Nick Hall

I have always armwrestled at school and at young farmers club. I was walking past my local pub (Rose & Bowl) and saw a poster for Neil Pickup’s armwrestling competition the following week. Sometime in 1996 I entered this competition along with a few mates and won my <90kg class. Neil approached me and said he saw good genetics for the sport and invited me to train with his club. Me and my younger brother started training with his club (NAWF) shortly after.

Training at that time with Neil Pickup, Chris Andrews, Mick Fielding amongst others. Took me a long time and a lot of hard work to learn toproll and hook pulling. I would like to thank all this who helped me along the way. I met Chris Murphy and Tony Greenwood and we started training in at our farm – cold nights in the barn, climbing scaffold bars and hours of wrestling,

I started Rossendale Armwrestling in 2003 – a club that has grown from 4 members to 12 since then. The club has had 10 British Champions (so far)We have trained in my dedicated training room with my equipment and now train at the local gym now the club has grown. My ultimate achievement was going to WC’s in Finland and taking a pin off an American in the hook.

Won lots of trophies, too many to mention. My next achievement was then 2001 British novice champ followed by no.3 in Belgium International championships.British right arm champ 2002

I am currently trying to grow the club steadily whilst devoting an equal amount of time to my own development, getting my left back upto full strength after I cut a finger off my left hand in 2006! I would like to thank all my club members for the support whilst I had my accident. I would like to extend this thankyou to Paul ‘Mighty’ Maiden and Julian Cini for the endless conversations and inspiration that prevented me from retiring. If anyone is interested in armwrestling and wants to train with us - please contact me on 01706 879 878 To be continued……..

 

 

 

Stuart Hall

Now thats a 'Secret'

 

 

 

Chris Murphy

Im Chris Murphy aka Mad Murf. I entered my 1st arm wrestling competition in 1997 at the age of 25. This was Iron Arm at Blackburn. I managed 3rd place in the lightweight class – giving me my 1st trophy. I didn’t get hooked on the sport until I became training partners with the infamous Hall brothers. My training paid off and I worked my way through the Novice rankings – becoming Novice Champion in 2001 and progressing into the professional rankings. I regularly finished in the top 3 in most competitions I entered (no mean feat when you have Stuart Hall and Craig Sanders in your weight class) I finally became 90kg British champion on my left arm in 2005.

Arm wrestling is a sport I am thankfully, pretty good at and I still enjoy the training and competitions after 10 years of pulling. You’ll be seeing me in many more comp’s in the future, so if your in my weight class, expect a good pull.

 

 

Chris Ham

I got into armwrestling through Nick Hall, who I had seen demonstrating armwrestling techniques at many a young farmers do. After many a drunken wrestle with my mates, I decided to give it a bash. I joined the Rossendale Crew in 2004 and was instantly hooked.I am currently 70kg British Champion on my right arm, and 2nd to Julian Cini on my left arm.  Cheers to The Shake, The Secret and Mad Murf for getting me here.

 

Tom Waddington

My name is Tom Waddington alias “Big Cat”,  I am 23 years old.  I started arm wrestling with my local Young Farmers Club. At one particular event I started talking to Nick Hall former British Champion about arm wrestling.  On that day I just happened to finish second, Nick was watching, he asked if I would like his growing Team at Rossendale to train me up so I could win next years competition.
 
An opportunity not to be missed!  So off I went to train at Bacup once a week. To train with Nick, Stu, Mad Murray, Tony Leigh , Chip Shop and sometimes Mighty Paul Madien.  I had found a hobby I liked, the year flew by and the Young Farmers arm wrestling competition was here again.  I scooped 1st prize thanks to all the training, and that was just the beginning, since then I have 3rd 2006 and 2nd 2007 at the British Novice Competition looking for a 1st now.  The best memory is when I beat Stan dickinson at Rossendale 3-2 which was a great pull, and of course my hero and inspiration is Paul Maiden
 
So watch this space cause I am here to stay……

Murray Stephen

I came across Armwrestling competitively purely by chance, Nick and Stuart Hall were holding weekly armwrestling sessions at Pioneer Health Studio in Bacup, in early 2006.

