The club, which has 10 members, was officially set up last year, and has been performing at packed shows across the county throughout the year.

Last year, by performing at shows and requesting donations for charity, the group raised £2,000 for the Renton MacMillan Appeal, which is aiming to build a hospice for cancer patients in Hereford.

Will Hughes, club treasurer, said they had decided to raise money for the appeal after one of their members was diagnosed with cancer and was required to travel to Cheltenham for treatment.

This year, following an accident involving another of the group's members at Trefeglwys Show, they decided to donate their year's fees to the Wales Air Ambulance and the St John's Ambulance – £2,100 in total.
Will explained that the sport has a long history, saying: "It is devised from lumberjacking, the traditional way of felling trees with saws and axes, then it was converted into a sport in Australia, New Zealand and Canada."

The standard Wye Valley Axemen show consists of five different techniques, starting with a chainsaw carving show, where the axemen carve items like chairs before giving a 'cross cut saw demonstration'.
Next up is a race between a chainsaw and a manual saw, which can cut a quite astonishing one inch of timber a stroke – and more often than not beats its mechanical counterpart.

The axemen then simulate the felling of a tree before going onto the crowd favourite – the demonstration of the underhand technique.
Will says: "That's the one where he stands on top of a log and cuts down in between his feet. That's the one that gets the crowd going."

The finale for the show is the tree climb and Will said: "That's basically where you simulate felling a tree, but if you can imagine in bigger forests the base of a tree is so big that they can't fell it from the bottom so they climb up to where the tree is thin enough to cut by hand."

The axemen climb the tree by cutting into it and putting plates in to stand on as they make their way to the top.

The hobby isn't without its dangers as one member, Andrew Mills, can testify. At last year's Trefeglwys Show the axeman was performing the 'Tree Board Climb' when one of the boards he was standing on slipped and he fell eight feet to the floor with his axe in hand.

The axe sliced his wrist and cut through a small vein and some of his nerves. Thanks to emergency on-site treatment from the St John's Ambulance and a quick Air Ambulance ride to hospital the axeman made a full recovery and can, remarkably, be seen performing the same routine at shows around Mid Wales.

The club always welcomes new members and Will said the best way to find if it's for you is to give it a go.

He said: "All I can say is come along and have a go. I got into it 10 years ago and I just went along to a local show and asked if I could have a go, they said come along to training and we went from there."

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Wye Valley Axemen, joining the group or booking them for shows, can contact Will Hughes on 01686 413442.