EVERY August for the past 60 years, a group of men have come together in a ferocious battle between Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Eight people from Tiddington, near Thame, take part in a tug o’ war competition with their counterparts in nearby Ickford, just over the county border, on Friday.

What started as a challenge between two farmers has now become an annual tradition over the River Thame and a demonstration of county pride.

Dan Brownsill, 31, from Tiddington, has been pulling for the team since he was 14. His dad Richard used to pull in the same position for decades before.

He said: “There is pride at stake here. If you lose, you have to wait a whole year.

“There are techniques to it but after about three minutes the technology goes out of the window and it comes down to brute force and ignorance.”

The pull ends when one team ends up in the river, before all the competitors jump in.

Tiddington are currently losing 32 to 27. But they did win the competition last year and managed to claw back some points with four straight victories between 2006 and 2009.

The shortest pull has lasted about three minutes and the longest 21 minutes about eight years ago.

Mr Brownsill said: “That was an absolute killer. We came out pouring with blood from the rope burn. But we won, so it was worth it.”

The 60th anniversary includes contests between the youth and female teams.

Both villages have been training hard in the run-up to the competition.

Mr Brownsill said: “We have been training for three months, twice a week for two hours at a time.

“We basically just put a rope on a pulley system and pull. It is hard work but this is important. We represent our village and our county.”

He added: “It is just an ‘old school’ tradition and there aren’t many of those left now. As far as we can tell we are the only one that has been going since the Queen’s Coronation. We know the other team and during the rest of the year we are good friends. But not when we are facing each other across the water.”

The pull takes place at 7pm.