Tug-o-War
THE GAMES : Tug-o-War
The Tug of War - or rope pulling - is a centuries old game that pits two teams against each other in a win or get mud on your face contest of strength and endurance. The sport apparently originated somewhere in China, probably as a contest of strength between two kingdoms, or a spat over whose rope was made better!
Without stating the obvious, Tug of War involves the two teams trying to gain ground on each other by pulling on a length of rope. There needs to be an equal number of people on either side of the rope and the total team weight needs to meet certain requirements if the team wants to compete professionally.
The rope is marked in the centre with a flag (or, more likely, the handkerchief of a bonnie young lass!). The team that pulls the centre marker into their side across a demarcated line, is victorious. It is much more fun to have a pit of mud between the two teams to motivate them, and for the victors to pull the losers into - isn't competition a wonderful thing?!?
Tug of War even had a shortlived appearance in the Olympic Games when it featured between 1900 and 1920, but then apparently wasn't considered to be 'Olympic' enough and fell away.
Pulling the rope... The Tug of War is famous for helping Max Ringelmann discover the so called 'Ringelmann Effect' - he noticed that the more people added to to a pulling team, the less the force exerted by each person will be...because basically people are lazy when in larger groups! (otherwise known as 'social loafing').
The Fort Nottingham Tug of War features contests against the various Defence Force teams and the locals - who as mentioned elsewhere, have been training hard in the local Notties Pub!
