Pole climber pensioner to hit Ragley APF event

More than 50 of the world s top pole climbers will arrive at APF 2012 from 13-15 September at Ragley Estate, Alcester, Warwickshire to compete in the Husqvarna World 25m Pole Climbing Championships. This biannual competition involves the climbers racing against the clock to climb two giant 80ft poles. The two Douglas Fir poles are from Longleat Estate in Wiltshire. They are dug 14ft into the ground for stability. Both the world record holder, Grant Gallier (9.07 seconds), and the current world champion Matt Thomas, who won the 2010 championships in 10.13 seconds will compete in the 2012 event. The oldest climber is 79 year old George Tipping, who is climbing to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. He can still do the climb in around 25 seconds. The heats take place on the first two days with the finals being staged on Saturday afternoon The World Pole climbing Championships is one of a huge series of events taking place over the three days of APF 2012, other events include The European Horse Logging championships, the European Chainsaw Carving Championships, the World log to leg polelathe turning championships, as seen on BBC Mastercrafts, the UK forwarder driving championships, a woodland crafts area and 30 million of working forestry machinery.

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