A new sport has been introduced to Newcastle, with an arm-wrestling club opening up at TruGym, after Dave Curry decided he wanted to create a group for people who share his interests.
Arm-wrestling is a fast-rising sport in the UK, with it already holding a strong presence in the United States and some Eastern European countries.
During lockdown, Dave Curry became interested in competitive arm-wrestling, and decided this was something he wanted to take up, originally finding it difficult to connect with people with this shared passion.
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Eventually, Dave started speaking to Lloyd Hepurker, who was a fan of his idea, and helped get the club set up, finding a home in TruGym Gateshead.
The first session of the arm-wrestling club took place last week, and it was a massive success, with over a dozen people showing up to test their strength on the table.
Before this, the closest arm-wrestling club was in Stockton, so Dave found there were people who switched, now having a place much closer to where they live.
The members at the club have some competitive pedigree, with British champion Ash Eman taking part in the classes, while they have also had visits from six-time champion David Bradford.
Dave said: "Arm-wrestling is a growing sport in the UK, and is starting to catch on due to the big personalities involved in it. Over lockdown I became very interested in it and I decided to try and start a club at the end of last year.
"I got in touch with Lloyd and we were able to get the gym to use on Fridays, with our first session last week being very successful, with a lot of people wanting to get involved.
"There is a Scottish open tournament next month and some of our members will be entering that. It has been amazing how quickly everything has taken off and I want to thank everyone involved and TruGym for making it all possible."
