Have you got an axe to grind? We ventured to TimberJacks Axe Throwing in Burley Hill Trading Estate to discover what makes the pursuit so popular.
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00:00 Within the unassuming Burley Hill trading estate in Leeds you'll find Timberjack's axe throwing,
00:06 where manager Richard Whittaker was on hand to show me the ropes or axes and teach me the basics.
00:12 Fortunately I arrived before anyone else was there, so no one bar Richard could observe my shambolic attempts at the pursuit.
00:19 Richard admitted his archery background did stand him in good stead and over the past two years he really has aced his axe throwing skills.
00:28 The company first started up, opened up just before Covid.
00:32 Obviously we had the trouble and time that so many companies did from that.
00:37 Opened back up, then we had to relocate soon after there, but it worked out better for us, we got a much nicer building.
00:44 We got an opportunity to restart and rethink about where we wanted to go with the company.
00:48 When you attend you'll first be asked to sign a waiver, then we'll take you through the basics of it,
00:54 give a little demo, a little instruction, see how you go.
00:58 That normally carries on during your visit, so if we find a way to improve your throwing and improve your game we can do that.
01:07 Scoring, reds are 5, blues are 10. The number system works like that, then it goes up, best of 10 shots,
01:15 scored out from there, maximum of 100 obviously, which isn't that common, not by me.
01:22 It's a good way to enjoy an evening with friends and stuff.
01:27 We've had people from minimum age of 8, we've gone up to 96 when we had an old people's home visit one afternoon, that was interesting.
01:36 My only axe to grind was how terrible I ended up being at this.
01:40 I thought I would be axing lyrical at how straightforward it was, but if I was given my own axe throwing series it would surely be axed.
01:48 Any tips Richard?
01:50 If you get your basics sorted out and you get a good baseline for repetition, it makes it a lot easier.
01:56 Really all it is, is getting the distance through your rotation sorted out.
02:00 Once you've done that, they'll start going on the board a lot more easily, and you'll start enjoying it a lot more.
02:05 But then again if you miss, you've still got to throw an axe at a wall, who doesn't like that idea?
02:09 We do have other games as well that add on to the axe throwing, like the smashing apples, the golden bucket, the water bucket,
02:16 which is quite good with stag do's and hen do's, where someone sits under the water bucket, someone throws their string,
02:23 and obviously someone gets wet sooner or later.
02:26 Despite getting a score of 1 from one throw, it does appear that there are some natural axe throwers among us.
02:33 The guy that came about 6 months ago, he'd never thrown an axe before, and just nailed it down.
02:40 He got 76 on his, we took score, 76 which is his outstanding score, even for this good by my standards to be honest.
02:48 But first time here, didn't think he'd enjoy it, got 76, went away very happy.
02:54 People always worry about how safe it is, it's very safe.
02:56 We've got the rules in place to keep everyone safe, we want people to have fun as well obviously, but safety is paramount.