DORSET has produced many sporting champions over the years.

You only have to go back to last month, when boxer Chris Billam-Smith wrote his name into the history books, winning the world cruiserweight title at Vitality Stadium.

Scott Mitchell left his legacy by becoming a world champion in darts in 2015, or you could wind the clock back to the 1970s, where Bournemouth-born Virginia Wade won Wimbledon.

But one sporting star who hails from this county may have slipped under the radar for many.

Tom Redmond, who was born in Wareham and now lives in Bere Regis, is looking to conquer the best the British Isles have to offer when he heads to Worcestershire this weekend.

The 37-year-old is set for a third attempt at winning at STIHL Timbersports British Championship, which is set to take place on Saturday at the Royal Three Counties Show in Malvern.

Unfamiliar with Timbersports? You’re not alone.

But it has become big business, particularly in the USA.

STIHL themselves describe it as “the most exciting sport you’ve never heard of”, before going on to label it the “original extreme sport”.

They created their series of logger sports in 1985, teaming up with sports channel ESPN.

Europe began to follow suit in 2001, before New Zealand and Australia got involved in 2015, and then Asia, as the series grew and grew.

According to STIHL’s website, “more than 1,000 athletes from more than 25 nations” are now taking part. Their YouTube channel, which streams events, has more than 100,000 subscribers.

Bournemouth Echo:

But Redmond himself, who competes alongside his full-time job as a building inspector for Poole-based MC Plan & Site Services, is too well aware that not everybody knows much about the sport.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, he said: “I’ve had a lot of friends and family over the years that have never heard of it or watched it.

“But I have a very strong following now, even with people who don’t have any interest in the sport, because what STIHL put on really is a spectacle.”

So, what exactly is facing Redmond at the weekend?

The British Pro Championship is split into six disciplines, three use an axe in springboard, standing block chop and underhand chop. The other three are done using saws in stock saw, single buck and the hot saw finale.

Over the four-hour long competition, points are tallied up across the six events, with maximum points awarded for the fastest time in each.

As another example of the extreme nature of the sport, the springboard discipline sees competitors balancing eight feet up in the air whilst cutting a ‘pocket’ into the pole of wood.

Redmond has had mixed success at the event in the past. His debut year saw him place third, before dropping down to sixth in 2022.

So what is the aim for 2023?

“I’d like to be in and around the podium,” he said.

“I’ve not had the opportunity to do as much training as what was available last year. But I’d like to think I’d be competitive and up there with the likes of the podium.

“There are a couple of very strong contenders this year, which is great to see.

“But with the format and the way it works, it really is quite open, because there’s quite a strict set of rules that have to be followed.

“It is important you get a time from every event and don’t get disqualified as the points are tallied at the end.

“Unfortunately last year I was disqualified from two of the six events, which obviously didn’t help my overall rankings. They were two very easy mistakes that could’ve been avoided.

“The first year I competed as a pro and put times in for everything, I finished third.”

Bournemouth Echo: Tom Redmond is set to compete at the British Championships this weekend

In terms of a sporting past, Redmond played rugby through school before switching focus to the likes of skateboarding and snowboarding.

“This is the only thing I’ve really competed in competitively,” he explained.

“I’m more of a rural, countryside man now, fishing and things like that.”

Discussing his route into Timbersports, Redmond, who tries to chop once a week whilst juggling his busy family and work life, said: “The display side of things has been going for around 40 years in this country and I met a friend who was one of the old timers that used to do it.

“So from starting chopping with him doing the displays at county shows and things like that, then found out about the competition.

“It took a while to actually get into the STIHL competition and now I’ve managed to get into the pro category I can compete once a year for it.

“It’s just for the sport and the competition. There’s a small amount of money that can be made from shows and prize money, but not an awful lot. You do it for the love really.”

The winner of the British Championship will progress to the world event in Stuttgart in November.

Redmond competed as part of the United Kingdom relay team at the competition last year, placing seventh.