A Scot will fly the flag for his home country this weekend when he takes part in an international competition for extreme wood chopping.

Graham Turner, a fencing contractor from the Scottish Borders, will travel to Germany to take part in the Timbersports world championships.

He goes through an articulated lorry of wood every year while training alone - with the results often going to his own log burner or those of his long-suffering neighbours.

"To try and recompense them for the noise and racket that I make they get all the logs and chips and firewood that I have got," he told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast.

His story in the sport started, although he did not realise it at the time, on a rugby field in the Borders when he was knocked unconscious.

"I was out cold for about a minute, I stood up and had no idea where I was," he said.

"I loved rugby and still miss it but I would never have started Timbersports if I hadn't stopped playing rugby."

The origins of his new favourite pursuit are rooted in Australia and New Zealand - before it spread to the US, Canada and beyond.

One version of events is that the idea started with two lumberjacks in a bar in Tasmania making a bet over who could chop a log in half the quickest.

Now it has been going for more than 40 years and attracts major big money sponsors and a worldwide television audience of 20 million.

Graham became fascinated with the sport after watching it on television

After taking up the sport seven years ago, he is now Scotland's only competitor at the world championships in Stuttgart as part of Team GB in front of thousands of spectators.

"Timbersports is six events, three with the saw and three with the axe," he explained.

"Everything is done for speed as fast as you can.

"At the top level it can be pretty extreme, you're talking about milliseconds of a difference between you and another competitor.

"It is fast, it's furious, it's fantastic - I think it is the fastest growing extreme sport in the world at the moment."

This weekend Graham - who fits his training around his work and family - will be up against full-time professional Timbersports athletes from Sweden, New Zealand and Australia.

Nonetheless, he is relishing the challenge.

"There's no sport to compare it to really," he said.

"When I first started I thought it was about being big and strong and hitting that log as hard as you can.

"But it's a complete leveller because the guy that's top of the sport in Britain is just a slight guy who's only 5ft 8in and quite wiry whereas I'm 6ft 1in and quite broad.

"But he's better than me because he has that technical ability, he's fast and can move quicker."

Sometimes referred to as "the original extreme sport", Graham said it was hugely demanding.

"You've got to really work on your strength, your flexibility, your speed, having that cardiovascular depth where you're able to compete at speed and strength for a long period of time," he said

"It's pretty brutal."

However, he said the excitement of competing at the highest level made all the effort worthwhile.

"One of the athletes said, as axemen, it's like being a gladiator in the arena and it really does feel like that," he said.

"You walk out on to that stage and people are roaring and the lights and glitz and glam it's just what a feeling, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and your arms.

"I get a real buzz out of it and to be standing on that stage with my other five competitors representing my country is just an epic feeling."