00:16Two teams pick up the rope, but only one of them can put it down as the winner.
00:20Some call it a game and you might have seen it at your local sports day, but this isn't child's play.
00:25It's a battle and that's why they call it tug of war.
00:28Grit, grip, strength and steadiness were all on show, but it was the team's stamina that was tested under the sweltering sun for the national championships in Tunbridge,
00:38which saw more than a hundred teams battling it out for the ultimate prize.
00:43So the winning teams with the weights will go on to represent England at the world championships in September in Nottingham, which England are hosting.
00:53We've got teams from all over the country, from Cumbria, from Devon, as well as the local team Oxley-Vines Cross, who are based on the Kent and Sussex borders.
01:03And they land just on the Sussex side of that border, meaning there was no official Kent team at the tournament.
01:09Despite this, they were tipped as the favourites, but lost out in the finals to ANSI.
01:13Months of solid training, gone into it and everyone's put their whole, every bit in, awesome.
01:19We've never won anything before, we've never represented at the world championships.
01:23To do this, it's like we're just a young group of friends getting together doing something we enjoy, it's amazing.
01:28And there was more finals drama as over in the women's bracket, Melton Mowbray took the gold from Bedford Ladies in a Midlands derby
01:35and added a trip to Nottingham for a chance at the world title on top of their busy international schedule.
01:41I'm so happy, I feel like I could fight my person. This is what we've trained all year for. This is the weight that we're representing Great Britain in, in China.
01:51So if we lost it here, we'd probably get a headstand, but it's just incredible to win it here and then know we're going to China in August and compete there at the same weight.
02:00But, unlike the weather, the state of the sport isn't all sunshine and rainbows, with less teams participating than in tug-of-war's glory days.
02:08It's mainly a traditionally rural sport, to be fair. There used to be a lot more teams around this area today, but obviously all of those have gone over time.
02:15So the sort of traditional teams, a lot of the successful teams try and keep going to keep winning, so that's how a lot of teams stay involved in the sport, but we would like more to get involved.
02:26And for those who did and won, they'll go from competing in a field in Tunbridge to getting a chance at the world championship title.
