President's Bulletin: Updated 9th February 2025

Maggies Boys Warzone in Grantham on Saturday saw some defining progression among the 39 pullers who attended & it was heartening to see. Odin's team from Devon are particularly impressing me as regular road warriors & Simon Furze gained promotion to the Pro Division yesterday. Dan Sheppard & Ben Varcoe are just outside the medals - but that won't be forever. Similarly committed to improvement are Spalding Steelarms who, like Odins, are a relatively new club willing to travel. I remember when Anthony Sandall & Viktor Culan first appeared & have watched them as they have risen. Viktor yesterday cemented his pro status winning the Novice Light class on both arms. Aurimas Bruzas & Mindaugas Juskevicius were in the mix as well yesterday & will be following their team mates up the rankings I'm sure. Jake Hatcher continued his odyssey after his great performance at the Irish Open last month by winning both arms for Novice Middle class & then getting 4th place in the overall warzone left. Pro division for him obviously. He is going to be a handful. 

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When Warzone was a new concept, Michael Taylor was one of the original competitors at Woodthorpe 2 years ago. Chris Waters & Dane Colvin were there as well & are regulars now, Dane making both finals yesterday & gaining a medal. Michael got ten pins in total yesterday which won him the left Novice heavy & third on right. His previous efforts mean he's also in the pro class now. Somewhat overdue - mainly he says due to me not allowing him to enter the nationals overweight by 200grammes in 2023- was Nathan Davey who also made a convincing performance to cement his pro status yesterday. 

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Among the Pro class I saw some good battles yesterday that might have been thought unlikely a few seasons ago. Time moves on & with many of the heavy hitters keeping safe ready for ARMGODS Winterblast & the Independence Cup next month the way was open for some of the newer talent to rise. Some will sit home & reason that they would have easily won had they made it to Grantham. If you're waiting for the next nationals to make your mark it likely wont' happen - those out there taking on all comers are going to be improving faster. Sit still too long & you'll be left behind. Getting 15 pins to win a Warzone is conclusive. Only a handful of people have done it more than once: Lee Webber, Dean Bolt, Dan Hanlon & Sergii Saraiev have now been joined by Reuben Hughes. He's intending to attend more this year - it might be the format that suits him best. We shall see. 

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There was a lot of laughter. Dan Hanlon & Road Warrior Josh Davis bickering whilst being refereed by Keith Taylor & James Wall was memorable. The Candyman returned - Scott James is always a welcome character to any event (except Australian live stream talk shows) & his performance yesterday was second only to Reuben as he took all the silver medals for the Pro heavy & Overalls. The newly commissioned hurt feelings report form was deployed & filled out yesterday for the first time - it's mainly tick boxes so the shaking hands & tear filled eyes can perform adequately whilst also catering for those who can't coherently communicate by usual means. Electronic copies that can be filled out & emailed to the Ethics Committee are available on request. Watching back the action late last night I was surprised to find Hollywood Matt Connolly commentating the event from his silo in the outback. At least I think it was Hollywood. It could've been Chopper Crosby with some botox & teeth whitening. No one has ever seen the pair of them at the same time. Just saying...

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ARMGODS TRIPLE CROWN is on in 2 weeks in Birmingham. Money to be won, prizes, opportunities. As ever all details can be found on the events calendar. I discovered this weekend that many of you ask for further details via the contact form because you haven't read the bit that instructs you to scroll down to the fuller descriptions. Given the amount of you complaining about sore thumbs I guess it is understandable. Hollie & I will continue to answer emails but the bleeding obvious will be met with some distain - maybe you'll take our silence as a cue to have a look again. 

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IFA TREASURER MARIAN CAPLA has sent the corrected EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP information pack which I have uploaded on to the EUROSTEAM page. Read it all thoroughly before asking anything. 

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Last year we lost our UK based clothing supplier. Another offered the same deal - we advertise the garments, put the link up, they do the work & the PAA gets a few quid back. The consensus at the AGM was that this was a good idea, so I have added the link onto the CLOTHING page. Grace Jones was not available to model the shirts, but luckily our IFA WORLD & UDEZUMOU UK champion DEAN BOLT was. Thanks Dean. 

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See you down the road.