yorkshires Strongest Man U90kg

Travelled down the day before with buzz. Had probably the best indian take-away ever, buzz convinced me it was a good idea. There was a wedding on, so after watching Britains got Talent we hit the hotel bar for some action. Nailed a few of the most expensive stellas ever in the hotel bar, saw some right gypsy looking folk and also some good talent so not too bad.

Weighed in on the day, arrived at 8.30ish. Never done anything crazy to make weight although I did take my phone and wallet out of my pocket before going on the scales. Was a couple of kilo under 90, fine.

Event 1 - Side Handle Car Deadlift : 6 Reps

Was up towards the end of this so saw people put up some good numbers in double figures. Having never used a deadlift frame before I didnt know what to expect or how it would feel. As pompy came off he said it causes alot of pressure to build up, like nothing he had expereinced before. He was right. I was up immediately after boar who got an amazing 25 reps. I failed the first, it really struck me how hard it was to grip because of the width then dug deep and managed a couple before failing again. I wanted to cry it was horrible but then macca started shouted at me so I ground out another couple of reps at a time and finished with 6. Probably over acheived a little with my deadlifting ability.

Placed joint 7th I think.

6 Points.


Event 2 - Medley of Doom :

Was up first on this against Boar. I was still shaking from the car deadlift. The tyre flip was changed to a loading of a digger bucket, suitcase farmer and keg. I was thinking it would have been better to be up towards the end on this so I could get a look at how everyone handled the weird objects. Done the farmers quick and easy, easy to grip no surprises. Just sorted of grabbed the digger bucket, was light enough so no problems. Same with suitcase farmer, bit awkward. The keg felt heavy by this point. I tried to set for it loading to save time as soon as I picked it up but got that wrong and had to reset before loading it so wasted a few seconds. Was a wee bit behind boar going into the drag. I didnt know what to expect but he was making good progress with it. Grabbed it and it started moving and then I started slipping all over the place. Fell a good few times and didnt finish, this cost me some potential points. A bit of inexperience showed here really. I havent loaded a keg in training in I dont know how long. I havent ever done a drag in training either. Maybe with a bit of practice I could have done better. Everyone else used climbing shoes by the looks of it which may have been a better choice of footwear.

Placed 11th.

3 points.

Event 3 - Monster Dumbell 55kg :

Had plenty of rest for this and was up towards the end. Liam was in the lead with 14 and I opted to copy his technique. I maybe had the wrong technique on the clean but managed to get it up. Didnt feel like it was sitting right, but I got good drive into it anyway so stuck with it. I banged out about 6 reps quickly, it felt easy to be honest when I got the line right. Lost concentration a bit in the middle missing a few reps at lock out. Found my rhythm agian and banged out 3 more. Got confused with the time at the end. Still managed to place 3rd with this which was decent enough, being beatin by boars 12? and liams 14. I maybe should have done better though. Next time, I'll just keep banging out reps until time is called instead of asking where I am.

11 Points

Event 4 - Bulmers Shaft :

I knew I would struggle with this, with my poor overhead and short limbs! Boar and other fellow shorties done well so I though I might have been in with a chance. 1 rep was enough for 6 points, 2 was enough for about 10. I had this in mind but never even managed to get a flip. Not happy but dont know what else I could have done.

0 Points

Event 5 - Yoke 250kg x15m x2 :
This was a good event for me on paper. When I was checking yoke height I noticed it was a really wide yoke and the bar was very narrow. Tried to find my normal bar position but couldnt get it. Set off, felt light but as I got going it just slipped off my back, could feel it from the start. Tried slightly different position when I picked it back up but again slipped off. Continued to drop it and pick it up trying different methods of bar position until I finished. 37s? (ish) Not good enough really but can't complain as I struggled with the equipment, having only used the one yoke in training. Came 5th maybe? Not too bad again but not what I'm capable of.

8 points.

Overall 8th place and 28 Points.

Placed round about where I would have expected. Having more practice on certain bits of kit I could of done much better but competitions dont always go well on everything and its on the day what counts!


I had a great expereince of the competition and was great to go up against some of the ESM u90 beasts. I have plenty to work on and ultimately need to bring my weak stuff up to speed as its way off. I should focus on gaining some decent strength without putting on too much fat in training for the next while. I could have weighed in U80kg probably utilising the day before weigh in. Its not idea when I was effectively giving up what could have been 10kg of weight. I need to focus on putting on muscle and hopefully in 2 years time I can be sitting at a better bodyweight to be able to do better!

Big thanks to everyone who helped organise the day, Gates and Graham. It was a fantastic competition. Big thanks to Macca the ref, never mentioned him much in the writeup but his calls where spot on and his shouting pushed me on a little in each event. Was good to meet some familiar faces and put some faces to names and speak to new people.

Have to say thanks to my man buzz for driving me down, letting me share his double bed in the hotel.

Pompy said:Youngy I showed my mate our deadlift video earlier and he said.... "yeah but that second lads a lot bigger than you aint he lol" t**t

kingham22 said:
Mr smalls you are just trying to give a complex or something I aint huge your just really small. And as lady gaga says I was born this way

Gra_Bul said:did anyone leave a huge pair of boots at our place on Sunday? just putting them in lost and found

Gra_Bul said:did anyone leave a huge pair of boots at our place on Sunday? just putting them in lost and found

Boar said:
are they my german army boots ?
ill have to see if i have them at home ...