From lecturer to lumberjack

A college lecturer who teaches students about forestry and arboriculture has an understandable fascination for wood.

In fact, Joe Groom, from Pulborough, loves no better way to spend his spare time than chopping up trees.

But it’s not just firewood that Joe takes his chain saw and axe to – he is a champion at lumberjack sports.

And thirty-three-year-old Joe, who lectures on forestry at Brinsbury College, is to take part in the Stihl British Timber sports Championships being held in Malvern, Worcestershire, in June.

The sport is considered one of the world’ s first extreme sports which dates back more than a hundred years when lumberjacks began competing with each other in wood chop ping and sawing in their spare time.

Joe first took it up in 2015 as a rookie and has since moved up to the pro league .“I’ m very competitive ,” he said .“I like to win .”

The sport itself involves different disciplines using razorsharp axes and chainsaws to chop and saw large logs within time limits. Some events can last just seconds. Contestants wear protectivegear–includingchain mail socks to protect their feet should their axe swing too low. "The skill is to control them ,” says Joe, who has managed to escape any injuries .“The worst I’ ve done is maybe cut my trousers when I wasn’t concentrating.”

The Stihl British Timbersports Championships at the Royal Three Counties Showground in Malvern is on June 17 and 18 and will be the 10 th anniversaryof the event in the UK. See https://www.stih l-timber sports. com/en