A bit of a tug
At the time this happened I was attending a large secondary comprehensive in East London. We had a couple of PE teachers, and they would give us the option of splitting up for activities, football, basketball, hockey, swimming, etc. Now I always used to pick swimming, never a great one for hand eye co-ordination, or team activities.

So me and a couple of other lads were sitting around waiting to be taken to the local baths, when a PE teacher said it was cancelled. Too late to join up with the other activities, so he told us to get changed, and go to the gym hall.

The reason for this was because we had a tug of war team (3 to be exact, split into years above me.) and they were this PE teachers pride and joy. And today there was a tournament against a posher school.

So, after being told to sit on a bench, we then had to watch each year battle it out (best of 3 for each year). Of course our school was thoroughly trounced. Our teacher was heartbroken and dispirited. But then he had a bright idea, to cheer his lads up and give the other school a bit of a laugh, Let's have a tug of war with the misfits on the bench, as their was enough of us to make a team. Now to look at us, we were a mismatched bunch. Me the odd one, the skinny as a rake kid, the fat kid, the kid with the thick glasses and a squint, I could go on, but you get the picture. We weren't friends as such, but we recognised each others faults, and lived with it.

So he put us up against our youngest school team first (still a year above us). What the thick dolt hadn't realised was that we had been
watching and discussing why our school was losing and the other school kept winning. So quick team talk between the lot of us and away we went. we won on the first 2 rounds, and won the match.

The other schools PE teacher offered us a go against their team. Beat them as well.

Next, our middleweight team. Beat them.

Other school middleweight team. Same again.

We were pissing ourselves, and you could see both the PE teachers stumbling headfirst into disbelief and apoplexy.

So, onto the heavyweights. Now we were all aged 12 at the time, and these fuckers were about 15/16. And hairy with it. There could have been a touch of the Mungo in there somewhere. They glowered at us, hinting at the kicking we were going to get.

We took on our school first. No problems, beat them on the first 2 rounds.

Then finally the other school team. By this time we were in a strange situation. We were being cheered on by our school when we were competing against the visiting school, then vice-versa.

We won the first round, difficult, but got there. The second pull we lost. The crowd groaned. At this point we were well and truly knackered. We'd just done 10 rounds straight, whilst the other teams had done a max of 2 each, and had rested inbetween. We gathered round, and had a pep-talk, trying to gee ourselves up.

The final round. By God these blokes were strong, and it was lasting for what seemed ages. We kept losing ground, but suddenly from nowhere, we started to inch back, and inexorably gained ground until finally we got them over the line.

Both the schools went wild and cheered. The beaten team came up and shook our hands. The visiting PE teacher made a remark to our teacher about just using us for the tournaments in the future.

After the furore had died down, our PE teacher walked over. We waited for some words of praise, some recognition of this amazing feat that we had managed to achieve. His words were 'End of lesson, go back and get changed'. And that was it. The churlish fucker.

Popped my posting cherry.
Sorry about the length, about 35 metres.
(GhostAtTheFeast Soup Sir?, Tue 24 Nov 2009, 20:56, 6 replies)

I don't get it...
what was your secret?
( kingoffools, Tue 24 Nov 2009, 21:27, closed)

So...
...was there some secret technique you were using, or was it just mad tugging skillz? So to speak.
(Sir Harrington Titsmith disgraced himself on, Tue 24 Nov 2009, 21:33, closed)

The secret of our success
We'd realised that the posh school tugged in rhythm,
whilst our school just strained away. So we just copied the posh school.

Speaking for myself, I lived on the 14th floor of a block of flats, I hated
the lifts, so I'd run up and down the stairs at least 4 times a day.
Sometimes carrying a Raleigh Chopper.
(GhostAtTheFeast Soup Sir?, Tue 24 Nov 2009, 22:37, closed)

Ah
I see. Rhythmic tugging. It has served me well too.
(Sir Harrington Titsmith disgraced himself on, Wed 25 Nov 2009, 12:22, closed)

this is like
a distillation of every 80s teen flick. and that's a very good thing. could only be made better if you turned into a wolf half way through, but were still accepted by your peers.
(Alphabet Soap boshboshboshbosh, Wed 25 Nov 2009, 10:00, closed)

and got the girl
Don't forget the big haired blonde girl...
(wackywavinginflatablearmflailingtubeman Hi, I'm Al Harrington..., Wed 25 Nov 2009, 11:39, closed)