Christmas tree throwing world record challenged at annual village competition

• ITV News Meridian's Rachel Hepworth reports on the annual competition near Battle, East Sussex

The fourth European-inspired tree throwing competition has taken place in Sussex, with people from all around the country descending on a farm in Catsfield, near Battle.

The farm is owned by Clive Collins, who has grown Christmas trees on the site for more than three decades.

Clive said: "We're the first people in the UK to throw a Christmas tree flinging contest.

"The idea came from Sweden originally where people were throwing trees out of their apartments and they try and see how far it went.

"The Germans then picked this up and they turned it into a competition."

Contestants need to throw a six-foot Norwegian spruce as far as they can.

In the men's category, Daniel Davey, from Bexhill, managed to throw the tree more than 11 metres by studying the form of the previous champion.

His efforts edged close to the record of 12 metres, just over 39 feet.

When asked about how he threw it, Daniel said: "A long run up. Basically, the guy last year came in and took the longest run up and threw it the farthest so I tried that."

Whilst in the women's category, last year's champion Becky Palmer retained her title with a throw of 7.5 metres, beating last year's score by over a metre.

When asked about retaining her title, Becky said: "It feels great. It's brilliant to come back again.

"I think it's just something different and there's not many places around here that do events like tree throwing and it's just a really great atmosphere."

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