FROM the Highland Games to the World's Strongest Man every year competitors around the globe battle to prove their strength, skill and physical prowess.

Now one 32-year-old Bury resident is making a bid to be crowned the UK's Hardest Farmer.

Neil Speakman, from Walshaw, is braced to step in to the ring at the annual charity prizefighting competition in Keighley, West Yorkshire, on July 21.

The tournament will see the hardiest and gutsiest farmers from around the country put their brawn to the test as they attempt to box their way to the title.

Mr Speakman, who farms Hanoverian horses and water buffalo, said: "The competition has been going for a few years and every year me and my friends always joke about me entering. I thought what's the worst that can happen?

"The charity changes every year and this year it's Sue Ryder and one of my friends' mums used the charity so I decided to do it because of that."

In the build up to the event Mr Speakman has launched on an intensive exercise regime, working out three times a day, and attending a Dynamics gym in Radcliffe where he has been training with an ex-British Army captain.

He has also overhauled his diet and lost two stone in the process.

He said: "I've never done something like this before in my life I was always into football and golf, not boxing. It has been hard not being able to drink especially watching the England games."

Mr Speakman says he is now looking forward to the competition and is sanguine about his chances.

He said: "I'm hopeful but the lad who won last year was bigger than six foot and 20 stone. I'm six feet and 17 stone so I might be a bit smaller than a fair few of them."