We had recently received this photo of a group of sturdy looking young men and at that point we have no information on what brought them all together, but we figured it shouldn't be too hard to figure that out. We wondered if we can collectively identify everyone, figure what brought them all together, and where and when the photo was taken.
We added two close-ups of the photo to assist those who having difficulty with distance reading!
27th January 2025
We just received this information via email from our good friend Davie Kerr who was an integral member of the Police tug o’ war team. "To the best of my knowledge and belief, Your Worships", the participants (from L) are "Tango" Burgess, Erskine Warner, Jeff Payne, John Balsdon, Barrie Mancell, Gary Perinchief, Keith Pratt, Ray Sousa, Davie Kerr, Pat McBride, Mike Parris, Willie McCracken, Malky Smith, Dick Johnson, Tommy Barnes, Paul Wakefield, Denis Meehan, Custerfield "Crock" Crockwell, and Dai Thomas. Shoulder numbers available on request!
Davie added that those in that pic who made it into the ‘first team’ were “Pat McBride, Gary Perinchief, Barrie Mancell, Ray Sousa, Mike Parris, Keith Pratt and myself. There may have been other occasional ‘fill-ins’, but we were certainly the nucleus of the team along with Mike Caulkett and Owen Marsh.”
CLICK HERE for our article about The History of the unbeatable Police Tug o’ War Team here on our ExPo website. For the record, our first tug o'war competition was an Inter-Divisional team event held in February 1969, and our first pull against other teams was at the 1969 Annual Agricultural Show in the Botanical Gardens where they faced "eight giants from the NOB Fire Department" in the final. Needless to say, our Police Team never lost in any competition.
Close up 2