One of my work colleagues happened to mention this to me, as he knew; I had an interest by regularly wrestling mates in pubs on nights out really for a bit of fun. I actually thought I was quite good at it, that was until I tried wrestling with the “pro’s” the rest is really history. I joined the Rossendale team in July 2006, then slowly but surely began to get better at the different techniques under the supervision of Nick and Stuart.

I cannot say I have mastered them even now – as you would probably think you could pick it up right away. Over a year later I am still learning what I believe to be a very under-estimated technical sport.I have entered a few local competitions with a couple of 2nd places and a 3rd to my name in the novice circles, with the best results so far being 1st place in Preston Panthers Novice competition in March 07, followed by 1st place at the British Armwrestling Federation Novice Championships in July 07. In all my competitions I have entered the 85kg class.

I will continue to wrestle as a Novice, but it is inevitable that I will have to make the jump to the professional level at some time.

 

Darren Taylor

I got into armwrestling after meeting Nick whilst training at my local gym. I went to Rossendale Armwrestling training night and met Nick, Stu, Mad Murf, Spiky, Big Tom and Murray

I have been training now for 16 months and entered several competitions in the last 12 months. My first competition, I was grateful to Ted Wilson and Ian Stones for realising I was a novice when I drew them and not pulling my arm off. I wrestled a strong guy called Chris Waters and lost my first match in the straps. The next time I wrestled was at great comp organised by Keith Taylor from Preston Panthers – I won the novice competition at 65kg. I competed again at the 2007 British Novice Championships and managed 3rd place (I’ll be back for top spot next year)

I have listened to lots of advice from very experienced wrestlers and am keen to develop myself over the next couple of years. It is great training with the lads at Rossendale Armwrestling as they really do give 100% effort and encouragement. Although I am perhaps the lightest man in the club, I still benefit from pulling against the stronger lads.

I imagine I will bump into anyone who reads this at future comps – hopefully Rossendale Rampage if you’re all coming ??

 

Jack Heap

I have been armwrestling for years, initially for fun with friends and then later when I started to train with Nick and the Rossendale Crew.

I came 5th in this years British Novice Championships at 65kg and I am training hard to enter the Britiish Pro Championship later this year.

I will continue to train with Nick and the lads as I have a lot to learn from the experienced wrestlers. I can also wrestle some of the other novices in the club who are in and around my weight class.

Adrian Maguire

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terry Ackers

 

I started arm wrestling in 2005. I came across the sport whilst walking round the SENI Combat Show where I noticed the competition.My friend who I was with at the time challenged me to enter. To cut a long story short I got third place in the novice comp after the comp I noticed a guy with a Rossendale Arm Wrestling T shirt on and was keen to learn out more about arm wrestling. I asked if it would be possible to train with them – he was very helpful – he gave me his phone number and even arranged a lift for me. This person was Nick Hall My 1st training session was pretty full onto say the least – there was a multi club meet on, names like Stan Dickenson, Paul maiden, Stuart Hall to name but a few. Although I wasn’t aware of who these people were at the time – I could tell I was in the right place for training Nick spent a lot of time with me showing me the basics and developing my technique. He also introduced me to another wrestler – Ian Stones – who happened to live in the same town as me.

 

The first novice competition I entered was held by Pete White. At this comp I got 1st place in my weight category. After that I entered the British Championships, where I placed 4th on both arms. The following year I achieved another 4th place on the right and 2nd on my left at the British. Eventually my training paid off and I won my 1st title, 1st place on the left arm at Iron Arm 2006.

 

2007 has been a big year for me so far – I have won some big matches.At Arm Wars I won 2nd place on the left arm. I have also beat Steven Kirlew and Tony Leigh in Supermatches. I got 1st place on both arms at this years British Championships. To win the British I had to beat Sylvan Carty and Clive Ferguson on the left arm. My best match this year was at ArmWars against the Georgian, Ivane Kibilashvli. I gave him a good pull and at one point I had good hand control, but I panicked and lost the match.

 

My big goal for 2008 is to get 1st place at ArmWars. I would like to thank the Rossendale lads for their help and inspiration over the last few years.