Hope on a rope The 72-year-old helping national tug-of-war team pull together

It is Richard Keightley's 50th wedding anniversary in early December and he could really do with planning something special for his wife, Ann, after he unwisely described helping Great Britain win tug of war gold at last month's World Games as "the best time of my life".

- Ben Bloom

Unfortunately, the couple's golden wedding anniversary clashes with the national indoor tug-of-war championships in Derbyshire and there is only going to be one outcome.

"What I always tell her is I've been doing tug of war since before I met her," says a chuckling Keightley, fully aware he will be tipping the scales inside an agricultural hall in Bakewell when his wife would probably prefer breakfast in bed.

Keightley, 72, is a tug-of-war lifer: first club competition in 1971, first international honours in 1983, and still going strong into his eighth decade. "You kind of get addicted to it," he says. "I've been all over the world doing it."

Last month, he was in Chengdu, China, as a reserve for Britain's victorious men's 640kg team at the World Games - the "Olympics" for non-Olympic sports (everything from pool to boules and lacrosse to wakeboarding) and the world's second-biggest multisport event. This weekend he will be closer to home in Nottingham as the city hosts the first tug-of-war world championships in England for 25 years. For British pullers it is a summer like no other.