Charity pull of Fire Engine and airplane

[Steve Gardener]

Team Consortium made up of members of Gymantion in Alfred Street in Gloucester (a community based gym) and members of the Whey Consortium team who train in nearby Hopewell Street are asking for your help in raising funds for Childline.

What we are doing
On Saturday the 1st of September 2007 as part of the Barton Fayre procession we are pulling a fire engine weighing as much as 13 tonnes fully laden from outside the Olympus theatre, Barton Street to the Guildhall, Eastgate Street. This will involve us pulling the tender into the town centre on what might well be the busiest day of the summer. At the head of the precession will be the Town Crier, then a marching band, Majorettes and us. On board will be Bartons's new major and other VIP's.


The following weekend (8th Sept) we are pulling an BAE 146-100 which can weigh between 29 and 35 tonnes (lightest model - some go to 45 max when fueled) at Kemble airfield. Chevron Technical Service will be asking an owner for permission to use one of the planes they service and Glen Moreman (ops @ Kemble) has set aside an area for us to use. We have a few events planned including (if time etc allows) a race between us and CTS engineers.


how you can help
We're looking for both commecial and personal sponsors to help us raise as much as possible for this years If you can help - be it a £5.00 note from your wallet or £500.00 from your company it will all be going to a great cause.

If you are a commercial sponsor we may be able to help promote your company. If sufficent funds are raised I'd like all the lads involved in either pull to be wearing Team Consortium themed T-shirts. I'm more than happy for other companies involved to share t-shirt space with each other. The lads will happily pose for photos before and after. All will be considered.

I've seen evidence of this sites members before... please see if you can spare a few quid on what will be Childlines 20th Birthday year. For more info on what Childline does look here: www.childline.org.uk/

Please feel free to PM or email me via the site or using [e-mail]

[elias]

Congratulations Steve. I was at the fayre today, some awesome lifting and strength feats!! Didn't make it to the fire engine pull. Did anyone take any pics?

[Steve Gardener]

yes - check out the Citizen website

[Steve Gardener]

Let's start with the lead up. I was busy the last few days and stopped training Wednesday so as to have plenty of power to use come Saturday. The extra training, as per my logs elsewhere, consisted of dragging a loaded pallet (about 170-180 kilos) around our yard a lap at a time. I never seemed up to more than a lap at a time but did find that I was recovering quicker and quicker as time went on.

Thursday had me doing a telephone interview for the weekend bulletin on BBC Radio Gloucestershire as well as a bunch of emails and phone calls with the BBC radio team and NSPCC / Childline's rep to deal with. Friday I was up to One Eyed Jacks for the live radio interview and am pretty sure all got a mention. My other memory of the afternoon was me leaning further and further back as the microphone got ever closer to my mouth. For a moment I had visions of toppling over the wall I was sat on! I also made sure to check and set out everything needed for the following day (or so I thought - see later).

Come Saturday and as is want with these kind of things any planned schedule I had in mind went out of the window. I had been asked to do a 10am photo op which turned into a 1045 or later 'op'. Regardless I had someone take some photos of myself and little Hamza Atcha in case it all went belly up.

Talking of which... I had hoped and planned for 8 or 9 big healthy lads turning up but this quickly turned into 4 with us almost mugging poor Rod when we saw him at the event shortly before the procession kicked off. Mike (Whey Consortium), Alf (Gymnation), Malcolm (Gymnation) and myself (Whey Consortium) formed the main crew with Rod shoved in at the back. Various phone calls etc were made but we had no time to set others up as we wanted to. I was fairly sure we'd make it but not in the way I had wanted to.

Alan Myatt had rung at 9pm Friday and arranged with me to have us at the back, thus giving is the room to play with that we needed. Only a loud Samba band followed us (I think I still hear the beat now ha ha). The time to set off arrived and so we were away. As we'd pulled similar vehicles in the past we knew the problem was more the distance and any lumps and bumps we needed to get over. But, as Mike said over my shoulder half way up Eastgate Street, we could have passed the rest of the procession and arrived first. The biggest problem was stopping and restarting and the first hiccup came at a speed bump. We were all of five feet away and doing a dead start to get over it when what we'd need is a little of a run up.

However, although tough we all gave it the necessary welly and cracked on. The main road junction was as tough as I thought it would be put the next stretch was very easy only made hard by a stop and when we were ready to set off tender driver Tim Cox was handing out business cards... I think it was at this point we noticed poor Rod had dropped out. He trains but obviously not to the level of the guys pulling and found it very hard going. He rejoined us at the shopping centre only to be seen absolutely shagged out on a bench when we walked back.

My daughter Chanel, fiance Lee, Tania (Alf's other half), Julie, Ethan and Ashley (Mikes Mrs and children) were all doing their bit taking photos, shaking charity buckets and so on and are deserving of our thanks - cheers Guys and Gals. Two other young Gymnation lads helped at the very end - I didn't get their names - but their help was also gratefully received.

A quick natter with some faces in the crowd and a well deserved cool drink for those doing the pull itself and I had an hour or two before my show. 2.15 or so saw me towing a pallet laden with the tools for my act and around 2.45 I started to lay it out in readiness... so where were the wraps, where's the one hand lift handle??? Arrrgghhh!! With minutes to go Lee and Chanel popped back but came back with one or two bits but no handle or heavy chain (d'uh!). A quick word in the Compere Ian's ear and I'm legging it back myself. Thanks to one of the other entertainers and Ian's efforts they kept the crowd warm for me and I even ended up having to wait.

As some of the equipment would have come through the stage I stuck with street level and so, grabbing another Gymnation member as my less than glamorous assistent, I was able to do the close up work of nail bending (no good if you are up on stage). Lee showed how hard it was by barely getting one going whereas I did the business and ended up finishing it bare-handed. Onto a frying pan for the usual rolling up and then I dispatched 2 1000 plus page Argos brochures - as you do. Next up was the dangerous looking but relatively easy hammer and axe to the face and then the Inch dumbbell was rolled out and again Lee didn't budge it while I repped it out. I was fortunate enough to remember to do it three times to all three sides of the crowd.

Finally my 'assistent' and I set up the one hand lift bar, chain and handle and I cranked out 160+ kilos and a 215-kilos no probs. On went the belt, more weight and a little chalk and I did 671 lbs or 305-kilos easy as you like for the finale. With Ian working the crowd for me and a fairly quick pace it seemed to go well.

Onwards to next weeks plane pull...

[Steve Gardener]

[elias]

How did the plane-pull go today in Kemble?

[Steve Gardener]

Photos.

The first is the small crew we had to pull the fire engine. Obviously taken before we left as we still look fresh. Towards the end Rod was replaced by one of the younger Gymnation lads. I have a great photo in which you can see just how badly Rod was suffering (poor sod).



L-R Malcolm (GN and with his son), Rod, myself, Alf (GN and laughing away) and Mike



In the next we are off down Barton Street. Note how high the rope is. Ideally you want it the same height as the fixing point but that was 2 feet off the ground so...



Then we have the crew at Kemble. Included was James from CTS without who's help it would not have taken place. L-R is James and staff member from CTS, Carl (whey) Anthony (whey), Mike Smith (from Mick Harts' No Bull crew - coughed up blood after from his chest condition), Mike Betty (whey), Neville (in back and from Gymnation), Harry Shahlaei (whey), Tony Smith (from and gymnation), Laurence Shahlaie (whey), Malcolms son (front), me (whey), Maclom (gymnation) and Alf Squires (gymnation)


Finally we have a mocked up photo of the pull. In reality every single one of us was facing away and working like dogs to get it done. But then you'd not see how handsome we all are