The first training evening will take place tonight for a newly-established Deeside tug o’ war team.
Ballater has never had a dedicated group to take part in the Highland games around the region, but now hopes to create both a male and female team for a traditional 725kg pull.
The response for the men’s ensemble has been positive, but significantly less so for the women: not a single female has so far signed up.
Scott Fraser, vice-chairman of the Ballater Highland Games, said: “People don’t understand how easy it is. You don’t need to be big, in fact the more slight you are the better – then the 725kg weight we need to reach can be spread out better.
“If we can form both female and male teams, that would be superb.
“We usually train from scratch with only a couple of weeks to do so – it would be great to have a dedicated team available to train all year round.”
Mr Fraser has suggested a series of teams could be formed from the Kindred Gathering areas of Ballater, Lonach, Braemar and Aboyne Highland Games as a way of encouraging the event in Dee and Donside.
He added: “A team name has still to be decided on as ‘Kindred Gathering’ was felt not to be geographically precise enough for the area.
“That’s especially true for those who perhaps don’t know about the special relationship of the four games and gatherings of Ballater, Lonach, Braemar and Aboyne from which the Grampian Games Association is based on.”
Tonight’s training session is at the Brig Foot, Glen Muick in Ballater, from 7.30pm until 9.30pm. Contact Scott Fraser on ardmeanach1@yahoo.co.uk for more details.