Buckinghamshire's Strongest

Sat 12th Sep 2026

Invitation Only Competition

Buckinghamshire's Strongest Man & Woman 2026

The Eden Centre, High Wycombe

Saturday 12th September

Invite only to those connected to Buckinghamshire

Competition run by TLA

Buckinghamshire’s Strongest Information

✅ Event Details

Date: 12/09/2026
Venue: The Eden Centre, High Wycombe
Check-In Time: 8:30
Athlete Briefing: 9:15
Start Time: 10:00

📋 General Rules for the Day

Check-In: Arrive early to check in, warm up, and attend the athlete briefing. If you miss the briefing you will not be allowed to compete.
Kit: Belts, underbelts, sleeves (one pair), straps (6's and 8s) are all allowed. No deadlift suits, wraps, grip tops or baby oil are allowed for any events.
Conduct: Respect officials, volunteers, and fellow athletes. Poor sportsmanship will result in disqualification.
Referees: All referee decisions are final.
Equipment Use: All chalk is allowed. No tacky.
Spectators: Friends and family welcome! There is no need to buy spectator tickets, it will be held in the open setting of the town centre.
Venue: There is plenty of parking in the multistorey car park. Toilets available at the town centre within a 2 minute walk in 2 directions (help desk or bus station). There is a Tescos, M&S, and lots of restaurants next to the competition area for athletes and spectators. We will have 2 fenced arenas, an athlete area with warm up and a competition area for competition lifts. Coaches are welcome in the athlete area, but only staff and athletes are to be in the competition area.

💪 Event Rules & Breakdown

Event 1 – Axle Press (FTOH) for Max Weight
Overview: Athletes will have 3 attempts to perform their heaviest clean and press using an axle bar.

Rules:

3 nominated lifts (first one to be given at the check in), with a nominated first lift being more than 40kg for women, and 80kg for men.

Clean each rep from the floor (FTOH = Floor to Overhead).
No grip tops allowed.
Any overhead style allowed.
Standard 50mm axle - no knurling, with bumper plates.
Lockout: arms fully extended, head through, feet parallel, and under control.
Elbows and knees must be locked for the rep to count.
60 second time limit.
Belt cleans allowed. Sleeves allowed. No wraps.
You will be on a rubber matted platform to lift, and the Axle will be on drop pads.

Event 2 – Trump Weight Deadlift for Reps (Stiff bar)

Overview: Two platforms will be available for the athletes to choose which barbell to lift, Platform 1 is heavier than platform 2. It works as standard trump weight where any reps on platform 1 (heavier bar) beats any amount of reps on platform 2 (lighter bar).

Rules:

Conventional deadlift stance only, sumo is not allowed.
Any straps are allowed, suits are not allowed.
Hitching is allowed.
The barbells used will be stiff/power bars.
Thumbs must remain in contact with the bar for the full lift, no drops from lockout.
You must wait for the "down" command from the judge, and the lift command.
You will be on a rubber matted platform to lift.
60 second time limit.

Event 3 – Dinnie Stone Hold for Time

Overview: An iconic grip event, testing the athletes grip endurance by picking the stones off the floor and holding for time.

Rules:

Time starts when the athlete lifts the implements.
Time stops when the athlete drops the implements.
You will be on a rubber matted platform to lift.
You must straddle the stones to lift, they cannot be picked either side of you. (classic Dinnie lift, not like the Nichols).

Event 4 – Sandbag to Shoulder Ladder

Overview: Athletes will lift a series of 5 sandbags from the floor and shoulder them, fastest time wins.

Rules:

No gloves or grip tops allowed.
Bag must be fully on the shoulder with one arm released to count as a rep.
No tacky allowed.
75-second time limit
Bags cannot be pushed behind the back to drop them, to the side is fine.
There is a mixture of sandbags and sandstones (Bag - Sandstone - Bag - Sandstone - Bag).

Event 5 – Max Distance Husafel Bag

Overview: Athletes will carry a husafel bag for maximum distance.

Rules:

No gloves or grip tops allowed.
Bags will be picked up off a box/keg to start.
10m track turn and go.
You will have a 1m grace box from the keg to resit the bag if it falls to the floor.
You can stop, adjust and maneuver the bag as much as you want, but once it hits the floor you are done.
There is no time limit.

🏆 Scoring, Awards & Prizes

Events will be scored using standard strongman scoring.
In the event of a tie, countback on event wins will be used.
Trophies for top 3.

📄 Waiver Information – Mandatory for All Athletes

All athletes must complete and sign the electronic waiver before the event to be eligible to compete. No waiver = no lifting.

📱 Stay Connected

Find out more:

Instagram

Website

Location

The Event Centre
The Eden Centre
Buckinghamshire
HP11 2DQ

Announcements

Athlete Announcement 2nd Sep 2026 9:46am

Please read this all in full as it is important information regarding the running of the day and some potential changes on the day.

Arrival:

First of all, upon arrival please park at The Eden Car Park, it is a shopping centre car park so there is plenty of car parking available. Please note, it is charged to use so make sure you pay before you leave. Once arrived, please make your way out to the centre of the shopping centre, the competition is being held in the large square outside between M&S, Burger King, the Library, and Osaka (you can't miss it).

