SPORT: A bit of a battleaxe

Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
July 11, 2008

A MUM-of-two is all set for an epic battle in a local derby to be watched by millions.

Edinburgh-born Nicola Trench, 32, will go pugil stick to pugil stick with fellow city compatriot Battleaxe - aka Shirley Webb, 26 - in the quarter-finals of the revived television show Gladiators.

Nicola, who comes from Leith, was chosen out of 20,000 applicants to be contenders.

After eight gruelling weeks of duels with Panther, clashes with Oblivion and tussles with Tempest, only 16 have survived to make the quarters and remain in the running for a GBP 50,000 prize.

The quarter-finals are shown from this Sunday, though Nicola's won't be on until August 3.

She said: "It's been a gruelling journey from the selection process in March to the quarter finals. There were about 200 girls in the selection heats in Glasgow alone, and we had to take fitness tests and screen tests to see who was most able and who would look better on camera.

"In the end I think the final choice came down to personality. I'm quite bubbly and always joking around, and I think that impressed the judges."

She is no shrinking violet in the fitness department either. The group exercise manager, based at Virgin Active in Fountainbridge, won first prize for her toned physique in the Miss Scotland competition 2006.

Her face-off against Battleaxe didn't scare her. She said: "I've already faced her on the Pyramid, a large stepped structure that you have to climb to top of - and the Gauntlet, where you have to run through while the Gladiators hit you with sticks.

"Battleaxe said she wasn't going to go easy on me because we are both from Edinburgh, so I just said, 'Bring it on'!"

Although the quarter finals have been filmed, Nicola is forbidden from revealing the result.

However, she can reveal that things also get personal with another Gladiator. She said: "The Gladiators knew they had their work cut out in the quarter-finals because I and the other contender are both quite muscular.

"Our events are chosen for us from our performances in training, and during one event Panther kept getting told off for breaking the rules. I got a bit sick of it so I decided to fight dirty as well, and things got a little out of hand."

Shirley Webb was chosen as Battleaxe to follow in the footsteps of legends Jet, Hunter and Shadow when Sky One announced it was bringing back the show.

Yesterday she was joined by Ice, Atlas, Enigma, Oblivion and Spartan at Sky's Livingston contact centre to promote the forthcoming bout. Pugil sticks were on hand.