One email changed everything for George Spencer.

Eight years after asking how he could get involved in a sport he had watched as a spectator, the 30-year-old is preparing to represent Great Britain at a world championship for the third time.

This weekend, he will travel to Germany to compete against some of the world's best athletes in a sport that involves chopping and sawing through wood with axes, chainsaws and crosscut saws.

What started with a simple email after watching an event in Liverpool in 2018 soon became what Spencer describes as an "obsession".

"My friend said I should see about getting involved so I emailed them and got invited to a newcomers' taster day," he said.

Within a few years, Spencer had joined the Welsh Axemen club and worked his way into the Great Britain team.

Now, he is preparing to take on some of the world's elite competitors at the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS World Championship in Stuttgart.

"The quickest way to explain it, timber sports are lumberjack sports," he said.

"It's basically how quick you can chop through wood with chainsaws and axes."

Spencer, who works in forestry and estate management and lives in Hereford, is set to compete in the team relay event, where four athletes complete a series of chopping and sawing disciplines in succession.

He is also most likely to compete in either the stock saw or standing block events.

Great Britain will go head-to-head with six-time defending champions Australia, who Spencer believes remain the team to beat.

"We're not quite at their level yet but we're getting better each year," he said.

"The difference with Australia is they started wood chopping when they were three and they've been doing it for 20-odd years.

"They're one with the axe, let's say."

To many people, the sight of athletes swinging axes and operating chainsaws at speed might seem dangerous.

But Spencer insists the sport is much safer than it appears.

Competitors wear specialist protective equipment, including chain-mail protection around their lower legs and feet.

"With the chopping events you've got to wear chain-mail shin-pads and chain-mail socks underneath your trousers and your shoes," he said.

"It's pretty safe. If anything, you won't cut your toes off, you'll just break them."

His unusual sporting passion has also become a talking point at home.

Spencer said his wife, Amber, and six-year-old son have embraced the sport, despite most people having never heard of it.

"It starts with them asking what sort of stuff I do and then it turns into about one hundred questions because no-one's really heard about it," he said.

"It's really good to watch. It's fast, it's pretty crazy."

Asked whether his son might one day follow him into the sport, Spencer laughed.

"I've tried to get him on the axe already and he goes, 'Yeah, let's do it, let's do it', but when it actually comes to it, he chickens out.

"We'll keep it going, we'll keep the pressure on."