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Very close

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Very close."This is the British Lumberjack Championships: a national competition between foresters, axe wielders and burly amateurs who take part in a number of disciplines, most of which amount to how quickly one or two men can cut through a standard 12-inch diameter piece of wood using a very sharp piece of metal. There is the Two-Man Saw - a race for a double-ended saw through a large trunk - and the Combination - in which different cutting techniques are required to cut through two consecutive logs. It's tough work, and it can be very fast: the world record for the Standing Block Chop (a simulated tree-felling discipline), for instance, was set last year: 12-inch diameter of white pine in 12.11 seconds."A lot of urban people have never heard of lumberjack sports. They look more like plastic surgeons than tree surgeons."These are big logs today, and in this very hot weather, nobody can know just how hard this is going to be until they've tried it.

It's going to be absolutely gut-wrenching," a voice over the loudspeaker reassures the onlooking crowd. The same voice calls the men to take their positions: "Axemen, to your logs..."Each man stands on his log and raises his axe Sunlight glints off the blades There is a hush. Then a countdown sets them off, and suddenly they are hacking away at the logs with the insistent momentum of a pendulum. Each thwack and crunch sends dagger-sized splinters rocketing into the air. A few seconds later the logs have been destroyed, lopped in two The men lie on their backs, their chests heaving. "That was absolute killer," says one Nick Obern, "but you can't get too wound up before the race and then go and make a pig's ear of it You have to stay focused It's been close today. The arena is surrounded by stump grinders and log splitters, industrial hedge trimmers and new generation wood chippers, harnesses, hard-hats, safety goggles and other assorted very sharp things.

Amid this macho heaven, nine men wield polished and oiled axes An ambulance waits ominously in the background. An ambulance waits ominously in the background. Each man has, for the last few minutes, been tending to a large poplar log - cut into a neat segment,stripped of its bark, and set into a vice-type stand - brushing down its sides, chipping footholds into it, sizing it up like a second-hand car, and marking it up with a complex diagram of charcoal lines. The British tourist Julie Ward was "unlawfully killed" while travelling in Kenya 16 years ago, a coroner said today. "We believe the victim was punched to the ground and then shot We do not what the motive was. We are keeping an open mind but it appears to be sort of disagreement between two individuals."After firing the shot, the assailant rode off on his mountain bike in the direction of Alexandra Close. Mr Fagan, who lived locally, managed to struggle to a nearby street before slumping to the ground.

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