We will have two separate areas for athletes:

The main competition area - where you will perform the 5 events.
The athlete and warm up area - where you can rest between events and warm up.

These will both be cornered off to the general public so only those in Buckinghamshire's Strongest T-shirts will be permitted (family and friends cannot be in there with you).

Once you arrive please check in with the athlete desk (sat in the competition area) from 8:30 onwards, you will collect your T-shirt, goodie bag and give your first attempt axle clean and press weights. Please note, registration on the day is from 8:30am to 9:15am, if you are late to register you cannot compete as we will be starting the athlete briefing which you have to be present for.

Timings:

8.30am to 9.15am - athlete registration
9.15am to 9.30am - athlete briefing
9.30am to 10am - Axle Clean and Press warm ups
10am to 11am - Axle Clean and Press event
11am to 11.45am - Deadlift for Reps event

15 minute break to change competition area setup & staff break

12pm to 12.45pm - Dinnie Stone Hold event

15 minute break to change competition area setup & staff break

1pm to 2pm - Sandbag to Shoulder Ladder event
2pm to 3pm - Husafell Bag Carry event
3.15pm - Award Ceremony

These timings are our guidelines and should be subject to change should we need extra time for an event.

Please note:

Each event is being run one athlete per time as there is 32 athletes competing and we do not need to rush the day. Should we fall behind on timings we may choose to run an event two at a time but it is not the plan.

Warm ups:

There is a designated warm up area with helpers to help you load up the bars before you complete each event. We are running each event the same way, women first then the men, in standard strongman competition running order (winner of the previous event goes last).

For the first event, women will warm up first and then move to the competition area. Whilst they are completing the first event, men can go into the warm up, not before. Once the women have completed the first event, they will return to the athlete area and the men will go into the competition area.

From this point on men and women will swap between competition area and warm up area, meaning there will be no clashes between clashes wanting to warm up.

Wet weather provisions:

Should we be blessed with some typical English rain, there will be some event alterations as follows.

Axle Clean and Press - No alterations. You are on rubber matting and no changes are required.
Deadlift for Reps - No alterations. You are on rubber matting and no changes are required.
Dinnie Stone Hold - No alterations. You are on rubber matting and no changes are required.
Sandbag to Shoulder Ladder - Alterations required.
We currently plan to have you complete the run on the concrete flooring as The Eden Centre, if it is raining or wet, this flooring is incredibly slippy and we do not want you running across it at full tilt. We will either provide a large rubber flooring for you or change the event to sandbag to shoulder for reps with a trump option (this is to prevent you from running between bags in wet conditions).
The weights for these would be as follows:
1. Womens - 40kg sandstone, 60kg sandstone or 80kg sandbag
2. Mens - 100kg sandstone, 120kg sandstone or 140kg sandbag
  Any heavier rep trumps any amounts of lighter reps if the event changes, and these would not be split timed.
Husafell Sandbag Carry - Alterations required.
We currently plan to have you complete the carry on the concrete flooring at The Eden Centre, if it is raining or wet, this flooring is incredibly slippy and we do not want you walking across it with a heavy weight. We will either provide a large rubber flooring for you or change the event to Husafell Bag Hold for time (we will do all we can to prevent this because it sucks as an event).

Any questions on any of these points please message Buckinghamshire's Strongest on Instagram or email bucksstrongest@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you all smash it at the competition!

Events

Scroll
	Men Opens	Women Opens
Max Axle Clean and Press	Starting weight 80kg	Starting weight 40kg
Deadlift for Reps, Trump Style	240kg 270kg	125kg 150kg
Sandbag to Shoulder Ladder	80kg 100kg 120kg 120kg 140kg	30kg 40kg 50kg 60kg 80kg
Husafell Sandbag Carry for Distance	160kg	80kg
Dinnie Stone Hold	120kg 100kg	75kg 55kg

Competitors

Scroll
Men Opens	Women Opens
Adam Kitchener ? t-shirt Paid	Darcy Hocken ? t-shirt Paid
Barrie Whitehead ? t-shirt Paid	Elspeth Bevan ? t-shirt Paid
Brad Belbin ? t-shirt Paid	Emmaline Howard ? t-shirt Paid
Chris Parnaby ? t-shirt Paid	Eve Bennett ? t-shirt Paid
Craig White ? t-shirt Paid	Leigh Ann Bedding ? t-shirt Paid
Dave Tancock ? t-shirt Paid	Margaret Wooley ? t-shirt Paid
Jacob Ferla ? t-shirt Paid	Meg Hayes ? t-shirt Paid
Jamie La Vine ? t-shirt Paid	Rosie Nicholson ? t-shirt Paid
John Carter ? t-shirt Paid	Rosie Thurgood ? t-shirt Paid
Kieran Williams ? t-shirt Paid	Siobhan Carney ? t-shirt Paid
Mark Cummins ? t-shirt Paid	Steph Gooch ? t-shirt Paid
Mark Jarrett ? t-shirt Paid	Valentina Almeida ? t-shirt Paid
Matt Bedding ? t-shirt Paid
Max Whiting ? t-shirt Paid
Nick Veira ? t-shirt Paid
Ollie Swain ? t-shirt Paid
Sam Duthie ? t-shirt Paid
Sean Bundy ? t-shirt Paid
Tom Ince ? t-shirt Paid