User:HarryBarber/The Barber Brothers - Tug of War Team

The Barber Brothers - Tug of War Team

The Barber Brothers were a tug of war team in 1949 made up of 8 brothers all with the last name 'Barber' who went from local to national standard in a matter of years.

The 8 brothers, along with their rough ages in 1949 were as follows: Abbey (19), Bob (32), Jim (39), Tom (34), Len (30), Peter (25), David (27), Bill (14).

It started at a local flower show where the brothers lived in Wickham Bishops, Essex. Abbey and Bob worked for a local builder who enetred tug of war teams into local flower shows and so coaxed by their employer Abbey and Bob entered the Barber team into their first competition, done so "for a laugh" according to those around at the time. The Barbers won the entire competition at the Wickham Bishops flower show easily and a News of the World article boasted their success in the competition.

The Barber brothers began to take tug of war more seriously after this first competition and started to train down by the local fishing lake using free weights and tripods to build strength and technique. Their next competition after heavy training was in Wantage, Berkshire in 1950, they played Ford Motors in the first round who they quickly became familiar with in their tug of war career and this first meeting saw the Barbers lose quite convincingly. The Barbers continued to train and travel across England competing, beating police teams more often than not but nonetheless they were losing more than they won at competitions nationwide.

Abbey and David decided after 3 years to sit down and work out why they weren’t winning as much as they should’ve been considering their overwhelming strength as a team, working out the tactic of keeping pressure and not heaving as much, despite having a fair amount of difficulty convincing the other brothers who eventually cercumb to the idea. After practicing this tactic they met Ford Motors again in a competition in Cambridge, having never beaten them went onto prevail with ease and never lost to them again.

With their new found success the Barbers proceeded to White City National Championships A.A.A in 1953 & 1954. In 1953 they progressed well but unfortunately didn’t win, 1954 saw the queen visit the championships to which the Barbers were very excited about and really appreciative of where they’d got themselves, they also pulled in front of her but sadly got beaten. In 1955 they attended the White City National Championships A.A.A again and faced Manchester’s ‘Mereside Tigers’ in round 1, Barbers won with ease. Round 2 saw them face Ford Motors yet again, beat them and proceed to Round 3 where they faced ‘Wimpy’, another old foe and after beating them found themselves in the final against RAOC (Royal Army Ordnance Corps). The Barbers put up a good fight but sadly lost earning themselves silver medals.

The silver medals at the National Championships was really the height of their career but the Barbers continued to travel around the UK winning local county shows including that of the Surrey County Show (1955) where they met the team ‘Newhore & Woodham Sports’ from Basingstoke who that year had won 24 out of 24, a much feared team in the world of tug of war but the Barbers beat them comfortably which did not go down well seeing the team from Basingstoke refuse to shake the hands of the brothers at the end of the match. They returned to the Surrey County Show in 1956 where they arrived to find out the secretary had forgot to register them leaving them illegible to pull much to the brothers dismay. 1956 also saw the boxer Dan Cockell run his own tug of war competition in Sussex to which the Barbers were kindly invited and went on to win and afterwards invited by Mr Cockell into his onsite caravan where they drank whiskey together.

Around 1955 the Barber brothers were invited to a police sports competition in Mavestone, Kent, they were the only non-police team where of all teams they could’ve faced it ended up being Essex police who were a combined 140 stone and well trained Round 1 versus the Essex police saw the Barbers win after one man on the Essex police side lost his grip mid-pull but knew that they had their work cut out to beat them in the next two pulls, the Barbers gave it all they had and managed to beat Essex police in the second pull claiming the victory, the brothers then went on to win the entire competition.

Sadly 1956 was the last year Alvin (Abbey) Barber pulled for the brothers having unfortunately lost his eyesight and being diagnosed with permanent blindness and being not able to pull any longer. The brothers continued to pull about half a year after losing Abbey, raising money for him in some cases but not getting far without their front man.

Many people asked the Barber brothers for their assistance in assembling tug of war teams to enter into competitions and follow in their footsteps and the Barbers helped where they could, one memorable lecture was to that of a sugar beet factory in Felsted, Essex where the Barbers helped them giving them healthy tips about how to become successful. The boys at the sugar beet factory thought it would be a laugh to see how many of their men the team of 8 Barbers could beat before they lost, they successfully beat all 16 of the sugar beet factory’s men.

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