JandalTan: July 2013

We caught the train out to Balloch on the shores of Loch Lomond yesterday to see their annual highland games. The games included many ancient scottish competitions including the caber toss, hammer throw, shot put, backhold wrestling, tug of war and 80m sprints; as well as a few modern events like triathlon and cycling (albeit around a grass track on road bikes). There were also piping and highland dance competitions. It seemed that where ever you looked there was something going on.

The games where really well attended mostly by tourists, but it certainly had a rural New Zealand feel to it with everyone getting involved and lots of involvement for children. It reminded us of the A&P days back home. The announcer over the loud speaker was classic, commentating events off the cuff i.e. in the 200m race "and the're off down the first straight, it appears that we have two number 5's in this race... down the final stretch and yes first place for number 5, second place to number 2 and third also taken by number 5".

Lots of the events had a few girls and boys of all ages so they would use a handicap system whereby some started further back. Amazingly a 74 year old man was racing, he was still pretty quick and was a clear crowd favorite in the running events. The handicap system was so good all competitors seemed to finish evenly on the line.

The caber toss was easily the most novel and entertaining event, with the "World Heavyweight Championship" hinging on a successful toss. We witnessed almost a dozen big fellas toss the caber with only two managing to throw it end over end - with the crowd roaring with applause. The caber toss is not a competition of distance but of style.

The caber toss looks an extremely difficult event. First the competitor must slowly grip lower and lower down the caber making sure it doesn't fall over. The technique requires the shoulder to be pressed up against it whilst gripping the other side. Once at the bottom, the caber is lifted straight up, balance is needed to make sure it continues to stay upright. Then its a matter of balancing the huge caber forwards slightly and quickly moving forward with it building momentum until the final heave upward when the caber becomes airborne.

The best throw will see the caber go end over end then fall in the 12 o'clock position on the ground. The dimensions of the caber can vary hugely but the one used at Balloch weighs about 68kg, is 5.5m long and 23cm thick at one end tapering down to 13cm at the other.

I have taken a few multi-shot photos and stitched them together into a animated GIF image below. In this case the caber didn't quite get over.