The Tug-of War was a tough game, where team work was essential. In the post war period, the City of London Police Tug-of-War team trained in the Barbican area: Eric Trowell and Stan Wiseman were in the team in the 1960s and 70s. They described the training and the competition in the book ‘the City of London Police Athletic Club, 100 years of Heroes’: Training took place in the Barbican which in those days was a bomb site. Around the back there was a churchyard where the actual pulling training was done. It was a site of a mass burial ground and when we dug in we would often kick up the odd skull or femur. We would actually start training by doing a run then a quick circuit. Then it was straight into the pulling. We built, over a deep hole, a scaffolding tower with a pulley and hook. Hanging from the hook was a 50 gallon oil drum, which we filled with bricks and rubble. This way we could adjust it to how heavy we needed it. It was usually filled so we could only just raise it. Then we would pull it to the top of the tower and hold it for as long as the coach said. It was always a three or four minute hold and by the end your hands would be cramped, your forearms felt like lead and your legs were shaking. But the worst was your guts, they always felt they were hanging out. We followed this by a run and then back on the rope. The training would last one to two hours, two or three times a week. Occasionally we would get a team from the Post Office or Whitbreads to give us a pull. But in the end you had to hang on the role. Everyone hated it, but there was not substitute. Weights, circuits, running were all good, but the rope was God. Eric describes the actual Tug-of-War. Trowell in the 1969 team: “First we would have glue slapped on our hands. This was a mixture of resin and petrol boiled up in a can. This glued your hands to the rope so you couldn’t let go. If you did it tore the skin off your hands. Once you took hold you had to hang on until the pull was over. “We would line up with the shortest at the front., the biggest at the back, take your distance and then put your right foot under the rope and wait. The referee would then say, “Take up the rope”, and you hook the rope up and take hold getting as good a gript as possible. The referee would then say, “Take the strain”, everyone would stamp their left foot in the ground and drop. Then there would be a pause that lasted forever. You went weak, your legs went hollow, you wanted to run off, and then you’d hear it, the referee would shout “PULL”!!! and you were down and pulling.”
Press A to find out more about the 1920s Olympic Tug-of-War 28. Press B to find out more about City of London Police Tug of War team