A SPECTACULAR show of strength drew more than 400 guests to a special event over the weekend.

The annual Strongest Warrior contest, which took place in Little Lever last year, set up at its new home in Radcliffe on Saturday and continued yesterday with much success.

Saturday was the turn of the novices to have a go at challenges such as lifting weights and holding vans.

Yesterday the experienced competitors showed the crowds how it was done, with the finalists being challenged to lift a Combi Van added with extra weight.

It all took place outside the Lock Keeper pub in Mill Bank, Radcliffe, where the team leader is Katie Howell “It has been an absolutely incredible weekend and the turnout has been amazing,” she said. “People have really got behind this event.”

She added: “The novices were pretty impressive on Saturday, but the professionals on Sunday were a class apart and I think it made the spectators appreciate just how much skill and training goes into the contest.”

Pub staff organised entertainment for all the family. There was an ice-cream van, a barbecue, a bouncy castle and there were people dressed as Minions walking around the pub to entertain youngsters.

Miss Howell said: “We also held a tombola and all the proceeds from the weekend will go to a good cause.”

The pub is hoping to raise upwards of £500 for Bolton Community Kitchen, which feeds homeless and vulnerable people from Bolton and the surrounding areas.

Event organiser Shane Burns said: “We are very proud to be helping the kitchen. It’s an amazing thing that these guys do and they need as much backing as they can get. It’s the right to call on the strongman community to put on an amazing competition and raise as much money as possible so these guys can carry on doing remarkable things.”

Miss Howell said: “We try to put on a variety of events at the pub that are different to the ones other venues put on and this has been very successful.